title: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
author:  Mary Roach 
description: "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.<br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
  the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
  resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is
  coincidental.
  
  
  Copyright © 2020 by Cathy Skendrovich. All rights reserved, including the
  right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For
  information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
  
  
  Entangled Publishing, LLC
  
  
  10940 S Parker Rd
  
  
  Suite 327
  
  
  Parker, CO 80134
  
  
  rights@entangledpublishing.com
  
  
  Amara is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.
  
  
  Edited by Heather Howland
  
  
  Cover design by Mayhem Cover Creations
  
  
  Cover photography by fotokvadrat/DepositPhotos
  
  
  MRBIG_PHOTOGRAPHY/GettyImages
  
  
  ISBN 978-1-64937-004-4
  
  
  Manufactured in the United States of America
  
  
  First Edition July 2020
  
  
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