After posting the deliciously long list of reader’s recommending reading, I decided to keep an ongoing record of the books that have been lurking on my own nightstand. Then I forgot all about that particular endeavor, because hey, American Idol is on and the beat-boxing guy is singing a Keane song! Then I ate a “100 Calorie Pack” of Oreos, which turned out to be nothing like Oreos whatsoever, but rather a weird crackerlike substitute with nary a whiff of chocolate to be found, and so then, obviously, I fell into a deep depression and could only read a cupcake cookbook over and over while weeping softly yet steadily into a pillow.

Anyway, I’m much better now, especially since discovering fat-free Fudgesicles (suck it, Oreo Thin Crisps!). Let’s go to the books!

Spook, Mary Roach
I had high hopes for this because I enjoyed Stiff so very, very much. Roach’s writing is just as brainy and hilarious in this book, but the subject matter didn’t completely do it for me. I think I was hoping for more in-depth probing into the general Christian view of life after death, more studies into near-death experiences and tunnels with lights at the end and floating relatives playing harps, or whatever. The majority of Spook focuses in a lighthearted way on what seems to me to be more more fringe-y spiritual weirdness: soul-weighing, ectoplasm, mediums, EVP, psychoacoustics. It’s fascinating stuff, and her ongoing asides and footnotes are often even better than the main material (on science writer Carl Zimmer: “The guy is smarter than anyone I know. If you were to open up his head, his brain would burst out like an airbag.”), but it was like reading about how magicians don’t really levitate. Entertaining, but not quite the debunking-of-common-beliefs I was hoping it might be. I wouldn’t say it lived up to its name, and I agree with this Amazon reviewer’s comment: “In essence, my main complaint […] can be summed up by saying that the title should not be “Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife,” but rather “Spook: A tongue-in-cheek journey among the interesting individuals who study the afterlife.”

Don’t Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems, David Rakoff
Oh, you’ve probably been reading David Rakoff for months and months, between your witty, zinger-filled luncheons with Sedaris and Sarah Vowell. What can I say, I only stumbled onto him recently when I randomly picked up Fraud at the used bookstore. Don’t Get Too Comfortable is sharply funny and full of brilliant turns of phrase; Rakoff wields his skewer with a heavy hand but his self-deprecating style balances things out. If you’ve enjoyed any of David Sedaris’s books, you’ll probably love this one.

Midwives, Chris Bohjalian
In a nutshell, this story is about a disastrous home birth and the legal events that follow. I found myself getting caught up in the story, then wishing it would hurry along, then getting caught up again, and by the time I got to the end, I was practically speed-reading to see what the Great Reveal was. There were a few, in my mind, unnecessary distractions (the relationship between the midwife and her lawyer, for instance), and at times the jumping around in the story sort of lost me, but I liked it overall, and when I was reading about the midwife’s experiences they were so vividly and realistically written it was hard to remember the author is male.

The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks
Here is a story told by four different characters all linked together by the same event, a school bus accident that tragically impacts a small town. (I haven’t seen the movie.) Through these different narrations, we’re presented with a complex number of moral issues and human emotions. It’s sad without being sentimental, beautifully written and haunting. I liked this very much.

Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood, Jennifer Traig
This is a memoir focused on the author’s struggles with OCD as a young girl, which manifested itself in various forms (anorexia, religious scrupulosity). Although clearly it must have been miserable at the time, Traig transforms these experiences into very funny anecdotes that you almost feel guilty laughing at. I was particularly entertained by the “Interstitials” contained in the book, oddball little tables and questionnaires further illustrating the author’s illness. Example from the “Sample SAT Questions for Obsessive-Compulsive Learners” Interstitial: “James has three sisters and two oranges. One sister is twice as hungry as the other two, and each orange has three sections. How many times must James tap the fruit to make sure his sisters don’t die? Show your work.”