Stiff

In about six hours of reading, I started and finished another book.  This one's called "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" and can be found on Amazon for those that are interested.  I just couldn't put it down!  The author, Mary Roach, visited a bunch of places where people deal with other people who happen to be dead to find out what's quietly happening behind such closed doors.  She takes the reader through an embalmer's lab, a crematorium, anatomy labs, a forensic farm where they study decomposition, a vehicle crash-test research facility, and more.

 

Despite what could easily be seen as a truly ghoulish and macabre subject, she adds humor and a sense of lightness to the subject without taking away from the dignity of the subjects.  One theme that she carries through the book is what she would like done with her own body after her death, and one by one she rules each potential post-mortem use out as she finds out the details until she finally settles on plastination.  In that, I have to agree with her.  The BodyWorlds exhibit that's causing such a ruckus in Europe is one I would really like to go see.

 

All-in-all, a great book and a nice break from the more serious material I've been reading of late.