If author Mary Roach was a college professor, she'd have a zero drop-out rate. That's because when Roach tackles a subject--like the posthumous human body in her previous bestseller, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, or the soul in the winning Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife--she charges forth with such zeal, humor, and ingenuity that her students (er, readers) feel like they're witnessing the most interesting thing on Earth.
The trial of the sorceress Zandramas leads Garion and his companions into the heart of enemy territory where a cult of demon worshipers forces an unlikely alliance between the forces of Light and Darkness. Eddings uses gentle humor and endearing characters to temper the seriousness of his complex fantasy epic.
Disney Educational - Bill Nye The Science Guy: Skin
In this episode, the Science Guy explains that skin is the largest organ in the body and protects us from potential harm in many ways. He tells young science students how skin helps keep the body cool or warm, depending on the temperature outside. Without the touch receptors underneath the skin, they wouldn't be able to perform many of their everyday activities. Nye inserts his trademark humor and parody into the scientific discussion to create a fun learning atmosphere.
Chairs. Neat people. Ugliness. War. Over six decades of intrepid reporting and elegant essays, Andy Rooney has proven a shrewd cultural analyst—unafraid to question the sometimes ridiculous, often surprising facts of our lives. Rooney’s great gift is telling it straight, without a hint of sugar coating, but with more than a grain of truth and humor. His take on America? “It’s just amazing how long this country has been going to hell without ever having got there.” On food? “There’s more dependable mediocrity than there used to be.
This book has lots of adventure and fight scenes, like the Indiana Jones movies that the cover reminds you of. And yet there is time for both main characters to reflect on their feelings for each other, so the reader gets to watch the relationship develop from both perspectives. There is humor, excitement, passion -- the adventure plot and the romance plot are integrated in a way that really works for me.
