The Methods Section

STIFF: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers / Mary Roach (2003)

Why I chose this book: Sitting in the Denver airport, I realized that my knitting project was not going to last for the entire flight.  The cover of this book was what first got my attention as I scanned the nonfiction section in the airport bookstore.  The book looked shockingly funny and extremely interesting -  what more could one want for a three hour flight?!

Why I finished it: This book is hilarious.  Sure, you might need to have a slightly morbid sense of humor, but I truly think  that anyone but the most squeamish of people would enjoy this title.  Mary Roach travels to some places you’d expect from a book about cadavers (mortuary, anatomy class) and a lot of places you’d never guess would be using dead bodies.  My favorite chapter involved Roach visiting a lab where the scientists use cadavers instead of dummies in crash testing.  I had no idea that was common practice, but apparently whole bodies and severed appendages have been getting battered by scientists for years in collision testing.

Roach tells the stories of these cadavers and the living people who work with them in an extremely respectful manner; the humor usually stems from her own inner monologue and awkwardness (and a fondness for puns).  She begins the book by immediately distinguishing you from the cadaver you will eventually leave behind.  What happens to you when you die is not in question here – just what can happen to your physical shell once you bid it adieu.  Once that distinction is made, Roach is allowed to freely discuss the bizarre, often disgusting, but always intriguing journeys of human cadavers without offending the people they once were or those who loved them.  You’ll discover the variety of uses for cadavers once they have been donated to science, and maybe even decide to try a new environmentally friendly form of ‘burial’ yourself.  Human compost anyone?

Overall Rating: 4.5   I would have loved to read more about the different experiments using cadavers.  Some of the history chapters, while short, seemed to drag on and felt out of place.  They did not really subtract from my enjoyment of the work, but I cannot see giving it a perfect 5 for that reason.  Regardless, this title is highly recommended!

For the first time in a long time (ie. no longer a student), I have been reading for pleasure.  Over the past two years or so I’ve kept a list of titles I really wanted to read but just didn’t have the time or energy.  My entire list is nonfiction.  I’m not a fiction reader; I used to be, but to be completely honest, Harry Potter killed it for me.  Those books were not that great, but I couldn’t stop reading them! And don’t get me started on the ending… could it be any more saccharine?  I want those hours back!

Anyway…back to the list… almost all of the books on it are what one might call Popular Science.  I think a good popular science book should include the following:

• humor (when appropriate, which it almost always is)
• the assumption that the reader has some scientific knowledge, but isn’t a specialist
• an interesting story, history, or problem to discuss (I want to learn AND be entertained)
• be memorable enough that if I put the book down for a week, I won’t have to reread past chapters to remember all the science that came before)

This summer I plan on reviewing every book I read.  Hopefully, that will amount to about 10 or more titles. We’ll see.  I used to have an aversion to ‘quitting’ on a book, even if every second reading it made me want to hurl it across the room.  Since deciding on criteria for a good pop sci book, I’m going to try giving myself the freedom to walk away from a dud.  Once again, we’ll see.

Book 1: Dark Banquet by Bill Schutt (2008)

Why I chose this book:  This was on several ‘Best of 2008′ lists, but really its the sub-title that hooked me.  A book all about blood feeding creatures? I’m sold.

Why I finished it: Schutt combines his witty, at times sarcastic tone for describing personal anecdotes and history lessons with extremely clear and informative scientific sections. The best stories were the author’s own experiences capturing and studying bats in the wild.  Actually, all of the chapters dealing with bats were the most fascinating.  Of the 1,110 species of bats, only three are vampires, and all are native to the Americas.  They are also extremely cute ( its worth noting here that Patricia Wynne’s sketches in the book are really terrific.)  Many sections contained graphic descriptions of bats feeding, and many readers may have a hard time getting through those sections.  However, you shouldn’t sugar coat nature, and I think Schutt has done his bats a great service by telling their story to general audience.

Why it was difficult to finish: No more bats after the first couple chapters (less than half the book).  This would not have been a problem except that the rest of the chapters were at best disjointed and at worst boring.  Schutt is a bat man.  He knows bats better than almost anyone else.  He makes it quite clear that the research he did on leeches, bed bugs, etc. was done solely for this publication, and that’s the problem.  His stories about bats come alive because they are written with the passion of a man who loves these animals and has lived these experience.  Anyone could go interview some entomologists, read a few papers, and write his chapters about the other sanguivores.  The latter half of the book just is not genuine.  I wish Schutt had collected more material about vampire bats, even if that meant including more science and upping the reading level.

Overall Rating: On a scale of 1 – 5 (where 1 is ‘Chuck it’, 5 is ‘Loved it’), this book gets a 3.5.  The sections on bats get a 5, but the rest of the book is more like a 2.  Still, I found the bat chapters interesting and entertaining enough to recommend this title.