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The Chick and the Dead
The Chick and the Dead: Life and Death Behind Mortuary Doors | Carla Valentine
3 posts | 5 read | 11 to read
Carla Valentine works with the dead. After studying forensics, she assisted pathologists with post-mortems for years before becoming the curator of the worlds most famous pathology museum. When it comes to death, she truly is an expert, and in this book she shares that expertise. Using the most common post-mortem process as the backbone of the narrative, The Chick and the Dead takes the reader through the process of an autopsy while also describing the history and changing cultures of our relationship with the dead. The book is full of vivid insight into what happens to our bodies in the end. Each chapter considers an aspect of an autopsy alongside an aspect of Carlas own life and work and touches on some of the more controversial aspects of our feelings towards death, including the relationship between sex and death and our attitudes toward human tissue collection. Starting with the first cut, we move from external examination into the body itself, discovering more about the heart, stomach and brain, and into dismembered and reconstructed bodies, at each stage taking a colorful detour into the question of what these things can teach us about the living. Join Carla on the journey from microscope-requesting nine-year-old to pathology educator and death engager at a Victorian museum (a journey made via around 5,000 autopsies) as she tells the story of exactly what its like to live a life immersed in death.
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Soubhiville
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Yes I did read this for my bookclub that reads all nonfiction about death. Yes we do meet virtually if that sounds like a thing you‘d enjoy too!

I enjoyed this quite a bit, though the author goes all in with the smells, viscera, and gore. Maybe don‘t read while eating if that would bother you. I‘m glad there are quite a few books by women in this mostly male dominated profession, and I thought this author balanced work with life tales well.

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**Feedback** this book was a nice light read, but set in the UK so process, procedure & titles are very different than in US. The stories/experience was nice to read, but not very comparable to that of a US death care worker.

Early morning read at work during downtime 🤷🏻‍♀️

#mortuarystudent

JenniferEgnor Oooooooh this sounds good. I love stuff like this! Really enjoyed Caitlin Doughty‘s books. 3y
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K.Wielechowski
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Valentine spent 8 years working in various mortuaries in the UK before moving on to curate the medical museum at St Bart‘s. It was really interesting reading about how differently things are done in the UK vs the US. She didn‘t hold back when telling about some of the more unsettling things she‘s experienced and used humor to bring it all together.