Stiff : : the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Science & Nature / Biology / Roach, Mary	4-week checkout	On Hold Shelf

A head is a terrible thing to waste -- Practicing surgery on the dead -- Crimes of anatomy -- Body-snatching and other sordid tales from the dawn of human dissection -- Life after death -- On human decay and what can be done about it -- Dead man driving -- Human crash test dummies and the ghastly, necessary science of impact tolerance -- The cadaver that joined the army -- The sticky ethics of bullets and bombs -- Holy cadaver -- The crucifixion experiments -- How to know if your̳e dead -- Beating-heart cadavers, live burial, and the scientific search for the soul -- Just a head -- Decapitation, reanimation, and the human head transplant -- Eat me -- Medicinal cannibalism and the case of the human dumplings -- Out of the fire, into the tissue digestor -- And other new ways to end up -- Remains of the author -- Will she or won̳t she?.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A bit morbid at times... submitted by tbbrown76 on July 9, 2018, 5:17pm but also you can tell she and the med students really care about people. Highly recommended.
Tom

Somewhat graver than I anticipated submitted by terpsichore17 on July 10, 2018, 2:33pm As interesting as billed. Somewhat less humorous than I expected, though that's probably for the best; my isolated chuckles were prompted by unexpected asides and footnotes, whereas the bulk of the text is more focused and respectful.

Chapter 3 (the process of decay) is gross. Chapter 10 (cannibalism) is also gross, but easier to power through to Chapter 11 (recent body disposition techniques), which I'd already read up on/was fascinated with.

I came away somewhat more inclined to donate my organs to hospital waiting lists, if not necessarily to science/research.

One of my favorite books of all time submitted by akeckert on August 8, 2018, 8:18pm Mary Roach makes nonfiction incredibly enjoyable for the reader used to reading only fiction for pleasure

So very true submitted by Aimless on July 20, 2019, 11:37pm All the fun things you can do with a dead person...and they are all true.

Ok...that sounded weird....but this book is about cadavers

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Stiff : : the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers submitted by lstorc on August 31, 2019, 11:03pm Stiff : : the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is a fun and morbid read. I can see how it would appeal to individuals in the medical world.

Morbidly funny! submitted by chowcy on August 28, 2020, 8:52pm Not only is this book interesting, it's also written in a humorous way! Definitely a risky move, since some people take death very seriously and don't think people should joke about it, but Mary Roach approached the topic tactfully and light-heartedly.

Rjfmf submitted by Anthany on July 27, 2021, 11:58am Ejdkdm

funny but a little gross submitted by umich.reader on June 12, 2022, 11:03pm A funny and informative book. It can get gross at times and made me think about death a lot which wasn't great.

My favorite Mary Roach book submitted by bcartm01 on June 18, 2022, 9:58am I love the authors writing style and her dedication to research. I find her to be really funny and this is my favorite of her books. I also recommend reading Gulp if you have not already. :)

Good Book but was AWFUL submitted by ks2345 on August 24, 2022, 12:17am This book convinced to not study medicine

What do you want to do with YOUR cadaver? submitted by basketcasemom on July 5, 2023, 10:52pm I will certainly donate to any of these things. It was fascinating.
If you want to get the full humor of this book, you should download the Audiobook from Libby and listen to it. The narrator did a great job.

Essays on Cadavers in Science & Culture submitted by sdunav on August 3, 2023, 10:36am Very, very good, funny and well-written, but not for the squeamish. The separate chapters read like little essays, each on a different type of cadaver use or study: heads for plastic surgeons practicing face lifts, anatomy labs for would-be doctors, car crash tests, bullet & landmine tests....you get the idea.

My favorite part of this book may be the totally off topic but often hilarious and fascinating footnotes.

fascinating, entertaining submitted by apknapp on August 23, 2023, 12:09pm Author is clearly an investigator and put in the work, this was very informative, but it's also very entertainingly written--a very engaging read, with a surprisingly light tone overall, considering the subject matter.