Most Popular Books by Mary Roach

"America's funniest science writer" ( Washington Post) explores the irresistibly strange universe of life without gravity in this New York Times bestseller. The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity. From the Space Shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA's new space capsule, Mary Roach takes us on the surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.

A New York Times forensic science bestseller, "this quirky, funny read offers perspective and insight about life, death and the medical profession."* For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery, cadavers have helped make history in their quiet way. "Delightful—though never disrespectful" ( Time Out New York), science writer Mary Roach's Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die? "You can close this book with an appreciation of the miracle that the human body really is." —* Wall Street Journal "Acutely entertaining, morbidly fascinating." — Forbes "One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year. . . . Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting." — Entertainment Weekly With an Epilogue by the Author

The author looks to science to determine whether the human soul exists in death, and travels to various places around the world to discuss supernatural occurrences with spirit guides and mediums.

A New York Times / National Bestseller "America's funniest science writer" ( Washington Post) Mary Roach explores the science of keeping human beings intact, awake, sane, uninfected, and uninfested in the bizarre and extreme circumstances of war. Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries—panic, exhaustion, heat, noise—and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed movie studio where amputee actors help prepare Marine Corps medics for the shock and gore of combat wounds. At Camp Lemmonier, Djibouti, in east Africa, we learn how diarrhea can be a threat to national security. Roach samples caffeinated meat, sniffs an archival sample of a World War II stink bomb, and stays up all night with the crew tending the missiles on the nuclear submarine USS Tennessee. She answers questions not found in any other book on the military: Why is DARPA interested in ducks? How is a wedding gown like a bomb suit? Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Take a tour of duty with Roach, and you'll never see our nation's defenders in the same way again.

The bestselling author of "Stiff" turns her outrageous curiosity and infectious wit on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex. 16 illustrations.

A scientific adventure through our digestive tract, from the New York Times bestselling author of Stiff —"Her funniest and most sparkling book" (Janet Maslin, New York Times ). "Hilarious and exuberant.... With its wealth of you'll-never-believe-it facts and oddball experts, it's a charming conversation starter. (But maybe not at the dinner table.)"— People "America's funniest science writer" ( Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour of our insides. In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks—or has the courage—to ask. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find names for flavors and smells? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? "As engrossing as it is gross."— Entertainment Weekly "A delicious read and, dare I say it, a total gas."— Boston Globe "An absolute delight.... I can't even think of another modern writer, or anyone from a previous era, who has so thoroughly—and so engagingly—written about the way scientists go about their work."— Washington Post "Insatiably curious...wildly entertaining."— San Francisco Chronicle "[Roach] seems congenitally incapable of writing a boring sentence."— Salon

The body is the most complex machine in the world, but what happens when the parts start to fail? Meet the scientists facing the challenge… AN AMAZON AND TIME BOOK OF THE YEAR Our bodies regenerate at a remarkable rate – our skin replaces itself every month, our blood every four. You can remove ninety per cent of a liver and it’ll still grow back to its original size (please do not try this at home). Others – the brain, the heart, the eyes – are more complicated. These stay with us for life. So what do we do when they break down? For centuries, medicine has searched for answers – sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs and crafting eye parts from jet canopies. And as technology has grown ever more ingenious, so have our solutions. In Replaceable You, Mary Roach sets sail on the uncharted waters of regenerative medicine, exploring the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings: When and how does a person decide they’d be better off with a prosthetic than their existing limb? Is there a sensitive way to harvest tissue and bones from the deceased? Which animals might be the best organ donors? Through experiments and interviews with patients, physicians, pathologists, engineers and scientists, Roach immerses readers in the wondrous, improbable and surreal quest to build a new you. *** 'Full of engaging accounts of scientific advances in the field of the human body.' The Times 'Addictively readable... Don't miss it.' Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook 'This is a book that makes you feel clever while also making you laugh.' Daily Mirror

What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness, persist? This work seeks answers from a varied crew of modern and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove or disprove that life goes on after we die.

“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) asks the questions children ask in this young readers adaptation of her best-selling Packing for Mars. What is it like to float weightlessly in the air? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a spacewalk? How do astronauts go to the bathroom? Is it true that they don’t shower? Can farts really be deadly in space? Best-selling Mary Roach has the answers. In this whip-smart, funny, and informative young readers adaptation of her best-selling Packing for Mars, Roach guides us through the irresistibly strange, frequently gross, and awe-inspiring realm of space travel and life without gravity. From flying on NASA’s Weightless Wonder to eating space food, Packing for Mars for Kids is chock-full of firs-hand experiences and thorough research. Roach has crafted an authoritative and accessible book that is perfectly pitched to inquiring middle grade readers.

From acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach comes the complete collection of her “My Planet” articles published in Reader’s Digest. She was a hit columnist in the magazine, and this book features the articles she wrote in that time. Insightful and hilarious, Mary explores the ins and outs of the modern world: marriage, friends, family, food, technology, customer service, dental floss, and ants—she leaves no element of the American experience unchecked for its inherent paradoxes, pleasures, and foibles. On Cleanliness: Ed has crud vision, and I don’t. I don’t notice filth. Ed sees it everywhere. I am reasonably convinced that Ed can actually see bacteria. . . . He confessed he didn’t like me using his bathrobe because I’d wear it while sitting on the toilet. “It’s not like it goes in the water,” I protested, though if you counted the sash as part of the robe, this wasn’t strictly true. On the Internet: The Internet is a boon for hypochondriacs like me. Right now, for instance, I’m feeling a shooting pain on the side of my neck. A Web search produces five matches, the first three for a condition called Arnold-Chiari Malformation. While my husband, Ed, reads over my shoulder, I recite symptoms from the list. “‘General clumsiness’ and ‘general imbalance,’” I say, as though announcing arrivals at the Marine Corps Ball. “‘Difficulty driving,’ ‘lack of taste,’ ‘difficulty feeling feet on ground.’” “Those aren’t symptoms,” says Ed. “Those are your character flaws.” On Fashion: My husband recently made me try on a bikini. A bikini is not so much a garment as a cloth-based reminder that your parts have been migrating all these years. My waist, I realized that day in the dressing room, has completely disappeared beneath my rib cage, which now rests directly on my hips. I’m exhibiting continental drift in reverse. On Eating Healthy: So Ed and I were eating a lot of vegetables. Vegetables on pasta, vegetables on rice. This was extremely healthy, until you got to the part where Ed and I are found in the kitchen at 10 p.m., feeding on Froot Loops and tubes of cookie dough.

An Instant New York Times Bestseller #1 Los Angeles Times Bestseller #1 Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 Longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Join "America's funniest science writer" (Peter Carlson, Washington Post), Mary Roach, on an irresistible investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet. What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology. Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and "danger tree" faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter's Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque. Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature's lawbreakers. When it comes to "problem" wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem—and the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.

In her addictive, bold voice, bestselling author Mary Roach delves into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet.

¿Qué hay que hacer con un alce que cruza la calle imprudentemente? ¿Un oso sorprendido allanando una morada? ¿Un árbol asesino? Hace trescientos años, a los animales que infringían la ley se les asignaba un abogado y se les juzgaba. Hoy en día, como descubre Mary Roach, las respuestas no se encuentran en la jurisprudencia, sino en la ciencia: la curiosa ciencia de los conflictos entre el hombre y la vida salvaje, una disciplina en la encrucijada del comportamiento humano y la biología de la vida salvaje