Leni Zumas's writing crackles. Her books are sharp, bleak, funny, and possibly dangerous. When her collection of short stories, Farewell Navigator,...
Continue »
Mary Roach has become my favorite non-fiction science writer. She manages the incredibly neat feat of conveying a distinct personality through her writing, which is mildly mischievous, daring, brazen, and slightly juvenile. She asks questions about topics that I'm genuinely curious about but would be mortified to ask myself. Stuff relating to bodily functions, etc.
"Packing for Mars" is all about the human engineering issues involved in sending people on a long-term mission to Mars. How do you feed them? How do you bathe them in zero-gravity, where water doesn't spray out of a shower? Apparently the original astronauts became rather . . . rank. We actually studied how smelly people become when they can't wash themselves, and how clothes start to disintegrate under such conditions(!).
I've also read Roach's "Stiffed" (about cadavers) and her writing style carries over, regardless of the topic.
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
Tung Yin has commented on (1) product.
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
Tung Yin, July 21, 2011
Mary Roach has become my favorite non-fiction science writer. She manages the incredibly neat feat of conveying a distinct personality through her writing, which is mildly mischievous, daring, brazen, and slightly juvenile. She asks questions about topics that I'm genuinely curious about but would be mortified to ask myself. Stuff relating to bodily functions, etc."Packing for Mars" is all about the human engineering issues involved in sending people on a long-term mission to Mars. How do you feed them? How do you bathe them in zero-gravity, where water doesn't spray out of a shower? Apparently the original astronauts became rather . . . rank. We actually studied how smelly people become when they can't wash themselves, and how clothes start to disintegrate under such conditions(!).
I've also read Roach's "Stiffed" (about cadavers) and her writing style carries over, regardless of the topic.