Packing for Mars

By now, anybody picking up a Mary Roach book knows that they're going to find something exhaustively and joyfully researched, packed with quirky tidbits, and written with that often-missing light hand and appreciation for the absurd. Apply all of that to the fundamentally absurd business of space travel and you have Packing for Mars. This book is incredibly charming, with something both for those overflowing with prurient interest (pooping in space! poop flying around in space! sex in space!) to the fascinating details nobody ever thinks about, but that become vital once Roach explains them. I actually stole this book from a houseguest (sorry, Ross), and I'm glad I did because like her other books, Packing for Mars was excellent reading and the perfect book for a long commute. (If I had to rank this among her other books, I'd say this was better than Spook – by far the weakest of her books, I think – and slightly better than Bonk, although nothing will ever come close to the revelatory wonder and tenderness of Stiff.)