Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2003)

Absolutely fantastic. I had no idea of the many uses of cadavers! Mary Roach was informative, funny and comprehensive. I listened to the book with Shelly Frasier narrating. I enjoyed her interpretation -- she really made it her own. ( )

Out behind the University of Tennessee Medical Center is a lovely, forested grove with squirrels leaping in the branches of the hickory trees and birds calling and patches of green grass where people lie on their backs in the sun, or sometimes the shade, depending on where the researchers put them.

The first paragraph of the third chapter exemplifies Roach's sense of humour. It would be easy, writing books about the alimentary tract or dead bodies or the scientific study of sex, to just let go and wallow, Horrible Histories-style, in gross-out miscellany. And once or twice in the later chapters of Stiff she does get pretty close to this. But for the most part she maintains a very fine balance, approaching the fundamental oddness of the non-living body from multiple angles — a plastic surgery seminar with 40 heads in roasting trays, an "organ harvest" of a brain-dead donor, crash-test research, or her visit (highlight of the book) to the above-mentioned site of research into bodily decomposition. I marginally preferred Bonk and Gulp, but Roach is consistently entertaining and I look forward to reading more of her. ( )

Death is a source of anxiety for me. If I think on it too long, I inevitably have a panic attack. I decided that maybe the best way to face that would be to start reading some research on what happens to the body once the soul leaves it. Enter: Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers. Mary Roach provides a thoroughly researched, thought-provoking, and often funny outlook on what happens to our bodies after we die. Not only this, but a view into what lies ahead in the way of options for a deceased person. With the funeral business as money-grubbing as they tend to be, to know that there are options outside of cremation and burial for a person to choose from is actually comforting in a way. The choice should be left up to the person. Do you want to be cremated or buried? Donate organs to save people's lives? Become a tree or return to the Earth as compost? Perhaps donate your body to be used as an art exhibit? Somehow all of these secondary options hold a better view than being simply cremated or buried, at least they do to me, anyway. Your life and your body would still hold value and a place of purpose. We all look to be valued, respected and purposeful in our living life, why not in our afterlife as well? ( )

Mostly interesting, but the flippant tone became exhausting about halfway through and felt unrelenting by the end. ( )

Muchos datos curiosos y trivialidades. ( )