I'm so excited! One of my favorite authors, Mary Roach, just released her latest book:
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal.
Her books tend to pick a subject- sex, death, ghosts, space travel-- and answer all the quirky and obscure questions you've never thought of, but once you hear the question, you HAVE to know the answer (or at least I do). She's a writer of (weird) science who uses lots of humor and outsider perspective to make her subjects accessible. About once a year, I re-read her first book,
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, because it's just that good.
Her latest book focuses on the digestive system, starting with the sense of smell (and what makes a good wine taster), down through the stomach (where she explains why it doesn't eat itself), and on down to the anatomy of the rectum, and of course what comes out of it (and answers the question: did Elvis really die of constipation?). In the introduction, she writes that her aim is not to gross the reader out, but to fascinate...though she admits being grossed out is probably unavoidable. And I admit I look forward to being grossed out, because she'll have me laughing and learning the whole time.
