A surprisingly not-gory look at what happens--or can happen, should you sign the necessary paperwork ahead of time--after death. It gets a little dull in the middle, when it gets bogged down in religious and cultural histories of burial, but then we get into a chapter on cannibalism and it picks up again. Anatomy classrooms, safety research, forensic testing--cadavers are useful in a wide range of applications, and Mary Roach covers (as far as I can tell) all of them. Entertaining, informative, engaging, and a strange combination of irreverent and respectful. 4 1/2 stars.