Hott Mama Book Club

Okay, you've all been begging for it-- the Hott Mama Book Club-- and today's the day. You must go out and get this book. You don't have to buy it. You can take it out of the library, borrow it from a friend or steal it. I don't really care. But you must read it.

I would just like to say that I love Mary Roach. Those of you in the San Francisco area need to stalk her and find out if she is as funny in person as she is in her writing. She is at once intelligent, witty and totally immature. Just like most of you.

That said, I loved her other book Stiff, which was all about what happens to cadavers. And you would be surprised how many different things happen to them. Or maybe you wouldn't. I guess it depends on how much cadaver experience you have. I only have one such experience involving my grandfather's open casket funeral. But I digress.

Spook is all about the afterlife, the many differing theories as to what happens to us after we die. She starts with reincarnation, but also covers things like mediums and ectoplasm and all sorts of gadgetry used to detect the discarnate. It's a fascinating topic on which I'm sure we all have an opinion. Some believe in God and heaven and therefore the persistence of the soul. Others think it all goes black and that's it. Still others believe in ghosts. (I have much more experience with those, but that's a story for another time.)

And you know what? There are scientists out there trying to prove or disprove all of these theories and more. And because of the nature of the questions they are asking, the bias of these scientists is pretty obvious, despite the fact that science is supposed to be objective. Alas, we are human, so what can we really expect?

Anyway, I guarantee you will love this book. And, Mr. Jamie, it's non-fiction so you have no excuse not to read it.