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Jan 23, 2012

Dan rated it:

Mary Roach writes about what happens when you donate your body to science. Hilarity ensues. Well, maybe not hilarity but it is a good dose of edutainment.

Way back around the time the earth's crust cooled and life spread across the planet, late 1994 or early 1995, I should think, I visited a chiropractic college with the rest of my Advanced Biology class. This trip was memorable to me for three reasons:
1) It was the first time I experienced an excruciating caffeine withdrawal More...

12 comments like (30 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2012

Kemper rated it:

Mary Roach details a lot of uses for human cadavers in this book, but she missed a major one. As Weekend At Bernies taught us, you can always use the corpse of your boss to scam your way into a free weekend at a beach house. That scientific research is all well and good, but there’s nothing in here at all about the best ways to simulate a life like corpse for your own selfish purposes. I learned more from Andrew McCarthy than I did reading this!

Ah, but seriously folks… This is t More...

13 comments like (12 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2007

Lissa rated it:

I bought this book when I first taught my class that has a foresnic anthropology component. I thought I could pick out a chapter of this book to assign to them, and it would be a nice, informative, lay-person account that would be entertaining, yet informational. However, due to time constraints, I never got around to reading the book. In that time, several people have borrowed and returned this book to me, so my copy is a bit tattered and dog-eared, as if I'd read it many times. I can safely sa More...

1 comment like (23 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2008

Trevor rated it:

If you can’t cope with the idea of death without a hearty dose of euphemism – this probably isn’t going to be the book for you.

When I became an archivist at the City of Melbourne a very dear friend of mine became a technician at the city Morgue. I figured at the time he had watched a couple of episodes too many of Quincy M.E. and that he would find a normal job eventually. It is probably 15 years since I stopped being an archivist – my friend still cuts up dead people for a living. More...

10 comments like (36 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2008

Tung rated it:

In my nonfiction phase during the year, I grabbed this one and after finishing it, regretted its purchase. The book is about medical use of corpses and the human body, present-day and in the past. The subject matter is extremely interesting, and some of the methods, tests, and history behind human body experiments is worth the read. The book makes you want to be an organ donor, or want to donate your body to medical science. The problem is that the author is one of the WORST writers I have e More...

15 comments like (29 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Athena rated it:

Well, I am half way through this and it has turned into a huge disappointment. What started out to be a funny depiction on what happens to donated cadavers, has taken a turn for the horrible. By the 6th or 7th chapter, the author showed what I can only equate to laziness and added commentary on subjects not pertaining to her once appreciated topic. I now find myself skipping over entire pages due to the lack of interest her writing presents and the tangents on which she goes; this I image don More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

May 28, 2008

Jill rated it:

Stiff, by Mary Roach, is a book about human cadavers and the curious situations they find themselves in. Well, they didn't find themselves in any situation. They are dead bodies. But Mary Roach found them and this book is the result.

While reading this book I paused at halfway and actually asked myself if I wanted to bother finishing it. I have never found myself asking myself this before. I usually stick it out to the bloody, gruesome end. This book, however, just was not interesting. More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2008

Laurel rated it:

This book is amusing, though after the first few chapters a little boring. I was sufficiently grossed out by the chapter regarding human decomposition, and the bit about the embalming process and how funeral homes prepare the body was particularly interesting to me when I found myself sitting at a wake the evening after reading it. I couldn't stop thinking about how the dearly departed's eyelids were held down by a little disk that pinned into his eyeball so the lids wouldn't pop open.

More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 19, 2008

Lisa rated it:

I usually don't laugh out loud when I read books, but this book had serveral passages that had me giggling. Also, I don't get, "Grossed out," very often, but I had to put this book down once while I was reading and eating lunch. This book has so many interesting tidbits on what happens to our bodies after we die. I was amazed and facinated by the history and current research being done on human cadavars. My parents, much to their children's objections decided long ago to be cremate More...

6 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 11, 2009

Fiona rated it:

I'd never heard about this book before until it came up within a non-book related discussion topic in a group here on GoodReads. Strange how some books just pop out at you. Reading about cadavers - dead bodies, interested my morbid fascination with the dead and death.

She writes sensitively, but humorously about what happens to you when you die. If you are considering donating organs or your whole body to science - like I was before even picking this book up, curious, or a family memb More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2008

Linda rated it:

Thinking of donating your body to science? Well, this book might make you want to reconsider. In either direction, mind you. As it seems, being a corpse doesn't necessarily have to be boring -- and this book is all about explaining how and why.

Okay, so I don't know what's more disturbing -- the book itself, or the fact that I'm enjoying it so much. It's surely not the kind of book you want to be reading next to a Catholic family (or any family) on the airport (trust me on this one)(c More...

7 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2009

Mindy rated it:

Mary Roach didn't strike me as funny or witty, just annoying. She's like the wise ass class clown in the back row, heckling the teacher and distracting everyone from an otherwise fairly decent lecture. Only she's supposed to be the teacher, too. What was her point? To talk about dead bodies or impress herself with her own juvenile jokes?

On a professional note, Roach seems awfully distrustful of librarians. Does she really think the circ clerk at a medical library thinks she's freaky More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2007

Deanna rated it:

Those curious or brave enough to find out what really happens to a body that is donated to the scientific community can do so with this book. Dissection in medical anatomy classes is about the least bizarre of the purposes that science has devised. Mostly dealing with such contemporary uses such as stand-ins for crash-test dummies, Roach also pulls together considerable historical and background information. Bodies are divided into types, including "beating-heart" cadavers for organ tr More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 01, 2007

Edward rated it:

A couple of months ago, I went to an exhibit in Dallas called BodyWorlds. They used a process called plastination (actually covered in this book) to help preserve a body from decaying - this assisted in the study of anatomy. In the BodyWorlds exhibit, they rigged the various cadavers in various poses to highlight different body systems. The exhibit charged my thoughts about the whole concept of donating oneself to science and when a friend picked up this book at the airport book store, I deci More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 27, 2007

Jill rated it:

Human bodies. Dead human bodies. This subject is not usually the most pleasant of conversation topics in any situation. However, author Mary Roach approaches this normally disturbing topic with enthusiasm and crafts a book that manages to be intriguing, gripping, gruesome, and yet hilarious at the same time. In the Alex Award winning book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, readers will learn how scientists have used human cadavers for over 2,000 years to accomplish a variety breakth More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Lisa rated it:

This is the most hilarious book about human cadavers that I’ve ever read. Actually, this might be the only book dedicated to describing what happens to human bodies after death that I’ve ever read. I felt squeamish reading during many, many parts, but it was worth it. It was too fascinating to not keep reading. She’s a good writer and this is a unique book. I plan to be cremated but if I were wealthy, have to say the part on composting was intriguing. Eager to read more from her.

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2007

Mer rated it:

Simultaneously very respectful of the delicate subject, and rip-roaringly funny.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 02, 2009

Amelia rated it:

What can I say, the lives of cadavers are surprisingly curious! I was interested and amused right the way through, with the possible exception of parts of chapter 10 (human dumplings...gack!). Roach has a way of writing that is quite conversational with snippets of her humor infused throughout.

I always said that I wanted to be cremated and dumped somewhere cool, like the ocean, or off a cliff up the Columbia Gorge. It's cheaper, plus the thought of moldering away was rather gross. More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2009

george rated it:

This book is just plain awesome. Ever wanted to know anything about cadavers? This is the book for you. You will probably even find out way more than you wanted to. You find out what may happen to you if you donate your body to science (it can be way more interesting than a boring old dissection lab, let me tell you); what happens during the embalming process (I'm skipping that myself), cremation, and the future (maybe?) of disposing of cadavers; what can happen in a plane crash; and what exactl More...

7 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2009

Richard rated it:

Opening paragraph:

The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much happens, and nothing is expected of you.

If you read this book, you will undoubtedly have many "ick" moments (especially in the chapter about eating the dead, but there's also that footnote about necrophilia on page 43...), but you should have even more laugh-out-loud mom More...

9 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2008

sage rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2007

Marsena rated it:

I absolutely could not put this book down. A hilarious yet somehow respectful exploration of what happens to our bodies once we're dead. Roach takes her inquisitive mind to places it wouldn't occur to me to go, way past normal burial and cremation to medical school anatomy labs, human crash test dummies, cannibalism, and the decapitated heads that plastic surgeons use for practice...and she makes me laugh every step of the way.

In the chapter, "How To Know if You're Dead:" More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2009

Cami rated it:

This book is seriously hard to put down. I'm sure it's a combination of the writer's amusing prose as well as a generous helping of morbid curiosity on my part.
I choose to quote here author Caleb Carr (listed on the book's jacket) because I feel he sums it up well: "As fascinating as it is funny, as sensitive as it is probing, Mary Roach's Stiff is above all an important account of how we treat the dead--literally. The research is admirable, the anedotes carefully chosen, and the pros More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2007

Mairi rated it:

Not the book I wanted it to be. I heard funny. I heard informative. I heard compelling. I got a book I couldn't wait to put down and I don't think I cracked a grin even once. To my knowledge, it wasn't ever inaccurate but Roach's conversational writing tone was jarring at times and her tangents made it hard to care what she was going to cover next. Of course, I read it shortly after reading Christine Quigley's The Corpse: A History which actually was brilliant so I might've put the bar a little More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 07, 2011

Mayda rated it:

Stiff could be subtitled, “Everything you always wanted to know about dead bodies and a lot you didn’t.” With her customary humor on a subject that generally is not approached with any humor at all, Mary Roach leads us down the merry path of the dead and the disposal thereof. Not irreverent, but often – it must be said – just plain gross, we learn of the many things dead bodies go through as death goes on and on. Not for the weak of stomach, we learn what happens to the physical remains when More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 27, 2011

Michael rated it:

I occasionally preface a book review, as such, on the basis of commuter tips (“this was a lovely diversion from an adjacent, ill-bathed bus neighbor” - that type of thing that, incidentally, often leads to a “but”). Here, might I offer some travel advice? If you find yourself in a Mexican resort, anticipating a poolside lunch “con guacamole” while perhaps a bit queasy from trying to beat the all-inclusive system via beverages the previous evening, you might not want read this book until safely t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 06, 2011

Emily rated it:

Even if this stuff makes you squirm - perhaps especially if it makes you squirm - you should read a book like this. Because both ignorance and the fear of death are responsible for countless acts of cruelty throughout human history. Ignorance sure is bliss, but it steps on everyone else's toes. Death sure is scary, but no one evades it. The list of things you don't want to know about should be kept as short as possible.

Yes, I skimmed through the passages about the various medicin More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 20, 2008

Kim rated it:

It was quirky... but not a book to hunker down with...

7 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2011

Anne rated it:

This book is a fun read for a general audience, but for many the narrative voice of Mary Roach either makes it or breaks it. I'm not so concerned with whether her antic style is or isn't appropriate to the subject matter, though this seems to be a stumbling block for some and for others the whole key to the slightly naughty, trangressive fun of the book. She clearly displays her discomfort with much of the subject material by her choice of corny wisecracks, which may be why so many general rea More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 23, 2011

Ann rated it:

Don't let the fact that it took me over a year to finish this book make it seem like I didn't thoroughly enjoy it! Blame two semesters with intense reading schedules (also, the fact that I could never read this while eating lunch, which is when I do the bulk of my reading). Luckily, this is easily put down and restarted due to the almost self-contained chapters. Mary Roach is an insanely talented writer, and I covet her ability to bring clarity and humor to potentially difficult topics. I loved More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

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