Packing for Mars

I went to see Mary Roach in person at an event held in the town where I live, and the interview was nothing short of hilarious. Roach’s curiosity and zest for life are infectious, and her storytelling style made me feel like I was the one (or, often, wishing I was the one) in the wacky situations she seems to find herself.

For me, her book is no different; it covers a lot of the wild, captivating stories involved with space travel. It is just such a fun book about a fun topic.

For starters, I recommend everything Mary Roach has ever written. Ever since I read Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers in college, I’ve made sure to grab Roach’s new books the week they’re released. Her self-deprecating sense of humor always cracks me up, and she does such an amazing job of capturing both the science and the culture of the fields she studies. 

This book is filled with incredible and fun stories you’ve likely never heard before. Why does the Japanese astronaut selection process include making 1,000 origami cranes? Why were the “walls spattered with blood” in a 1999… show more.

Because I always learn something from Mary Roach’s books, and because they are relentlessly funny. 

This time out, with her usual investigative vigor, Mary delves into the Space Program and gives us a detailed look at what happens before, during, and after a space mission. We learn about training, experimentation, the rigors, and dangers of space travel, and the astronauts themselves, who, it turns out, aren’t always the stern-looking, no-nonsense types we’ve come to imagine. Apparently a sense of humor, even of the bizarre, is an uncited requirement for becoming an astronaut. You will learn things in this book that… show more.