Stiff
Mary Roach
303 pages
including bibliography
published in 2003

This is not, as some might guess from the title, a book about male erections, but rather a book about what we become when we've kicked the bucket: a stiff. This is not a book about the afterlife either, but a book of what could happen to your body after your life, with the emphasis on what stiffs or cadavers as the author rather calls them are used for when donated to science.

There are it seems quite a few options of what could happen if you do so. Your body could of course be used for organ recovery, with your heart, liver and every other still functioning organ being given to people who will actually use it. If unlucky, your skin will be recovered and used for plastic surgery, for example penis extenstion operations. But your body could also be used for more basic research, in car safety tests (it will be twisted and mangled in simulated accidents), to further forensic science (left to rot in a particular way to help establish rules for decomposion of murder victims) or if your bodsy is really unlucky, it could be used to simulate the crucifixion of Christ, as happened to some unlucky stiffs in France in the 1930ties... Then again, it could also be used to help surgeons and such learn their craft safely.

the author explores each of these options, as well as some other curious things that could or do happen to your body when you're gone, in some detail. The book is never gratitiously gross, nor is it unsensitive in tone, though the author's slight tongue in cheek, lightly ironic way of writing may grate after a while. There were some moments (e.g. "brain froth") when I had to lay down the book for a moment, but on the whole this is readable by anybody of a normal constitution.

The reality of what happens after our death was not completely new to me, as I would imagine it won't be for most readers, but Mary Roach certainly managed to shine new light on it. Heartily recommended for those who have no problems reading about these things.