This review contains affiliate links, which earn me a small commission when you click and purchase, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my small business and allowing me to continue providing you a reliable resource for clean book ratings.
I haven’t read all of Mary Roach’s entertaining and educational books, but I have enjoyed every one that I have: Stiff, Gulp, and Bonk. Of course I wanted to read her latest. Replaceable You feels a little different (or the same, really…) because it’s not completely new territory. She’s already written about what happens to our bodies after we die (in Stiff), and she’s related to us nonprofessionals all about what the alimentary canal does (in Gulp). Here, we find out more about various parts of our bodies and how they can be replaced, including with cadaver parts (hello, Stiff). So Roach gets to go back and revisit some of her previous topics. That’s perfectly fine, because Roach is a fun companion to tour scientific labs, hospitals, and mortuaries with.
When things go wrong with our bodies, medicine can replace our malfunctioning parts by looking in a variety of places: dead or living human bodies, living animal bodies, cells in scientific labs, and a mechanical shop. Some parts we can do without, like hair, but there’s plenty of continuing research and money in the hair-replacement industry. Others, like limbs, we can still do without, but even as research continues in how to use donated or otherwise biological limbs, prosthetics still tend to be the best choice. Advancements in that field continue as well.
Other types of replacements that aren’t strictly necessary — implants for breasts and buttocks to look a certain shape.
Truly vital replacements: organs, skin, eye lenses.
I could write a whole bunch about all that Roach discovers, but I’ll just leave you to it. A few quotes that made me grin:
Relating to heart research: “A surgical resident will stay here overnight, monitoring and taking data, just him and the beating heart. He concedes that it is ‘a little Poe-y.’”
Roach walked in a 5K held by the United Ostomy Association of America in Arizona. Participants who did not have ostomies could try out an ostomy bag (acting as an “empathy bag”), attached to their midsections, as they walked or ran. Wearing a bag included liquid to place in it for the most authentic experience. Roach forgot to put a liquid “of her choice” in the bag. She said, “My empathy bag was empty! I’ve since co-opted the phrase for use in dealing with emotionally clueless people. Yeah, his empathy bag is pretty much empty.”
If you’re not squeamish about body parts and you’re interested in overviews of a sample selection of ways we can replace them, I definitely recommend Replaceable You. And if you haven’t read any of Roach’s previous books, definitely go back and read them.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes 2 uses of strong language, 6 instances of moderate profanity, 5 uses of mild language, and 4 instances of the name of Deity in vain. There is detailed talk about human anatomy, some that includes genitals and some specifically about gender surgery.
Click here to purchase your copy of Replaceable You on Amazon.
*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
