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Review | Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Genre: nonfiction, science writing Setting: the US, Russia, space, etc. # of Pages: 334 Rating: 5/5

The skinny: An exploration of the science of human life in space.

The fat: This is a great read regardless of how much you care about space. Roach’s exacting research, efficient prose, and effortless sense of humor make Packing for Mars a surprisingly easy read. The wealth of scientific detail is communicated in such a way that you don’t need a degree in astrobiology to understand it, but the real selling point of this book is how it humanizes the tremendous task of manned spaceflight. While there’s plenty here to impress, there are also entire chapters devoted to the intimate–and often embarrassing–challenges of life outside Earth’s atmosphere, including sex, shit, and body odor. Gross as that sounds, Roach’s unflappable sense of humor makes even the most disgusting details delightful. At the same time, she doesn’t shy away from the big questions, like why we should spend billions of dollars sending men to Mars when so much economic inequality already exists on Earth. A thoroughly fun and thought-provoking book. 

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