The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist

This is an easy read, with each chapter covering one investigation that the author was part of. However, I found the easy going voice, at times a little to glib about what was happening.

Also, there were one or two chapters that seemed incredibly tone deaf, specifically the chapter about doing research on native American skeletons, against the will of their of descendants. The condescending voice of the author really pulled me out of the book.

But overall, the stories are interesting, and while some of the science is outdated, Its an interesting topic.

Some readers didn't like this book because of its length and lack of forensic depth into cases. I however did like this book. I think what most people are forgetting is that although anthropologists are scientific based they are also story tellers. I think what Mary set out to do was to tell a good story, I don't believe her focus was to write a science based book. So factoring that into my review I very much enjoyed it and look forward to reading Mary's other titles.
A nice little read in between larger titles.

It amazes me that each time I read a book about Forensic Anthropology, I learn more and more about the human body. This was a very quick read, but I am glad that I had read several other books on the subject prior to this book.

It is obvious this book was written before the big interest in the forensic sciences as it now seems quite quaint in its descriptions of the trials and tribulations the author went through in her career spanning from the 1980's to early 90's. Lacking much scientific information it reads more like a short story than non-fiction, and at 137 pages it is a very quick read. There are a lot of tales that I wish she had fleshed out more but I found the references to her upbringing in 1950's Louisiana quite interesting.

A series of vignettes about the author's work as a forensic anthropologist, an anthropologist trained in examining human skeletal remains and determining age, gender, time since death, and possible causes of death. Interesting little stories and brief insights into why Manhein finds her job so satisfying. If you're looking for a book with an overarching theme or in-depth information on forensic anthropology, this is not the book you're looking for, and I'm not sure there's enough detail to satisfy those interested in true crime. But for an overview of the kinds of cases a forensic anthropologists deals with, it'd work.

It was a nice overview of what a forensic anthropologist does and what they sometimes have to deal with in their work. It's a pretty fast read. I had just finished reading an unnecessarily lengthy novel before I picked up this book, so I appreciated the brevity. If you're looking for something more in depth, then this might not be the one for you.

I gave this one 2 out of 5 stars. For me the chapters were too short and I was left always wishing for the stories to be fleshed out. Many were based around her childhood. An example would be that she starts one story out talking about how she's been sent on a mission to get horse bones for an insurance company that wants her to prove that the horses were starved to death. Within 2 paragraphs she tells us what her objective is and that she can't do it due to the fact that she really doesn't work with horses, but decides to collect the bones to send over to a friend. While collecting she notices a storm brewing and just like that, by the end of the paragraph (number 3 maybe it is?) we go into a long winded story about a time when she was show more little and a storm came and her aunt stopped a tornado with an ax, bean and bible. Then she finishes the chapter by saying they grabbed the bones, a tornado never came and the friend could not prove the horses were starved so the insurance company had to pay out.

Many chapters ran like this. No information about her profession or the case and how she worked it. When there was a case, she seemed to hold back, not giving details or giving one example of what she did and then filling the rest of the space with filler. On top of that those chapters were cut short making you want to know more.

In fact, I actually got on the computer and started searching for information, but got no where. The book was truly frustrating and I could only give it 2 stars because it was an easy read. show less