Stiff mary roach download audiobook download torrent

Reader reviews justagirlwithabook. I have a handful of audiobooks on hold right now through the Libby app, all of which have a million weeks' wait it seems like. So what do I do? I listen to the morbid audiobooks that are currently available. This one didn't land on a highly recommended nonfiction or audiobook list of mine it was just so-so for me , but it was still fascinating at times.

If you're curious about cadaver use throughout history and into the present day, and you've maybe got nothing else to listen to on audio, give this one a try and see what you think. At the least, you'll come out on the other side knowing a few more random facts about dead bodies that you didn't know before. She makes it all fascinating though, and I loved finding out what happens when people donate their bodies to science - and what was done with bodies in the past, before bodies were donated on purpose.

I sort of lost the focus of this book about halfway through I'm not sure what the author is trying to show, and I'm not sure I care. Interesting, yes, kind of gross, yes, but all that meaningful? I don't know. Gruesome, funny, fascinating, sad. Definitely hard to take yourself too seriously after reading this.

Well, this is about as palatable a book as anyone could make regarding medical research on cadavers. The energy and humor of the opening chapters drew me in immediately, but either the material wore on me or the author was stretching to fill out the book with less interesting material because my enthusiasm started to flag in the second half.

It's still a good book over all, and I'm tempted to try something else by her in the future. This book is fascinating! The section about what happens to bodies in plane crashes and how cadavers are used for safety testing in cars was super interesting. Did you know male and female hearts beat slightly differently and continue to beat according to the sex of their original body even when transplanted into the opposite sex?

I know what you are thinking. A book about dead bodies. Why do I want to read that? Because science, that's why. Great book. I learned a lot. I chuckled. I got a little squeamish. I added a few ways I don't want to die to my list. Read it, love it, buy her next book.

Morbidly funny, Stiff is an entertaining, educational, and thoughtful look into what the body goes through after death. She discusses early anatomy incidents, human decay, car crash testing, forensics, organ harvesting, what could happen when a body is donated to science, and various other topics involving human cadavers.

Mary Roach's dry sense of humor comes through well and she is respectful of her subject matter. Informative and fascinating. Also, Stiff has some of the best footnotes I have ever read.

It started off so strongly - the first half was fascinating. Unfortunately, she moved away from talking about scientific cadaveric work to organ transplants and cannibalism - and I slowly lost interest.

What a shame - it started out so intriguing. Having taken a forensic anthropology course in college, I thought I had a pretty decent grasp of all the things that can happen to the human body after death. In this fascinating and surprisingly hilarious book, Mary Roach explores every possible means of body disposal, from natural decomposition to plastination, which can preserve a corpse for 10, years.

She doesn't just tell you about these processes - she describes them in more detail than you could ever want. I guarantee that even the least squeamish readers will be grossed out at some point during this book. I loved it. The historical and cultural aspects are also extremely interesting. Did you know that in Islam, it is forbidden to donate your body to science? That the ancient Chinese, among other cultures, used corpse parts to treat various medical ailments?

Stiff is filled with these wonderful tidbits as well as longer ruminations on the many ways different people have thought about death at different points in human history. For me, this, more than anything else, is what made Stiff well worth reading.

In order to really tell the truth about death, including all the nitty-gritty, unpleasant details, you have to have a certain amount of irreverence, and I think that's a major part of why this book works so well.

Roach approaches everything with a gameness and sardonic wit that is made even funnier by the narrator's dry delivery. In short, Stiff is an entertaining and highly thought provoking listen that will undoubtedly stick with me for a very, very long time.

I bought this book a while ago at a used book sale, thinking it was the type of read I'd want to explore, but would never get around to. I spotted a friend reading it who shrugged and said "yeah" when I asked her if it was any good. Not a rave review, but pushed my curiosity into actually pursuing the text myself. I'm glad I foraged through my piles of to-reads to find it, because it is enjoyable and educational. But the life of cadavers is full of humor and life-living insights. A worthwhile endeavor for anyone who's curious about what's going on under their skin.

Entertaining and informative, Stiff was a book that kept me engrossed, laughing, shaking my head in disbelief, and sometimes just plain grossed out. Enigma writers must have this book on their research study racks. This book is marvelously original. For beginners: the subject material. The subject material is interesting to claim the least in addition to squeamish, gross, unusual, detailed, well investigated, repulsively descriptive.

In summary something that a typical person would certainly not find themselves reading in their freetime. Picture my utter surprise when I discovered myself completely enthralled in this publication. The mind is a bigger thing than any of us realize, and Foer reminds us to keep exploring it. Foer does an excellent job of tracing the history of the arts of memory.

A highly enjoyable read. Foer is a charmer, a crackling mind, a fresh wind. This is a work of science journalism wrapped around an adventure story, a bildungs-roman fused to a vivid investigation of human memory. If you want to understand how we remember, and how we can all learn to remember better, then read this book.

Star added. Quote saved. View saved quotes Close. Login to quote this blog Login Close. For every new surgical procedure-from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery-cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.

In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries-from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

I don't read a lot of nonfiction so it has to be pretty good to hold my interest all the way through. I was disappointed when this book ended. I have since purchased several copies to loan out to friends and family with an enthusiastic recommendation. Although the subject matter may seem a bit gruesome, just as it starts to get gross the author manages to shift gears. Her style is very cheeky and keeps a heavy subject matter as light as it could be. The reader is also excellent as she clearly connected with the writing style.

The first half of the book was hilarious and interesting. The second half got a bit slow, but still was worth finishing. A full book about cadavers was more than I could endure.

Great book, OK, a couple of times i wondered what the heck am i listening to, but just then the author would explain why she was going there, and i just followed and enjoyed. Very informative and entertaining. Go for it,,,. Funny, reverent and highly accessible. Despite the seemingly gruesome nature of the material, Roach does a phenomenal job making it palatable and entertaining while remaining respectful.

This is one of the strangest books I've ever read. If you're not interested in what happens to bodies donated to science in all gory detail , then this one's not for you.