69 pages 2 hours read

Mary Roach

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2003

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Paired Texts & Other Resources

Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach (2021)

  • an award-winning book that explores “the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology”
  • In this book, Roach continues her exploration of the theme Innovation and Advancement Borne from Gore

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach (2010)

  • another pop science work of non-fiction examines the “strange universe of space travel and life without gravity” 
  • Roach uses her characteristic darkly humorous voice to explore the science of space travel and builds upon themes of scientific Innovation and Advancement
  • Packing for Mars  on SuperSummary

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach (2017)

  • pop science non-fiction exploring the science of “keeping human beings intact, awake, sane, uninfected, and uninfested in the bizarre and extreme circumstances of war”
  • Roach takes on another subject fraught with taboo and gore in Grunt