Cannonball Read 12

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I have spent a good deal of 2020 in a cadaver-shaped hole.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

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And no, I do not mean an open grave. The more we hurtle towards impending doom- pandemics! global warming! world war!- the more solace I seek in, well, death. I didn’t set out on the morbid marathon on purpose, but here I am! It was not my intention to get down and dirty (ha!) with death this year, but I am enjoying the ride. I have been a long-time fan of Mary Roach since Spook, but for some reason I forgot to start at the […]

Please Mary, may I have some more?

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

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Gulp is my second Mary Roach book (I’d previously read and loved Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers) and is a thoroughly entertaining trip through our digestive systems. I do have digestive issues of my own, which no doubt heightened the appeal of this book to me, but as it’s so interesting and entertainingly written, I expect those whose stomachs don’t kick off regularly will also find something to enjoy. Gulp takes you through the whole process – from smell (which actually provides us […]

On Slavery and Body-Snatching

The Resurrectionist by Matthew Guinn

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Nemo Johnston is an intelligent black man with a strong instinct for survival. He is also a slave in antebellum South Carolina, and is purchased by Dr. Frederick Johnston and his colleagues of the South Carolina Medical College in 1857 to serve as a janitor, a butler and, most importantly, as a body-snatcher (or “resurrectionist”) for the school’s desperate anatomy department. Nemo undertakes the job with the understanding that it is primarily black bodies he will be unearthing for the dissections, but any sense of […]



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