Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Replaceable You is a nonfiction pop-science exploration into the science and culture of body part replacement. From iron lungs to butt implants, Mary Roach lifts the curtain on the most mundane and most scientifically advanced replacement parts medicine has to offer.

Roach approaches the topic or new (or new-to-you) body parts with her signature candor and curiosity. She interjects a layman’s level of grounding to the topics she explores while still being careful to explain the science and research accurately. This is Roach in classic form. If you’ve ever picked up one of her titles before, you’ll find yourself pleasantly fulfilled. The tone is familiar, but she chooses topics that are snappy, interesting, and easily conveyed. In the grand scheme of her works it isn’t my favorite, (the honor, or course, goes to Stiff), but it’s a very good option.

My favorite chapter of this book concerns the one where she witnesses an organ donation in progress. Her account was humanizing across the board; a company concerned with accuracy and dignity, the donor, the slightly concerned family, and the technicians who are both respectful and light through the process. Organ donation can be mired in controversy, and often, as the author states, only gets press for horror stories. It was refreshing to hear about a mundane occasion in which things go right.

One of my favorite things that Roach does in her structuring of the book is find ways to build connections from one topic to another. Rather than chapters standing alone, each a miniature story, they are often linked by through ideas or they build upon each other. I was particularly pleased by the way the chapter about colons being repurposed into neophalluses flower into the trip to see the finger-penis. What a delightful way to show how these medical advances (or experiments) seem to spiral out from one another into new areas of study.

I would say that what I didn’t always find to be on par with the rest of the book is that at times there’s an off putting air from the author. While this is less evident in chapters where she interacts with physicians and researchers, there’s a slightly paternalistic or at least ignorant element to some of her questions or observations when confronted with device users. While she’s never overt and may just be admitting misconceptions through honest recollection, at times it feels uncomfortable to read her bumble through interactions with amputees and bereaved caregivers.

If you like pop science books and are interested in beginning to explore the science of medical devices and implants, this is a great primer on the topic. Like wakes, for Mary Roach fans, you’ll also find her writing to be in fine form. 4.25/5!

Mary Roach strikes it out of the park again with another humorous but well-researched book about a topic most of us wouldn't immediately find interesting! As always, I found her writing both massively entertaining and also incredibly informative. The quest to prop up the house of cards that is the human body is not one I would have immediately wanted to read about, but I find myself endlessly fascinated after reading this!

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest opinion.

Mary Roach always makes boring things interesting! This was no exception.

Another excellently relevant and well researched book from Mary Roach -- this time focusing on the truly astonishing medical technology that has been and is being developed to keep us weak humans going with replaceable parts. A little gruesome at times (we don't always need to know how the sausage is made), the book is full of Roach's trademark humor, curiousity, and info about the people doing the work as well the work itself. This is an area that I already know a bit about so it was less surprising to me, but still a great book.

I adore Mary Roach--I will learn whatever she's trying to teach us. This time, it's how doctors and scientists use artificial body parts to replace when their original counterparts malfunction or are irreparably injured. Yes, this is technically a medicine/science book, but, as with all of Roach's work, you could shelve it in the humor section as well. I learned, among other things, that the doctor she was looking to contact in one chapter was the man she lost her virginity to in college and that Mitch McConnell's facial structure may make it harder for him to be intubated.

If you want to learn a new subject but don't want to pick up a dense, textbook-like tome, Mary Roach's books may be for you.

There is something delightful about settling in to a Mary Roach primer - you feel a bit stupid about everything you don't know but her nonjudgmental writing will have you feeling like an expert by the end and ready to share tidbits with anyone who will listen. Her natural curiosity, easy going writing style (similar to Bill Bryson) and lighthearted banter is infectious. The human body and science can get a bit heavy but with injections of laughter at some of the more absurd concepts and history make the medicine go down easier. Everything you ever wanted to know (or didn't have a clue it even existed) about the human body and failing parts that need replacement can be found here. From the history of dentures, prosthetic noses to the fascinating advancement in cell regeneration and new materials - it is one interesting ride. This is the perfect book to put into the hands of readers who typically do not enjoy non-fiction. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

Replaceable You is an energetic, deeply-researched examination of efforts to rebuild, replace and enhance the human body. Best-selling author Mary Roach presents quirky facts and unexpected stories in a way that combines razor-sharp inquiry with disarming humor. This blend of empathy and wit never reduces human subjects to mere clinical curiosities. Equally important, except for a few “fun facts “ and asides, Roach largely leaves readers to draw their own conclusions about this messy, emergent and increasingly complicated field of inquiry.

My only major criticism of the book is that I wish the author had looked more closely at the cost/access barriers to the technologies discussed. This would have added socioeconomic depth to the discussion.. In the same vein, I would like to have known more about research funding and where it comes from. Finally, I did not feel that the ethics of animal experimentation was expressly addressed.

Since I am not able to award half stars I am rounding up to 5.

Thank you to W.W. Norton and to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my review.

Mary Roach has the most uniquely curious mind I have ever come across. There is no lengths she is unwilling to go to learn about the subject the has captured her attention. In doing so she takes us on a journey into the cutting edge world of medical innovation.

So much ground was covered here. The book began with how early dentures were made. Roach then moved on to burn victims and potential types of skin transplants for them. One example was a transplant from frog skins while another was a biobandaide from farmed fish waste.

As she looked at our lungs she had to try sleeping in an iron lung machine because, why not? The ECMO machine was the most fascinating thing to me. It allows blood to be oxygenated outside of the body, as opposed to using your lungs. In addition there were Pluripotent cells, hypo immune cells, gene editing, 3D bioprinters, sphincter replacements and a fun chapter on harvesting body parts.

Roach has a dark wit that that was hard to resist. Liposuction reminded Mary Roach of a raspberry smoothie and made her hungry. In another procedure she compared a body part to tamales. Using self deprecating humor she described her ideal Spotify playlist for organ retrieval with “Spirits in the Sky” and “Only the Good Die Young” hitting her top spots.

I was thoroughly intrigued and excited by the science while captivated by the author herself. This sophisticated, state of the art science was described in layman’s terms. An enjoyable read and one I highly recommend. 5 stars.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this fantastic book. These opinions are my own.

This book is not for the squeemish or the faint of heart, but if you don't mind a bit of gore then you'll surely love this fascinating book. Mary Roach dives into the world of prosthetics and leaves no stone unturned, beginning with the nose. Yes, that's right, the prosthetic nose. This is a great book for anyone searching for interesting conversation pieces or, honestly, interesting conversation stoppers as well (no judgement on whether you use all of this information for good or evil here!!).
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I always learn from Mary Roach's books, and this was no different in that respect. Her writing can be a little hit or miss on some topics, but overall, very well done and interesting. We will be purchasing for the branch!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advance Review Copy (ARC) of Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach. This was the second book I have read by this author, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Roach's writing style combines interesting facts with humor and I learned a lot from this book- although some info I'm debating if I really wanted to know. If you have surgery coming up, you may choose to skip the section on the risks of anesthesia. In several parts of the book, Roach becomes part of the story by experiencing some medical procedures and/or equipment. I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy non-fiction mixed with some humor. This review is also posted on Goodreads.

Mary Roach gets an auto-add to my TBR with every publication, and she never disappoints me. This time she tackles a subject that revisits some parts of her previous books and adds to them. How replaceable is the human body? She wrote Stiff, about human cadavers, in 2003; Bonk, about sex, in 2008 and Gulp, about the digestive system, in 2013. In medical terms, even 12 years ago was the Bronze Age. There have been so many advancements since she wrote about the human body, that you’d think “Replaceable You” would be about all the ways that we can upgrade ourselves. Well, read this and be surprised. Roach writes about the most complicated technical and scientific issues in a way that even I can understand. Her sense of humor made me laugh so much that my husband was surprised when he found out that I was reading about heart failure. She makes readers feel like they’re there with her, making her interviewees (and even some dead people) feel approachable. There is a bit about animal experimentation that I had to skip (that’s my one and only trigger); and some other parts require a strong stomach. As with all of Roach’s books, this is not for everyone, but curious readers will love how she asks the questions that we’re all asking and some that we hadn’t even considered. I’ll keep praying for a way to restore my old-age vision so that I can keep reading her books forever.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/W. W. Norton & Company.

Mary Roach’s Replaceable You is another energetic, deeply-researched exploration of the odd corners of science and medicine, this time focused on the quest to rebuild and replace the human body. Roach’s signature curiosity and humor are present as she investigates everything from prosthetic limbs and organ transplants to the latest advances in stem cell technology and 3D-printed body parts. She travels widely, from burn units in Boston to pig farms in China, and interviews a cast of researchers, surgeons, and patients, always eager to illuminate the strange and improbable ways medicine tries to make us whole again.

This book, like her previous work, is packed with quirky facts and unexpected stories. Roach’s writing is accessible and often funny, and she’s especially good at making complex science digestible for general readers. However, in Replaceable You, her focus on food metaphors and eating-related imagery is unusually heavy-handed. While this adds a certain flavor to the narrative, it sometimes distracts from the more profound questions about identity, humanity, and the ethics of medical intervention. The book feels a bit more clinical and less emotionally resonant than her best work.

The good: engaging science writing, fascinating stories, and Roach’s trademark wit. The bad: a distracting reliance on food metaphors and less emotional depth than you might hope for.

I like all of Mary Roach's books. She makes scientific subjects very interesting and accessible. This one is just okay. Probably because I have read so many of her books, they don't astound me like they use to. It would be nice to see her approach a totally different topic.

Mary Roach is one of the most consistent writers I’ve read in any genre, and here she delivers again. Many of the subjects in this book will be familiar to readers of her previous books: prosthetics and transplants were discussed in Grunt and organ/tissue donation in Stiff, for a few examples. But you probably won’t feel much déjà vu. Every topic is approached from a new, different, and in many cases higher-tech angle than in her other works. And of course Roach’s trademark humor — running the gamut from zany to punny to self-deprecating to subtly witty — keeps the book fun and readable.

Roach’s books are always survey courses rather than deep dives, but I felt that more than many of her previous books, each chapter of Replaceable You built on and added to what came before it. For a loose collection of stories of the author going on whatever field trips she could get permission for, this book felt quite focused. Even the chapter transitions flowed neatly from one topic to another.

Recurring issues and themes, such as the difficulty of tricking the immune system and re-engineering the already incredibly evolved human body recur throughout the book. Aside from a few witty observations and asides, the author largely allows the reader to draw their own conclusions, which I appreciated.

While I’m not sure how long this book will be relevant, considering how much cutting-edge research Roach chronicles in real time, I would recommend this book as an informative and digestible overview of biomedical research. And of course, Roach stans will have a great time regardless of the subject matter.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Life is good when there’s a new Mary Roach book to absorb. My favorite entertaining science writer is back with a book about the various attempts to replicate parts of the body and its various functions, from joint replacements to hair transplants and much more. In the service of exploring the subject, she travels as far as Mongolia and goes so far as to try out an iron lung. I think this book had fewer total laugh-out-loud moments than some of her previous books, and it’s a less “weird” subject than some she has explored (e.g., death), but it still filled with riveting tales of quirky corners of science. and buoyed by her endless curiosity…and as usual for a Mary Roach book, the footnotes and acknowledgments are no less entertaining than the rest. Anyone who loves Mary Roach is in for another good ride with this book (and will yearn to be a scientist, if only to be trailed and then written about by her), and anyone who doesn’t love Mary Roach had better get started on reading her books.

Mary Roach scores another one for science with a side of comedy. This time she turns her searching gaze toward replacement parts for the human body. I really enjoyed this one, as it gives readers a grand tour of the latest biotechnology and science while provoking contemplation on moral dilemmas such as "At what point are we just playing God?" Roach's trademark humor sparkles throughout, making even the footnotes, ordinarily the domain of dry academic citation, must-read material. I highly recommend it, with thanks to the publisher for the complimentary advance NetGalley.