I love Mary Roach! I was so excited when I heard that she had a new book, and even more excited when I managed to get my hands on a copy from the library. It’s exactly what I hoped for: silly and serious and endlessly fascinating. “Heroism doesn’t always happen in a burst of glory. Sometimes small triumphs and large hearts change the course of history. Sometimes a chicken can save a man’s life.” That quote pretty much sums it up. Roach tackles the less […]
Masters of Sex, but funnier
My weakness as far as Cannonball goes is I read much faster or more often than I sit down to write up reviews of said reads. For my next review, of Mary Roach’s Bonk, I will have to think back to January to recall my sentiments. I should really review my books when I finish them, then I wouldn’t have this problem. Mary Roach is a delightful science writer whose books have covered topics from death to digestion and a lot in between. Bonk: The […]
Insert fart joke here
Only Mary Roach would start a book with a story about diarrhea. I absolutely loved “Stiff,” so I had high expectations for “Gulp.” Also, I read “Stiff” over 6 six years ago, so her tone and style were a nice surprise all over again. I absolutely love the way she writes. It makes me laugh, makes me comfortable with uncomfortable, “taboo” subjects, and draws me in on the joke, making me a co-conspirator. That said, “Gulp” is a slight misfire in kind of a fundamental […]
This book reminded me that I really need to start watching Masters of Sex
3.5 stars I don’t read a whole lot of non-fiction. What little I do read is usually in the celebrity biography genre. But for my Eclectic Reader Challenge, I needed to read something qualifying as Micro history. I didn’t even know what that was, but the internet was very helpful in clearing up my confusion. Goodreads even has a lot of useful suggestions of what I could read. As Bonk had a fairly high average rating, and was very highly rated by several of my […]