How quickly time flies - we've already reached book number six for the Murmur Book Club! Everyone pat yourselves on the back. I can tell you, from experience, that a lot of book clubs don't get through this many books before falling apart. Kudos!

This month, the club is switching gears and going for a bit of non-fiction. Turn on the lights and grab a blankie if dead bodies freak you out, because we're reading Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.

Here's an introduction to Stiff, via the book's back cover;

Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers?some willingly, some unwittingly?have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.

In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries?from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

If you're not familiar with Mary Roach's work, you're in for a treat. Much like travel writer Bill Bryson, Roach takes an irreverent and frequently hilarious look at a topic frequently treated much more seriously. Stiff is the book that threw Mary into the public consciousness, and there's a reason that many readers consider it a modern classic in the realm of popular science writing.

I'll be reading Stiff along with everyone else in the community, and we can start the book club discussion around the middle of September. Stiff is available as a softcover, hardcover or audio book from your local independent bookseller, as an unabridged mp3 download from Audible, and should be at pretty much any library and chain or online bookstore.

I'll also use this opportunity to announce the next book the club will be reading; The Passage by Justin Cronin. The Passage, a dystopian story about a vampire plague and the end of the world as we know it, is the best book I've read all year. I'm itching to talk about the book, but it isn't out in softcover quite yet. When we've read hardcovers in the past, the announcement has gone up extra early so people would have time to save up for the more-expensive book. Hopefully, giving this advance warning means that most of the community will be able to get The Passage or reserve it at their local library.

So, hop to it! Those dead bodies aren't going anywhere! Pick up Stiff, and find out just what makes your no-longer-ticking heart tick.

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And, of course, a beer pairing! My recommendation of a beer to go with Stiff is short, sweet and self-explanatory. The perfect thing to sip on while reading a book about dead guys is Rogue's Dead Guy Ale. Brewed in the style of a German Maibock, Dead Guy is a malty, sweet beer with just a bit of herbal hops to balance things out. Dead Guy is Rogue's flagship brew, and distributed in all 50 states (and 21 countries!) You can track down your best local beer store options using Beer Advocate's BeerFly directory.

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