Free Ebook Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach As a matter of fact, book is truly a home window to the world. Also lots of people may not appreciate checking out books; the books will consistently offer the exact details concerning reality, fiction, encounter, experience, politic, faith, and much more. We are here an internet site that provides compilations of books more than guide store. Why? We provide you bunches of varieties of link to obtain guide Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach On is as you need this Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach You can discover this book effortlessly right here.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
Free Ebook Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach. In undertaking this life, many individuals always aim to do and get the best. New knowledge, encounter, session, and everything that could enhance the life will certainly be done. Nonetheless, lots of people occasionally really feel confused to obtain those things. Feeling the limited of experience as well as sources to be better is one of the lacks to possess. However, there is a very simple thing that could be done. This is exactly what your teacher constantly manoeuvres you to do this one. Yeah, reading is the solution. Reading a publication as this Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach and various other recommendations can improve your life quality. How can it be?
It is not secret when connecting the composing skills to reading. Reading Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach will make you get more sources and also resources. It is a way that can improve exactly how you overlook and also recognize the life. By reading this Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach, you could greater than just what you obtain from various other book Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach This is a widely known publication that is released from popular author. Seen type the writer, it can be relied on that this book Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach will give many motivations, concerning the life as well as encounter and everything within.
You might not should be doubt regarding this Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach It is simple way to get this publication Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach You can just check out the established with the link that we supply. Here, you could buy the book Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach by on-line. By downloading Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach, you could discover the soft data of this book. This is the exact time for you to start reading. Also this is not published book Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach; it will exactly give even more perks. Why? You could not bring the published book Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach or stack guide in your house or the workplace.
You can carefully include the soft documents Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach to the device or every computer unit in your office or home. It will certainly help you to always continue reviewing Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach every time you have downtime. This is why, reading this Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach does not give you problems. It will certainly give you important sources for you that intend to start creating, blogging about the comparable book Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers, By Mary Roach are different publication industry.
"One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year....Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting."―Entertainment Weekly
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.
- Sales Rank: #1670 in Books
- Brand: W. W. Norton & Company
- Published on: 2004-05-17
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.30" h x .90" w x 5.50" l, .63 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 303 pages
Features
From Publishers Weekly
"Uproariously funny" doesn't seem a likely description for a book on cadavers. However, Roach, a Salon and Reader's Digest columnist, has done the nearly impossible and written a book as informative and respectful as it is irreverent and witty. From her opening lines ("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"), it is clear that she's taking a unique approach to issues surrounding death. Roach delves into the many productive uses to which cadavers have been put, from medical experimentation to applications in transportation safety research (in a chapter archly called "Dead Man Driving") to work by forensic scientists quantifying rates of decay under a wide array of bizarre circumstances. There are also chapters on cannibalism, including an aside on dumplings allegedly filled with human remains from a Chinese crematorium, methods of disposal (burial, cremation, composting) and "beating-heart" cadavers used in organ transplants. Roach has a fabulous eye and a wonderful voice as she describes such macabre situations as a plastic surgery seminar with doctors practicing face-lifts on decapitated human heads and her trip to China in search of the cannibalistic dumpling makers. Even Roach's digressions and footnotes are captivating, helping to make the book impossible to put down.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-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 transplants, and individual parts-leg and foot segments, for example, are used to test footwear for the effects of exploding land mines. Just as the nonemotional, fact-by-fact descriptions may be getting to be a bit too much, Roach swings into macabre humor. In some cases, it is needed to restore perspective or aid in understanding both what the procedures are accomplishing and what it is hoped will be learned. In all cases, the comic relief welcomes readers back to the world of the living. For those who are interested in the fields of medicine or forensics and are aware of some of the procedures, this book makes excellent reading.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Not grisly but inspiring, this work considers the many valuable scientific uses of the body after death. Drawn from the author's popular Salon column.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
317 of 329 people found the following review helpful.
Death is not the end
By Jeff Topham
This is a book about dead bodies. As Mary Roach demonstrates in her new book, some bodies go on to do remarkable things, such as helping FAA investigators understand why a plane crashed or helping auto-makers design safety features that save thousands of lives. Others are asked to do nothing more than rot away quietly at a research lab where forensic scientists study decomposition in order to improve crime scene investigation techniques. Some are put to slightly more questionable uses, such as the severed heads used by plastic surgeons to practice their facelift technique (surely not what people had in mind when they donated their bodies to science). Others have had even more bizarre adventures. Cadavers have been nailed to a cross in order to prove the authenticity of the shroud of Turin. Severed heads have been poked, prodded, and given transfusions in an attempt to revive them long after they and their bodies have parted ways.
The anonymous cadavers that are the subjects of STIFF could hardly have asked for a livelier or more sympathetic chronicler than Mary Roach, who has managed to write a book that balances sensitivity and respect with a wonderfully sharp wit. In fact, STIFF is unexpectedly and quite blessedly hilarious, although the humor never comes at the expense at the dead bodies that populate its pages. Instead, Roach uses humor as a kind of psychic safety valve, a vital and much-appreciated tension release from what is, at times, some very intense subject matter.
The real highlights of this book are the sections that delve into some of the more disreputable uses of cadavers. There is a droll and utterly hilarious history of body snatching and a short overview of medicinal cannibalism (human mummy confection, anyone?). There�s a fascinating catalog of the methods historically used to make sure that a dead body was in fact dead. This chapter culminates in what is surely the most spectacularly strange section of the book, in which Roach relates the story of Dr. Robert White, a neurosurgeon who in the mid-1960s performed a series of surgeries constituting what could be considered the first head transplant (or full body transplant, depending on your point of view). A wonderfully engrossing book on a subject most of us are reluctant to talk about.
111 of 115 people found the following review helpful.
And you thought death was depressing---
By Melissa Petty
Mary Roach did her homework, and it shows. She has written and information packed, insightful, educational, respectful, and, yes, funny book on what happens to these bodies of ours when we get tired of hanging out in them. I have a newfound respect for all who have donated their bodies in the name of science. Not that I give it a lot of thought, but I figured cremation would be the most logical choice. After reading this book, heck, they can do whatever they want with me. I've always felt an obligation to help others, and if I can continue to do so after I have left this world, then HOORAY.
Meanwhile, expect some odd looks when you are sitting there reading a book obviously about the dearly departed, and you started sputtering, and can't help but laugh out loud! Quirky humour, but that's my favorite kind. Thank you, Mary Roach.
I recommend this book to anyone in healthcare, or the clergy, or anyone even dealing with people who experience loss. It gives you a new perspective.
On the other hand, I will have a hard time ever eating gelatin again...
79 of 83 people found the following review helpful.
Stiff
By A Customer
A few nights ago I made a weekend resolution that I'd tackle the much-neglected stack of fiction that teeters on my bedside table. However, while reverentially picking up 'The Body Artist' by Don Delillo, I was distracted by a misplaced reader's copy of Mary Roach's 'Stiff'. Evidently, despite my best intentions, a modest volume of non-fiction had managed to steal it's way into my fiction pile. As morbid curiosity has always been a personal failing, I cheerfully chucked aside 'The Body Artist' and eagerly cracked open Roach's book. For the first time in over two years, I read an entire volume in one sitting.
Roach opens her book with the comparison of death to a pleasure cruise: 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 new happens, and nothing is expected of you....
Stiff is, without a doubt, a bizarre yet remarkably engaging read: not surprising since Roach is such a terrific writer. The author possesses the ingenious ability of being able to make digestible the most repulsive of subjects. Curious, yet not callus, Roach manages to ask-and yes, answer-questions often best left unspoken (keeping in mind public decorum). Furthermore, Roach is hilarious. Quite honestly I was surprised at how many times the author prompted (albeit sometimes guilty) laughter. A neat trick that, keeping in mind the grisly subject matter.
Roach gleefully covers merry topics such as: practicing surgery on the dead, embalmment, body snatching, the process of decay, human crash test dummies, crucifixion experiments, live burials, human head transplants, ecological (read: green) releasments, and everyone's all-time favourite- cannibalism. All the while Roach manages to honour the dead, yet simultaneously takes deliberate pains not to over-glorify the cadaver-science is science after all. One of the most remarkable aspects about Roach's book is her take on cultural definitions of `acceptable behaviour' in relation to the human carcass.
Tonight, inspired by Roach's second to last chapter: Out of the Fire, into the tissue digester: and other new ways to end up... I asked an agnostic friend if, following her death, she'd be willing to have her body ground into dog food. "No," replied my friend, despite her love for all things canine, "...I don't think so- it seems somewhat undignified." I then asked my friend if she'd be willing to have her remains tossed into the lion pen at her local zoo. My friend replied in the positive, "Most certainly, yes that'd be very cool. Maybe even a shark tank..." Vanity to be certain. Meat either way.
A warning to the queasy: Not for you.
See all 1419 customer reviews...
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach PDF
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach EPub
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach Doc
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach iBooks
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach rtf
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach Mobipocket
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach Kindle
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach PDF
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach PDF
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach PDF
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach PDF
