I picked this up on a whim. [Like that's rare. I blame the eye-catching toe-tag on the cover; I mean, how could I resist?] Just started reading it last night and I have been laughing out loud and scaring the cats... This is wonderful stuff, a popular-science look at the history of being dead, more or less. [Other books of mine that have dealt with this topic include the wonderful "Death to Dust" and the quirky "Death: The Trip of a Lifetime"; this one may join them on my keeper shelves.] A blend of history, science, quips, and commentary - informative, sometimes startling, and very funny.

"This is a book about notable achievements made while dead.... This is a book about the sometimes odd, often shocking, always compelling things cadavers have done. Not that there's anything wrong with just lying around on your back. In its way, rotting is interesting too, as we will see. It's just that there are other ways to spend your time as a cadaver. Get involved with science. Be an art exhibit. Become part of a tree. Some options for you to think about.

"Death. It doesn't have to be boring."

Later: Definitely a fun read, if you're not squeamish about this sort of thing. (Some bits actually did get to me - in the chapters on the use of cadavers for safety-testing, there are also accounts of the experiments done when cadavers (and/or test dummies) aren't available, and a lot of those use animals. Not sure why I can put up with a lot of grue about people but not about the hapless livestock or potential housepets who got drafted...) On the cheerier side, much of the book points out improvements in many fields, from testing firearms to automobile-safety tests to plastic surgery techniques; some of these improvements result from the use of cadavers, and others involve new technologies such as the vastly entertaining "human tissue simulant," a kind of stiff gelatine [made by Kind & Knox - yes, *that* Knox] used to demonstrate the paths of bullets through people-sized chunks of the stuff. (The gelatine doesn't close back up the way tissue does, so the cavity caused on impact can be easily seen. Don't know if you wanted to know that...) "Ballistic gelatin is essentially a tweaked version of Knox dessert gelatin. It is denser than dessert gelatin, having been formulated to match the average density of human tissue, is less colorful, and, lacking sugar, is even less likely to please dinner guests." [Update: in recent months I've been able to see a LOT of ballistics gel in use - on the Mythbusters TV series. Check it out!]

Not a book for all tastes, certainly, but entertaining and informative nonetheless. I liked the chapter on the work that's being done to promote "composting" as an alternate method of burial, for example - one technique involves freeze-drying the body and then - er, well, for good compost you want your materials in small chunks, so - oh, you get the idea.

Controlled release:

I'm sending this one to BCer JennyO in a swap; it's funny/weird enough that it should be shared. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks Gory! I *think* I'm going to enjoy this one -- if one can say that about a book about cadavers! I'll put this somewhere in my TBR pile and pick it up soon.

Oh, and we have a teaching hospital here, so I'll probably try to find a way to release this wildly amongst the residents.

I'm slightly more than halfway through this book (I picked it up yesterday, and it's difficult to put down). GoryDetails put a BookCrossing stamp in the middle of the book, so I took it as a sign that I should go ahead and note my thoughts so far.

First of all, this is probably NOT the book you want to read while waiting for your van to be serviced at the car dealership (speaking from experience). I did that this morning, and got a few stares of the "what sort of creep is she?" variety. Probably because I was reading this book (see the cover picture -- feet with a toe tag on them) and laughing out loud. Oh well. Won't be the first time someone's thought I'm a nut. Anyway, Roach manages to use both respectful and sarcastic tones at just the right time. I did run across one rather unfortunate typographical error though. When discussing the decision not to inform family members how the cadaver would be used, she says: "families who had made *piece* with the decision to donate..." This after explaining that most cadavers are, for lack of a better term, separated into components for research.

I'm looking forward to finishing this book in the next day or so. Then I'll give it to a friend who's a dentist. She's going to leave it in one of the doctor's lounges at the teaching hospital here when she's through.

Finished this one today. It was really fascinating, and while I'm glad I didn't have to do the actual research for the book, I enjoyed reading it. I wasn't surprised to see a blurb on the back cover from Susan Orlean. Roach has the same witty turn of phrase I've come to recognize in Orlean's writing. I'll be looking for more books by both of them. I'll probably also be spending some time on salon.com again since Roach writes a column there.

GoryDetails, I appreciate you sharing this book with me. I don't think I'd ever have discovered it if it weren't for BookCrossing. I will pass it to my friend at my book club meeting in June and ask her to release it when she's through.

I'm actually going to give this one to my friend and then send it to kafka when she's through.

Finally got this back from my friend and mailed it to Kafka today.

Just rec'd this today (thank you JennyO and GoryDetails for sharing). Hubby took one look at the cover and started laughing, "More of your *interesting* reading material? This can go on the shelf next to your 'Six Feet Under' DVD's."

Can't wait to dig in...

Verrry interesting. Full of info that I didn't even know I'd want, but am now glad I have, somehow...

Let me add that this may not be the book to read over lunch either, which I did!! Oh, my!

Queasiness aside, I found the author's handling of sometimes delicate subject matter to be a fine balance of humor/respect. I will certainly be looking up more of her work.

This will soon be on the road again.

RELEASE NOTES:

This is on it's way to Connecticut...