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Summary: Mummy Acquaintences
Review: I purchased this book because I am acquainted with some of the mummies mentioned, and their biographer, although I am not an expert in the field. Ms. Pringle's book helped me to enhance my understanding of the world-wide and historical context of mummies. The manner in which she discussed the mummy researcher as well as his/her subjects made this book an interesting and lively read. It was scientific detail and human interest all in one story, tied with the thread of the Mummy Congress, a little-known and fascinating gathering. Good job, Ms. Pringle!
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Summary: Wonderful, accessible book for the "average" person
Review: My husband picked up this book and then decided not to read it and instead moved onto another, but I decided to give it a try. Boy, am I glad I did. It's wonderfully written, and extremely accessible to those of us who know very little about mummification, mummies, and their history - my knowledge was the basic "King Tut" and "Inca Girl" sort, yet reading this book I never felt lost in scientific terms, historical stories, or complex explanations and theories from authorities on the various subjects. Pringle covers wide territory, ranging from the preservation of saints to the bog people; the classic Egyptian mummies to the frozen Incan children. Her writing is interesting and exciting, and her personal perspective is never intrusive or unwarranted. I would highly recommend this even to someone not particularly interested in this area of study - anyone could gain knowledge and be fascinated by this excellent book.
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Summary: Excellent writing, but not quite a spiritual experience.
Review: Pringle displays ample skill as a non-fiction writer: careful word choice, an eye for metaphor and a keen facility for description. She straddles the gap between what she calls " the everlasting dead" and the living (if marginally so, in some cases) who love them, and gives shape to our obsession with styxian realms. The reader experiences vivid cross-sections of what must be an enormous world, the world of mummies: from Lenin's waxy vestiges in his mausoleum to ancient Danes exhumed by nature from their boggy preservation to the brittle clay remains of Peruvian children. Pringle provides wonderful texture to a fascinating and bizarre (nether)world. One wonders why a comprehensive treatment of the subject for lay people has heretofore not been attempted.Yet, for all the excellent writing and compelling subject matter, Pringle's work lacks falls just short of the last yard: a unifying spiritual theme, a thread of allegory to tie it all together and leave a more permanent impression. One gets the sense that she is curious about mummies and their students, but not consumed by them, not possessed by them. She does not love them, and so cannot make them and her work a transcendent experience, as it so rightly should be. And she comes so close. Still, this book is a very welcome addition to my scientific non-fiction shelf, and one I will return to again and again.
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Summary: Mummy Congresses are more fun thanks to Heather!
Review: The clever and winsome Heather Pringle has succeded in writing a simply wonderful account of the quaint practice of preserving people after their death. Some mummies are probably preserved more by accident rather than intention while others are the subjects of elaborate embalming (cf Nature 413:837-841, 2001). She has included all manner of ancient remains and although her knowledge of paleo-PCR and RNA signatures from reverse transcription is somewhat ephemeral she has done both her footwork and her homework very well. One bizarre practice, that of preserving "wet" modern day mummies in liquid nitrogen in the uninformed belief that they can somehow be resurrected at sometime in the future demonstrates the continued gullibility of the ignorant.
Another emerging technology not mentioned is in preserving bone marrow stem cells or other somatic cells in the frozen state for eventual cloning by nuclear transfer. Cells from at least one former president rest in a freezer somewhere (but without the intention of eventual cloning).
Be that as it may, Pringle's book is a wellspring of information on the philosophy and practice of preserving the human body.
Rating:
Summary: amusing, informative & weird!
Review: The Mummy Congress is as dramatic as it sounds. The cover photo is arresting & you have got to wonder what these "leading mummy experts" are like? What are their passions? How much intrigue can you squeeze from a perfectly preserved 2000 year old body? Ah, let Heather Pringle tell you! This is one weird read! Well written, amusing & informative about a world within a world filled with intrigue, humor & thoughts about the preservation of this bag of bones in which we walk our lives & the records, myths & stories of why we do it. Funnily enough, after traipsing all around the world on the heels of the mummy archaeologists, soaking up their stories & their passions, Heather Pringle learned that when they were asked if they would choose to be mummified, most said no, with quaint sincerity, because they wouldn't want to be stared at in museums or examined by curious scientists. Fascinating! Changed my mind about eternity, anorexia, grief & where the soul might really dwell!
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Summary: Gruesomely fascinating
Review: The Mummy is a history of the practice of mummification. We tend to think of this as a purely Egyptian phenomenon, but that isn't the case at all. Other civilisations have sought to cheat death in the same way. Even in the modern era we find the preserved bodies of Lenin and Mao and other lesser political corpses still leering over the people they once ruled. The centuries have also presented us with an enormous numbers of cases of bodies being preserved by purely natural means - the most obvious example being the frozen corpse of a neolithic hunter found recently in the Alps and also the many preserved bodies dug up from peat bogs and the like. Heather Pringle examines these and many other cases with enormous humour and gusto and, it must be admitted, just a little bit of grue. I found it absolutely riveting.
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Summary: Good introduction to the topic
Review: The writer brings a journalistic approach to the topic of mummies and the sub-title of the book clearly defines the multiple angles she chose to follow. She covers a great deal of territory, both geographically (all the continents except Antarctica) historically, psychologically and morally. In a sense this is almost an "Encyclopedia of the Mummy" because it covers so many aspects of mummy hunting, dissecting and preserving. Most mummy hunters seem obsessed by their quest. They may be after mummies for scientific, historic, theatric or religious reasons, but hunt them they must. This raises moral issues; after all these were once human beings that we are putting on display, slicing for DNA or just carting off to some museums storage room. Can we justify it if we, say, understand some disease better after the research? Or is it just voyeurism for us all to know what the Iceman ate for his last meal? The writer introduces us to individual mummy hunters, strong characters all, and the unusual places they work. Her writing is clear and vivid, if a trifle long. She is at her best describing the moral and psychological issues surrounding our fascination with mummies and the way they relate to our own mortality anf hopes for immmortality.
Rating:
Summary: Good introductory book
Review: The writer brings a journalistic approach to the topic of mummies and the sub-title of the book clearly defines the multiple angles she chose to follow. She covers a great deal of territory, both geographically (all the continents except Antarctica) historically, psychologically and morally. In a sense this is almost an "Encyclopedia of the Mummy" because it covers so many aspects of mummy hunting, dissecting and preserving. Most mummy hunters seem obsessed by their quest. They may be after mummies for scientific, historic, theatric or religious reasons, but hunt them they must. This raises moral issues; after all these were once human beings that we are putting on display, slicing for DNA or just carting off to some museums storage room. Can we justify it if we, say, understand some disease better after the research? Or is it just voyeurism for us all to know what the Iceman ate for his last meal? The writer introduces us to individual mummy hunters, strong characters all, and the unusual places they work. Her writing is clear and vivid, if a trifle long. She is at her best describing the moral and psychological issues surrounding our fascination with mummies and the way they relate to our own mortality anf hopes for immmortality.
Rating: 
Summary: good for beginners
Review: This book is an interesting, chatty, survey of mummies worldwide for people who don't already know a good deal about it. I don't know much about mummification technique, and would like to know more, as well as more about the biotech techniques currently being used to study mummies. This book gave me a bit of new info, but it is general in nature and does not cover any subject in much depth. Thus, interspersed with paragraphs about discoveries are discussions of the morality of examining mummies, colorful bios of people in the mummy business, detours into mummy collectors and Resurrection men, etc. If that kind of pleasant, meandering survey is what you are looking for, for a weekend's entertainment, this book is very good. If you want more real mummy detail, you will become impatient reading through all of the other stuff (I did).
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Summary: Can't put it down!!!
Review: This is a terrific book with lots of information and suspense. I am always wondering what is going to be revealed next. I enjoyed the discussion/debate of the social issues the members of the mummy congress face. HP is very frank about how she feels on these issues, but she does a good job of remaining objective. She also has a highly readable style which makes the book very enjoyable.
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