Stiff, by Mary Roach
This is a great book. For those who know me, I often become fascinated by the gross parts. I like watching the shows on TV about cold cases, forensic science, serial killers, plain old crime, etc. These are things about the world which educate the mind of a quite paranoid little girls whose only concern is that her murderer will be found because she left behind enough clues. Disgustingly perverse, but what are you gonna do?
Stiff tells the story of what happens to cadavers. Not only in modern times, but she travels back through history, sharing the various ways our hosts have been used in the name of "science." There is a chapter dedicated to satiating any curiosity: cannibalism, crucifixion, brains, grave-robbing, and even some mention about zombies. She has a great sense of humor that makes reading a book about bodies more bearable, and I admire any woman who went to the Tennessee
Body Farm, and makes me laugh. Naturally, this isn't too hard because I'd love to go there myself. I'm fascinated.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, was a Read in Baltimore selection by Eric D. It was, thus far, the most easy to read but also, in my opinion, the most educational.
Christopher is a young boy with autism who is fantastic with maths and sciences, knows how to explain things to their foundations, and gives a much more eye-opening definition of "take things literally." Mark Haddon, the author, once worked with children with autism; therefore, the book reads almost as a "how to understand" manual.
Christopher is walking around one night and stumbles upon Wellington, the neighbors dog, murdered with a pitchfork. After briefly being accused of the crime, he decides he'd like to get to the bottom of the murder and find out who killed Wellington. The book is written entirely in his perspective--it is a novel he is writing for his classes. Because he lacks imagination (a world of pictures that are lies and not true), he finds he can only write about things that really happen to him. However, his detecting leads him to not only the murderer, but the answer to many more questions he didn't realize he had because he took the world as it presented itself to him--including the people in it.
I thought it was awesome. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to read next. So I decided I'd finish the book
Stiff about dead bodies.
