Today's Featured Book:
Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy
by Mary Roach
Genre: Nonfiction
Published: September 16, 2025
Page Count: 288 pages
Summary:
In Replaceable You, Mary Roach explores 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? Can a donated heart be made to beat forever?
Roach dives in with her characteristic verve and infectious wit. Her travels take her to the OR at a legendary burn unit in Boston, a “superclean” xeno-pigsty in China, and a stem cell “hair nursery” in the San Diego tech hub. She talks with researchers and surgeons, amputees and ostomates, printers of kidneys and designers of wearable organs. She spends time in a working iron lung from the 1950s, stays up all night with recovery techs as they disassemble and reassemble a tissue donor, and travels across Mongolia with the cataract surgeons of Orbis International.
Tycho Brahe's nose came off in 1566...An argument at a gathering at a professor's house...led to a late-night duel of honor....A rapier swipe removed the better part of Brahe's nose, leaving the nasal cavity open to view. For the rest of his life, Brahe used a metal nosepiece, likely brass, painted to patch his complexion and glued in place. Though not very well.
THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Anne of Head Full of Books. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky.
A healthy disconnected heart will often keep beating on its own for ten or more minutes.
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My thoughts:
Mary Roach knows what is fascinating to her, and she's pretty sure what she finds fascinating will be fascinating to us. In Replaceable You, her eighth book of nonfiction, Roach looks at ways humans have replaced, or tried to replace, body parts in the past, and at ways humans are replacing, or attempting to replace, body parts now.
If you are curious to know more, I will let you that Roach takes a deep dive into replacement of the nose, skin, heart, reproductive parts, legs, breathing apparatus, colon, and hair. She also looks at redistribution of fat and printing out human body parts.
Other Mary Roach books I've read and reviewed:
Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (2016)
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law (2021)
Other Mary Roach books that I have not yet read and reviewed:
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
Spook: Life Tackles the Afterlife
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.
September 26th - October 2nd - Do you ever get strange looks from strangers while browsing the book aisle in department stores? What do you think is going through their minds? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)
I have never gotten strange looks from strangers while browsing the book aisle in department stores. One would hope that the joy I find in browsing the book aisle would be both apparent and contagious. One would hope.
Adding this to my reading list. I am a Mary Roach fan fo sure! I also need to read her Fuzz book.
ReplyDeleteNice! I don't think I get any odd looks either. I mean, if someone else is in the book aisle they clearly like to read to some degree too!
ReplyDeleteHere's my BBH
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower :)
The body-parts book description gives me the creeps! I don’t think I could read it.
ReplyDeleteIntriguing book.
ReplyDeleteThere's hardly ever anyone looking at the books nowadays. Or at least that's my experience while shopping. Though, it's usually a full crowd at the Half-Price Books store.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely like this book. After reading The Story of a Heart, which I found fasinating, this would be right up my alley.
ReplyDeleteI do not get looks from people when looking at the book aisle. Usually I am all alone there if it's a store like Target or WalMart.
This sounds really interesting.
ReplyDeleteNope, I'll give that one a pass!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like an interesting stuff. Medical stuff like that is fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI have never noticed funny looks.
Have a great weekend!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/book-blogger-hop-browsing-the-book-aisle/
Yes, I think I have gotten some strange looks or maybe. I tend to 'tidy' the shelves - I know, not my job, but once a library shelver, always a library shelver. I also have 'suggested' books for people who seem to be considering certain books and if I've read them and liked - well, there you go. LOL
ReplyDeleteI can't say I've ever gotten any strange looks when I've been buying books.
ReplyDelete