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"Stiff" is a fun little diversion and little more. Mary Roach travels to laboratories, crematoriums, and anatomy labs and comments on the many, and sometimes rather surprising, ways that cadavers are used when they are donated to science. She spends much of her time marveling at the uncanniness of the situations she finds herself in, although she rarely goes for the all-out gross-out. You might not want to read this book while eating a plate of spaghetti, but the descriptions of dissection and decay are probably not vivid enough to make you reconsider signing your organ donor card. You have signed your donor card, right? If not, get on that right away, and tell your friends and family about your wishes.

There is lots of fun and interesting information in here, mostly personal observations and anecdotes collected in Roach's travels. Although occasionally she veers off topic onto tangents that feel like they're just filling up pages. One interesting aspect of "Stiff" is the amount of search engine research that was clearly done. Roach doesn't bother to hide the fact that much of her information was found through a quick query on Google or, at best, Pub Med. In some ways this is kind of refreshing; we would be foolish to think that other authors don't do the same thing.

Sometimes the search engine results are an interesting point in and of themselves, even if Roach takes them a bit too seriously herself. For example, we are told that if you were to Google "body percentage water", you will find dozens of sites with a wide range of claims ranging from 60 to 98% water. The author gives the actual number (73.8%) and describes the science behind the number. But she prefaces the discussion by saying that the percentage of water is "a matter of some debate". Come on, differing Google results do not indicate a lack of scientific consensus.

Roach's sense of humour is enjoyable and makes the somewhat macabre topic more pleasant to read about. Still, her humorous little quips and comments sometimes feel never-ending and can get a bit tedious. A sample taken from randomly flipping through pages:

"The difference is that when we're alive, we expel that gas. The dead, lacking workable stomach muscles and sphincters and bedmates to annoy, do not."

"John calls down that there's pizza upstairs, and the three of us leave the dead man by himself. It feels a little rude."

"He describes opening up an artery, flushing the blood out with water, and pumping in alcohol. I've been to frat parties like that."

Would I recommend “Stiff�? Sure, I guess. It's enjoyable and a quick enough read that if you don't like it you'll be done before you know it. Expect to learn some interesting new facts, but don't expect a masterpiece.