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Genre/Form: | Popular Work Nonfiction Popular works |
---|---|
Material Type: | Internet resource |
Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
All Authors / Contributors: |
Mary Roach |
ISBN: | 9780393068474 0393068471 9781611293753 1611293758 9780393339918 0393339912 |
OCLC Number: | 449865377 |
Description: | 334 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm |
Contents: | He's smart but his birds are sloppy: Japan picks an astronaut -- Life in a box: The perilous psychology of isolation and confinement -- Star crazy: Can space blow your mind? -- You go first: The alarming prospect of life without gravity -- Unstowed: Escaping gravity on board NASA's C-9 -- Throwing up and down: The astronaut's secret misery -- The cadaver in the space capsule: NASA visits the crash test lab -- One furry step for mankind: The strange careers of Ham and Enos -- Next gas: 200,000 miles: Planning a moon expedition is tough, but not as tough as planning a simulated one -- Houston, we have a fungus: Space hygiene and the men who stopped bathing for science -- The horizontal stuff: What if you never got out of bed? -- The three-dolphin club: Mating without gravity -- Withering heights: Bailing out from space -- Separation anxiety: The continuing saga of zero-gravity elimination -- Discomfort food: When veterinarians make dinner, and other tales of woe from aerospace test kitchens -- Eating your pants: Is Mars worth it? |
Responsibility: | Mary Roach. |
More information: |
Abstract:
Reviews
Publisher Synopsis
"[Her] style is at its most substantial-and most hilarious-in the zero-gravity realm that Packing for Mars explores.... As startling as it is funny." -- Janet Maslin - The New York Times "This is the kind of smart, smirky stuff that Roach does so well." -- Geoff Nicholson - San Francisco Chronicle "Cool answers to questions about the void you didn't even know you had." -- People "An utterly fascinating account, made all the more entertaining by the author's ever-amused tone." -- BookPage "An impish and adventurous writer with a gleefully inquisitive mind and stand-up comic's timing." -- Booklist "The author's writing comes across as reportorial, but with a clear sense of humor; even the footnotes are used to both informational and comedic effect." -- Time Out New York "Hilarious." -- The New York Times Book Review "A delightful, illuminating grab bag of space-flight curiosities." -- Kirkus Reviews Read more...
WorldCat User Reviews (1)
Love her humorous way of writing about history!
Mary Roach's writing style makes me laugh out loud. She is one of the main reasons I began branching out into reading nonfiction. Her research is incredibly thorough. I don't think I'd go to the lengths she does to get her facts straight. I'd happily, joyfully experience weightlessness in...
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Mary Roach's writing style makes me laugh out loud. She is one of the main reasons I began branching out into reading nonfiction. Her research is incredibly thorough. I don't think I'd go to the lengths she does to get her facts straight. I'd happily, joyfully experience weightlessness in the C-9 airplane that flies parabolas! But I seriously doubt I'd try treating & drinking my own urine. I'm with her husband on that one--UGH.
What I especially love about this book is that she focuses not on the history of the development of the technology (rockets & bolts and such) of space flight but rather on the human aspects of it--eating, sleeping, vomiting, interpersonal conflicts & psychology, sex, gravity & G-forces, hygiene, "waste elimination," etc. All the stuff you were curious to know but which rarely, if ever, gets explained. So fascinating! My one regret, however, is that I read this book almost entirely during my lunch breaks...which not only slowed me down but also sometimes made it difficult to eat. Particularly true of the vomit and poop chapters. :( My husband was not so foolish, thankfully, and read it on evenings, weekends, and our mini-vacation.
For readers' advisors: character doorway because Roach's personality infuses her books like she's cracking jokes and telling stories just for YOU. Story doorway is a distant second because it is fascinating, albeit non-linear, history she's telling.
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- nonfiction that reads like fiction (by 2 people)
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- duc--humor (by 1 person)
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- humans in space (by 1 person)
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- 1 items are tagged withas seen on the daily show with jon stewart
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