Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Stiff is a journalist's take on how the dead are treated after they pass. I picked this book to read with my Biology II class for two reasons: 1. Teenagers think anything weird is cool. and 2. This book is listed for AR quizzes for 16 points. Valuable to them and at the time it seemed could be valuable to discussion in our class.



Unfortunately, it didn't work that way. This book tends to focus more on the weird little antidotes about death than discussion. A few of my better students (A students who like to read) were disappointed by what they felt was more her opinion than fact about the processes used. Before going into this I knew animal use would come into the discussion, but it seemed to make up two or three large parts of this book. This was disturbing to a few of my young ladies.



For what it is- a sensational book on death- it is a good book. I wouldn't call it exceptionally well written, but for interests sake good to read. For use in a classroom, I don't even know that I would have college kids read this book. Since I'm not an english teacher, I had been relying on our student's need for AR points to drive my choices for reading in the classroom. Silly me, I won't do that again. If I had not made the kids complete the book for class, I would have stopped about halfway through and not finished the book.



View all my reviews