Packing for Mars

With wry humor and an often repellent degree of detail, New York Times best-selling author Roach (www.maryroach.net)—whose previous title, Bonk (2008), is also read by Sandra Burr and available from Brilliance Audio—here discusses the physical challenges astronauts face during space flight, i.e., the zero-gravity realities of disposing of bodily waste, bathing, eating, having sex, and getting sick, along with all of their malodorous consequences. She also tracks NASA engineers' attempts to find solutions to these dilemmas in order to improve astronauts' physical and psychological experiences. Burr narrates in a matter-of-fact tone that well matches Roach's scientific approach. Recommended for adult audiences interested in the curiosities of space flight; not for the queasy. [The New York Times best-selling Norton hc received a starred review, LJ 7/10.—Ed.]—Ilka Gordon, Siegal Coll. of Judaic Studies Lib., Cleveland