Pun Salad

I've read and enjoyed a number of Mary Roach's books. Specifically, three: Gulp, Grunt, and Spook.

She is classified as a science writer, and that's sorta true, but her speciality seems to be the stuff more conventional science writers gloss over: the weird, gross, scammy, and scummy.

So I was expecting more of that here, especially with a title like My Planet. Wrong! This is a collection of her Reader's Digest columns, and those columns are a humorous look at her domestic life. Think Erma Bombeck, except still alive.

The very first essay references her first date with "the man I call Ed", who was to become her husband. Ed is very much a co-contributor; he and Mary trade observations and zingers as ably as any sitcom couple.

Ms. Roach is Dave Barry-level funny, a natural humorist. All the columns here made me smile, many drew amused snorts, and (yes) a number of guffaws. Sample, on Ed's accumulated collection of pocket change:

The Bank of Ed resides in empty sauerkraut jars and assorted broken crockery that has found a second career in finance. "Coins are heavy, but at least they're dry," the mug with no handle will say to the chipped cereal bowl.

So: not what I expected, but nevertheless a lot of fun. Recommend that the columns be read in small doses, because comedy fatigue is a real affliction.