Inverarity is not a Scottish village

Everything you've ever wanted to know about decayed corpses, decapitation, dissection, and death.

For 2,000 years, cadavers -- some willingly, some unwittingly -- have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.

( Bring out your dead! )

Verdict: Not the most serious look at death and dying by a long shot, but very entertaining and informative, with perhaps more emphasis on the former than the latter. If you don't like smart-ass authors, irreverent attitudes regarding dead bodies, or general grossness, you might want to give this one a pass, but I liked it, even if I could have gone the rest of my life without hearing about garlic-fried placenta recipes.

Also by Mary Roach: My review of Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.

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My complete list of book reviews.

One-line summary: Everything you ever wanted to know about vomiting, sweating, pooping, wanking, and dying in space.



W.V. Norton & Company, 2010, 336 pages

The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity.

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.

( If you want to persuade little boys and little girls that maybe they DON'T want to grow up to be astronauts, have them read this book. )

Verdict: Packing for Mars is an irreverent book about a serious subject. Space travel involves challenges, discomforts, and dangers you've never thought about but astronauts and engineers have to when sending people into a place human beings weren't meant to go. It may not make you want to be an astronaut, but it will give you a serious appreciation for just how daunting a mission to Mars or beyond will be.