4/100: Death's Acre

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This one is a little different from the other books I've read so far. For one thing, Death's Acre by Dr. Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson is a non-fiction book. (I've already read one non-fiction, Let Me Be a Woman, but this is an entirely different kind of subject).

Death's Acre is part autobiography, part true-crime, and part scientific journalism. It chronicles the humble beginnings of the Body Farm, a research outdoor "facility" located in Tennessee. Dr. Bill Bass takes the reader through an account of his career, how he came to create the Body Farm, and how it has helped to further not only scientific discoveries, but also criminal investigations.

Just as a fun fact, one of my possible career paths before deciding on teaching was to become a forensic anthropologist. I admit, I was influenced more by TV shows like "Bones" than a good and honest interest in the human skeleton. Even though that is not my path anymore, I still possess a fascination with all things forensic-anthropology related. I was so intrigued by the Body Farm, in fact, that Death's Acre and another book by Dr. Bass was gifted to me one Christmas by my mother.

I'll be honest, this book was a little hard to swallow. I don't get queasy easy, so the descriptions of death, decomposition, and decay wasn't what bothered me. For one thing, the material covered is a little dense. I did find it interesting when the author went into detail regarding certain students and their chosen masters or doctorate research studies. I also think the author did a fair job of relaying this dense material in layman's terms; any large or medical words he used, he also spent time explaining. However, these places of the book tended to be a little drier, and thus hard to swallow. I think what kept me reading was the fact that while I may not understand it all, I still find it worthy of learning about, and I also enjoy getting to see the real world of forensic anthropology, not what is farmed (sorry for the pun) out to us by television and movies.

Non-fiction is not a genre I normally gravitate towards, but I am planning on adding a few titles to my TBR this year that fit into that group. This was one of the first ones, and I'm glad I read it. It helped me realize that non-fiction is not always boring and that the whole reason we read is to learn.

Stats:
Completed: January 12
Rating: Three stars
Pages: 280

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