Amazon Best Books of the Month, August 2010: With her wry humor and inextinguishable
curiosity, Mary Roach has crafted her own quirky niche in the somewhat staid world
of science writing, showing no fear (or shame) in the face of cadavers, ectoplasm, or
sex. In Packing for Mars, Roach tackles the strange science of space travel, and the
psychology, technology, and politics that go into sending a crew into orbit. Roach is
unfailingly inquisitive (Why is it impolite for astronauts to float upside down during
conversations? Just how smelly does a spacecraft get after a two week mission?), and
she eagerly seeks out the stories that don't make it onto NASA's website--from SPCA-
certified space suits for chimps, to the trial-and-error approach to crafting menus
during the space program's early years (when the chefs are former livestock
veterinarians, taste isn't high on the priority list). Packing for Mars is a book for
grownups who still secretly dream of being astronauts, and Roach lives it up on their
behalf--weightless in a C-9 aircraft, she just can't resist the opportunity to go
"Supermanning" around the cabin. Her zeal for discovery, combined with her love of
the absurd, amazing, and stranger-than-fiction, make Packing for Mars an uproarious
trip into the world of space travel. --Lynette Mong

About the Author
Mary Roach is the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Spook:
Science Tackles the Afterlife, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, and
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. She lives in Oakland,
California.

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