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Loading... Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadaversby Mary Roach
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. [Stiff] by [[Mary Roach]] is a fascinating read for anyone who is interested in forensics and is not disturbed by detailed studies of the dead. Here we learn about the Body Farm, a real place in Tennessee where human bodies in different stages of decomposition from different causes are carefully observed to better help forensic officers and coroners to determine the time and manner of death. Other chapters are devoted to various experiments using cadavers to try to verify that historical descriptions of deaths are true. The crucifixion experiments may offend some but they won't be reading this book. The reader will definitely learn facts here that he or she will not find anywhere else. In addition, Mary Roach writes in a particularly engaging style, using humor to its best effect, and making often complex ideas easily grasped by us non-scientists. An excellent book all around! (  ) kageeh | Dec 17, 2009 |  I finished listening to this bizarrely interesting book and just kind of sat there and said 'huh.' I never knew so many things could happen to a cadaver or what type of scientific (or fanatical) research was being done with them - from anatomy labs, crash test dummies, forensic studies, ecological disposals, you name it, someones probably tried to do it. I especially enjoyed Roach's witty comments, I don't think I could have gotten through so much gruesome detail without a little lightheartedness. She never failed to ask the interesting (sometimes probably even a little inappropriate) questions that I was dying to know but would never ask someone myself. This book really made me think about if I want to do something different with my body rather than just stick it in the ground after I die.I highly recommend this one on audio book, the reader is fantastic. (  ) mmillet | Dec 14, 2009 | The author sometimes tries to be a bit too cute with her humor, but otherwise, this is a fascinating read. I'll never quite think about automobile safety ratings the same way again. (  )1  catalogthis | Nov 24, 2009 | 2007  katiemertz | Nov 20, 2009 | This book, about dead people and the sorts of things that are done to them in the name of science and mourning, completes our own personal Mary Roach trifecta. It was an interesting book… I didn’t realize all the different things that can happen to your body if you donate it to science. She even travels to China in search of a crematorium that allegedly used cadavers for dumplings in a family restaurant. It is definitely on the gory side, so if hearing about guts and bugs and unpleasant biological functions isn’t your bag, you might want to skip it. But if you’re curious, Roach does an excellent job of making non-fiction interesting and entertaining. (  ) miyurose | Nov 16, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
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Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/List of notable books on history of medicine |
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Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.
In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries—from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:00 -0400)
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