Cannonball Read 11

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This is (almost) the end

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

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Mary Roach’s Stiff is a paean to dead bodies. She notes in the introduction that “Cadavers are our superheroes: They brave fire without flinching, withstand falls from head-on car crashes into walls. You can fire a gun at them or run a speedboat over their legs, and it will not faze them. Their heads can be removed with no deleterious effect. They can be in six places at once. . . .  What a shame to waste these powers, to not use them for the betterment of humankind.” I wholeheartedly agree with her perspective, which is why I found it […]

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11/29/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 51 |

And the writing is anything but

Stiff by Mary Roach

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Another re-read for me, this time because my workplace book club suggested it. Feelings were mixed, in part because the text and writing style were, contrary to the title, so loose. The naysayers felt like the chapters were disjointed and that the writer was too flip, looking for a joke rather than research, but for my part I think it’s well balanced. Stiff follows what happens to the human body after we die – not the experience of death, not what happens to “us,” but the various things that can happen to a body once there’s no one there possessing […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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10/2/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 78 |

You can die from constipation. Just ask Elvis Presley’s doctor.

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach

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CBR11bingo: Science If you do a Google search for “how did Elvis Presley die,” most answers will mention prescription drugs and cardiac arrest. Until I read Gulp, I hadn’t heard that the King had what’s known as a megacolon, which is exactly what it sounds like: a big-ass large intestine. According to his personal physician George Nichopoulos, the condition gave Elvis such terrible constipation that Nichopoulous had to administer laxatives and enemas on an almost daily basis. Whether the condition was the result of genetics or years of drug use is up for debate. Anecdotally it’s been said that Elvis […]

Help Support Cannonball Read

Buy the following on Amazon and help our mission to stick it to cancer, one book at a time:

We pay for our website first, and then all proceeds above and beyond those fees are donated to the American Cancer Society in AlabamaPink's name. Find out how else you can help support our mission.

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8/11/2019 | 's CBR11 Review No: 34 |

I’ll be on my way

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

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Many years ago, starting out a new job in a new city, a good friend and I moved into an apartment together to save on rent. On moving day, we got all the boxes indoors, dug out the necessities for the night, ate carry-out on the bare floor, and passed out for the night. Neither of us so much as got up to go to the bathroom until morning. And yet when we blearily emerged and went into the living room, we found all the windows covered in dewy condensation, unsullied…except for a clear and unmistakable handprint right in the […]

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8/2/2018 | Post by

Where Do You Go Oh Oh Oh Oh Eh Oh

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

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The library’s audiobook app knows me so well that it decided to recommend to me Mary Roach’s 2004 bestseller Stiff. A book about cadavers called “Stiff” sounded awesome, almost as awesome as the others book about science and sex called Bonk. With nothing to lose except my ignorance about what happens when I die, I pressed the Check Out button and enjoyed the next eight hours of audio delight.  In the book, author Mary Roach saucily quips her way across time and the planet to understand how humans have treated their dead, why, and what we could/should be doing in the future. […]

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4/3/2018 | Post by

Been thinkin a lot today; thought about the army.

Grunt by Mary Roach

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Mary Roach’s absent-minded professor tangents have never been more welcome than in this book about the science of military development. I picked this up due to my long established weakness for remaindered books and a desire for a light, unchallenging read; Roach is an expert at crafting pop science reads at their most accessible, sometimes to a fault. That said, I was nervous about the military theme as I generally don’t gravitate to media on this topic and immediately feared I was going to get something about why tank A is superior to humvee B. If that kind of book […]

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8/5/2017 | Post by

A delightful book to swallow whole.

Gulp by Mary Roach

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Mary Roach is a gem, truly, and a gift to the world. Every time I read a book of hers (and I’ve read all but one), “delightful” is the word that comes to mind, because her delightful personality shines through every word without ever overtaking the book. She has a very specific talent and she uses it so damn delightfully (there’s that word again) that the formula never gets old, even when it probably should. Her talent: taking a subject that is either kind of distasteful (war, death) or kind of boring (the gastrointestinal tract) or salacious and frequently written […]

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4/15/2017 | Post by

Mary Roach is a never ending delight, but this was not my book.

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach

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You guys, I love Mary Roach books. I think she is a delightful author and I really enjoy her perspective on the world. Her Packing for Mars is one of my comfort books; I have read it several times, and I recommend her books to everyone. I did not love this book like I have loved her others, and I have struggled a bit to write this review. This book is entered around war, and the science surrounding trying to keep soldier safe, healthy and sane, for the most part. Some of the science is of course very interesting, but […]

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4/15/2017 | Post by


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