This is the second book by this author that I have read, and unfortunately I didn’t like it as much as the first. Perhaps because of the content – I think most people would prefer reading about sex than ghosts. Outside this comparison I think books on ghosts would normally be interesting, especially a scientific approach to understanding the concept.
In this book the author spends a lot of time digging through old stories to see how people’s belief in ghosts evolved (or failed to evolve) over time. My problem with this book was that it seemed to be spending too much time looking back, and not much in the here and now. Certainly I can understand where things could be misunderstood in the dark ages of science, and even though there is plenty of humor to mine from the vein I was interested more in what modern science had to say about things.
Still, there is a lot of good sarcastic humor in this book, and the author does a good job balancing the self-deprecation with teasing others. I like that she is not afraid to speak right to the topic without worrying about being too gross or too frank. I expected more laughs at the expense of religion but it was interesting that she avoided that (possibly risky) area for the most part.
After reading two of her books fairly close together I was getting a little tired of her style, so maybe I should take a longer break before picking up another one. So my four word review of this one: Entertaining, to a point.
Next I am going to read Perfume by Patrick Suskind.
