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bootstrap analysis: book review: the tapir’s morning bath—

One of the amazing things about the internet (and how many times a day do I say this?) is the way it skews time. Not because so many inconsiderately neglect to date their posts, but because stuff lingers.

Elizabeth Royte published the Tapir’s Morning Bath in 2001, but a reader who knows the subject (field biologists in the rain forest doing their work, deciding if research or political advocacy is more important) found the book recently and wrote a very understanding review just this week.

If you’re Elizabeth, isn’t that excellent?

“Roach proved her fine sense of humor in 2003’s strangely amusing and
uncreepy Stiff, her affectionate look at human cadavers. Here, she
delves back into death, searching for scientific proof of an afterlife.
She heads to rural India to interview reincarnation subjects, handles a
piece of alleged ectoplasm at Cambridge University’s library, and
enrolls in an English school for mediums. Along the way, she asks all
the familiar questions that plague the death-obsessed: ‘What happens
when we die? Does the light just go out and that’s that…? Or will
some part of my…me-ness persist?… What will I do all day? Is there
a place to plug in my laptop?’ Alas, she doesn’t find the answers. But
Roach is such a smart and breezy companion that it’s enough to watch
her realize that in the end she might not need them.”

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach debuts this week on The New York Times bestseller list.

Open-minded author travels the world in search of our souls

A review of Spook from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

“Like “Stiff,” this book is a witty exploration of a subject that doesn’t easily lend itself to lightness.”