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. 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.
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.
