Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void is a nonfiction work by science author Mary Roach. Published in August 2010, Packing for Mars was recognized in "Amazon's Best Books" of that month, it quickly became a #6 New York Times bestseller, and it was chosen as the book of the year for the 7th annual One City One Book: San Francisco Reads literary event program.In Packing for Mars, Roach searches for answers to questions about the gross, the bizarre, and the uncomfortable aspects of space travel. The book's sixteen chapters cover the entire comedic spectrum of all things space-related and also include some study of the scientific side of space travel. The chapters discussing the various bodily functions of astronauts in space (going to the bathroom, having sex, vomiting) and obscure testing procedures (animals in space, lying in beds for months, parabolic zero-g) are balanced by …
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void is a nonfiction work by science author Mary Roach. Published in August 2010, Packing for Mars was recognized in "Amazon's Best Books" of that month, it quickly became a #6 New York Times bestseller, and it was chosen as the book of the year for the 7th annual One City One Book: San Francisco Reads literary event program.In Packing for Mars, Roach searches for answers to questions about the gross, the bizarre, and the uncomfortable aspects of space travel. The book's sixteen chapters cover the entire comedic spectrum of all things space-related and also include some study of the scientific side of space travel. The chapters discussing the various bodily functions of astronauts in space (going to the bathroom, having sex, vomiting) and obscure testing procedures (animals in space, lying in beds for months, parabolic zero-g) are balanced by the informative sections on topics such as the psychological effects of being in space, astronaut training, and the increasing use of human cadavers over crash test dummies in research.
This was recommended by Terence Eden because the "folksy" writing style may help stop me struggling to read non fiction…
thomasrigby.com/posts/book-review-packing-for-mars-mary-roach/
Mary Roach hits the sweet spot of being informative and entertaining; I really love her sense of humour. It's written with a light touch that often brings through the personalities of the astronauts. As a librarian who gives classes on digital literacy, I especially enjoyed the shredding of the Enos the chimp anecdote - check the sources, people. Not sure I can use it in class though.
