Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Packing for Mars

Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

5 reviews

bookwyrmknits's review against another edition

informative lighthearted slow-paced

3.5

I've been curious about Mary Roach's work for a long time, so this one—with its title implying that I would learn what people at NASA (and other orgs) are doing to prepare for manned space travel to Mars—sounded like a great starting point for my interests. While I enjoyed the book, I also found myself greatly disappointed in the direction the content took. Yes, this is a book about our history of spaceflight and what we've learned. No, it is not a book about getting ready for Mars. There's a lot of information here, but there is significantly more about how astronauts use the bathroom and deal with vomit in zero g than it is about what we need to do to "pack for Mars". Yes, of course everything we've learned will come in handy... but the title had me looking for different content than I actually got. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if the title had made it more clear that this was more about the history of spaceflight instead of planning for the future.

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greatlibraryofalexandra's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

5.0

I find space horrifying in sense that is bone-deep and chilling, but I am never going to stop reading about the people who go there.

This book was a barrel full of fun and it was also f*cking gross. A riot and a popular research marvel. Though at time I liked the information and not quite how it was delivered tone-wise (I could have done with less of Mary Roach being cutesy and faux-ditzy), overall I had a blast (no pun intended) reading this.

Chapter transitions flowed naturally and maintained interest, and the work as a whole does a spectacular job of detailing the innovations that not only led to space exploration, but had to be unexpectedly undertaken just to make it possible. It does this in terms easily accessible for laypersons, and so many of the facts had me laughing out loud, squirming, even trying not to gag - the mind just boggles with everything it takes not only to go to space, but to dream about traveling there.

From food to the body to the brain, there's so much that goes into this - and it's undignified and majestic at the same time. Space is one of the things about this world that I find most viscerally terrifying; I stand in awe of the people who have (to use the old phrase, even though I hated the book) 'the right stuff' to boldly go where humans have yet to tread. They scare me and they delight me.

I wish there had been more to the chapter on on "Is Mars Worth it?', and aside from my annoyance with the narrative style at times, the overall vibe of this was so appealing that it gets 5 full stars.

And this is the best takeaway:

"One of the things I love about manned space exploration is that it forces people to unlace certain notions of what is and isn't acceptable. And possible. It's amazing what sometimes gets accomplished via an initially jarring but ultimately harmless shift in thinking." (p. 314 - pie page!).

Also - coming away from this knowing I'd read thousands of pages of Apollo mission transcripts. I'd read them until my eyes bleed.

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keeganrb's review against another edition

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informative fast-paced

3.0

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starlightsong's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

3.5

This book makes me sad. Why? Because I'm completely uninterested in the subject matter of anything else Mary Roach has ever written, but I really enjoy her writing style here. I love astronomy, but reading nonfiction intimidates me, partially because I'm afraid I'll just forget everything that I read, but also because I find a lot of what I've tried reading to be difficult to get through. With this book I don't have the latter problem... well, mostly! I'm easily grossed out, so sections on things like vomiting during a spacewalk, chimpanzee masturbation, body odor, and bowel movements were a bit more skimmed through than read. And honestly, there was a lot more discussion about poop or sex than I expected or wanted, which is mainly what's keeping me from truly loving this book. But the majority of it was an awesome look at all the planning and research that goes into getting people into space and keeping them up there, and what it takes to be an astronaut. I loved learning about things like the tests that potential astronauts have to undergo, the effects of isolation in space, the effects of gravity and weightlessness on the body, the animals that have been sent into space, the crash tests that were performed, and the challenges of getting a flag on the moon. On these sorts of things, I took as many notes as I could. I just wish more time was spent on more serious topics, especially since I was unfamiliar with Mary Roach before this and honestly got zero indication from the blurb that there would be so much space poop talk. That is, however, not a fault of her writing style, which as I've said, I enjoyed a lot more than I expected to! She blends serious scientific discussions with humor in a way that I find really approachable and fun to read.

3.5 stars.

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hayleymac's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

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