Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Morbid yet entertaining Marti Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers is an example of a morbid topic turned into a page turning and ironically uplifting read. Stiff is very informative on the history and uses of cadavers while also providing entertainment through Roach’s unique style of writing. Additionally, the book contains numerous gory stories about blood and death, but the real meat of the book is in Roach’s main point of the history and uses of cadavers. She uses real examples of scientists and researchers performing horrific operations on human remains in. Funny, thoughtful, profound, and surprisingly enjoyable for a book about dead bodies Josh Mauthe Having read Mary Roach’s newest book, Grunt, in which she talks about the science of keeping soldiers alive, I decided to read her first one, Stiff, for two reasons. One was to see how much she’d changed as an author, but two – and the bigger reason – was a fascination with the subject. Stiff‘s subtitle is The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and the book is about exactly that: what happens to our remains after we die? Like she did with Grunt (and, I’m presuming, all of her books), Roach divides the book into ind. "Poe Would Have Devoured This ." according to Joanne Cucinello. Not a favorite subject for most people, but I found Mary Roach's book so fascinating. Her research and up close investigating blew me away!She has a dry sense of humor which lightened up things and I found her amusing and very real, considering the dark subject matter. I had absolutely no idea what went on with donated human remains for research, and I would encourage anyone whose considering being a donor to read this book before giving away your brain or any other part of your beloved body.Roach dissects every postmortem dilemma we all must face

"One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year.Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting."Entertainment WeeklyStiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.. For two thousand years, cadaverssome willingly, some unwittinglyhave been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings

From Publishers Weekly "Uproariously funny" doesn't seem a likely description for a book on cadavers. Roach delves into the many productive uses to which cadavers have been put, from medical experimentation to applications in transportation safety research (in a chapter archly called "Dead Man Driving") to work by forensic scientists quantifying rates of decay under a wide array of bizarre circumstances. Even Roach's digressions and footnotes are captivating, helping to make the book impossible to put down.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. . However, Roach, a Salon and Reader's Digest columnist, has done the nearly impossible and written a book as informative an