-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Summary | Discuss | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Adventures in Human Anatomy
by Mary Roach
Book Reviewed by:From the New York Times bestselling author of Stiff and Fuzz, a rollicking exploration of the quest to re-create the impossible complexities of human anatomy.
The body is the most complex machine in the world, and the only one for which you cannot get a replacement part from the manufacturer. For centuries, medicine has reached for what's available―sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, crafting eye parts from jet canopies, and breasts from petroleum by-products.
In Replaceable You, Mary Roach sets sail on the uncharted waters of regenerative medicine, exploring 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? Is there a sensitive way to harvest tissue and bones from the deceased? Which animals might be the best organ donors? Through interviews with patients, physicians, pathologists, engineers, and scientists, Roach immerses readers in the wondrous, improbable, and surreal quest to build a new you.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (09-25-2025)
I finished https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/22170/replaceable-you Replaceable You by Mary Roach for review. As always, her work is fun and informative. Now I'm on to https://www.bookbrowse.com/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/4852/the-god-of-the-wo...
-kim.kovacs
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (09-18-2025)
Martyr! was one of my favorite books last year. I hope you enjoy it. This week I am reading Replaceable You by Mary Roach and listening to We Do Not Part by Han Kang. Mary Roach's books are interesting and I enjoy her approach. I always feel like I've learned some obscur...
-Micki_S
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (09-11-2025)
...ut. Changing genres I started The Correspondent. Wasn't sure I would like the format of all letters but it grabbed my interest. Alternating that with Replaceable You by Mary Roach. Fascinating study of history of creating spare or replacement parts for the human body
-Barbara_S4
The book is more than just a simplified explanation of procedures. Roach combines all this medical minutia with healthy doses of history and trivia. (Did you know that in 600 BCE, "the Vedic surgeon Sushruta reconstructed noses from a plot of adjacent facial skin," making rhinoplasty "the original plastic surgery"?) We learn about pioneers in the various medical and scientific fields related to anatomical replacements, as well as early efforts at repairing the human body...continued
Full Review
(748 words)
(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Daniel Kraus, author of Whale Fall
Mary Roach has had a more direct impact on my career than any other writer. She is her own genre of book―gonzo, hilarious, wildly educational. This is Roach at her finest. Deborah Blum, best-selling author of The Poisoner's Handbook
In her brilliant (and brilliantly funny book) Replaceable You, Mary Roach explores the puzzle of the human body, the way we can assemble and reassemble the very human pieces into different versions of who we are and how we work. The result is intriguing, compassionate, wise and―as with all her books―addictively readable. Or to put this another way: Don't miss it.
In Replaceable You, author Mary Roach talks about the use of medical manikins—lifelike practice dummies—in training doctors and surgeons. These manikins are designed to replicate human anatomy and physiology realistically, so that healthcare professionals can refine their skills in a controlled environment. As medical science has progressed over the years, so too has the complexity of manikins available to train up-and-coming physicians.
Before the turn of the 18th century, human figures were widely used in medicine across many cultures. Anatomically correct doll-sized models were made of clay as a way to illustrate the placement of human organs and the effects of various diseases on the human body. These were ...
If you liked Replaceable You, try these:
by David Eagleman
Published 2021
From the best-selling author of Incognito and Sum comes a revelatory portrait of the human brain, based on the most recent scientific discoveries about how it continually adapts, recreates, and formulates new ways of understanding the world we live in.
by Bill Bryson
Published 2021
Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body. As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner's manual for everybody.
by Ed Yong
Published 2018
Joining the ranks of popular science classics like The Botany of Desire and The Selfish Gene, a groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin - a "microbe's-eye view" of the world that reveals a marvelous, radically reconceived picture of life on earth.
If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
