Monday, November 19, 2018

Book Review: Stiff

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach



I read this book to fulfill a Satire category in a reading challenge. Satire is the use of humor to expose folly of vice for the purpose of bettering the situation. I think this book fits that category, because when you really think about death, we often have silly or unrealistic views of what it looks like. This book is informative and funny, which is unexpected for a book about cremation, the funeral business, autopsies, medical dissections, and scientific cadaver donations. I learned quite a lot from reading this book, and had to ask a friend of mine (who is a mortician) whether the gruesome things that I'd read were really correct (spoiler: they were).

I am counting this as a legal-ish book, as County Attorneys in Nebraska are also County Coroners. Did you know this? County Attorneys have training on death investigation at their twice yearly continuing education seminars. Many also attend specific training out of state on the topic. In some counties, the County Attorneys go out on the scene, while in other counties this is deferred to Sheriffs or the State Patrol.

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