Mary Roach

Credit: Chris Hardy Photograpy

PREMIER EVENT: Mary Roach

Monday, May 6, 7:30 p.m.

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal

Join us for for delicious wine and cheese as "America's funniest science writer" (Washington Post) Mary Roach takes us on an adventure-filled trip down the alimentary canal.

Roach begins her odyssey at the tongue and the complicated interplay of taste and smell. Ever wondered why it is so difficult to describe a smell the same way as, say, a color? When we smell something, there is nothing to see and therefore no reinforcement. Taste, however, is a different story. Anyone who has ever been to a wine tasting will appreciate Roach's dismay as she fails to detect the subtleties of almond, artichoke or Band-Aid at a tryout for an olive oil tasting panel.

In Gulp we meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks of or has the courage to ask. We go on location to a pet-food taste-test lab and into a live stomach to observe the fate of a meal. With Roach at our side, we travel the world, meeting murderers and mad scientists, Eskimos and exorcists, rabbis and terrorists who, it turns out, for practical reasons do not conceal bombs in their digestive tracts.

Mary Roach is the author of four previous books: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, and Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.

Tickets are available now at Brown Paper Tickets Online or by calling 800-838-3006

Location: Street: 1010 El Camino Real City: Menlo Park, Province: California Postal Code: 94025-4349 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Spring Author Series: Mary Roach Spend an evening at the library with author Mary Roach. This community talk is free.

|About the author Mary Roach grew up in a small house in Etna, New Hampshire. She graduated from Wesleyan in 1981, and then moved out to San Francisco. She spent a few years working as a freelance copy editor before landing a half-time PR job at the SF Zoo. During that time she wrote freelance articles for the local newspaper's Sunday magazine. These days, the New York Times bestselling author of five nonfiction books focuses mostly on writing about science. She proclaims, “Flawed as it is, science remains the most solid god I’ve got. And so I’ve decided to turn to it, to see what it had to say on the topic of life after death. Because I know what religion says, and it perplexes me. It doesn’t deliver a single, coherent, scientifically sensible or provable scenario… Science seemed the better bet.”

Her first book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, was an offshoot of a column she wrote for Salon.com. Her other books include Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife,Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, and Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. She was the editor of Best American Science Writing 2011. Her new book is Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. The Washington Post calls Roach "America's funniest science writer." Though she mostly focuses on writing books, she writes the occasional magazine piece. These have run inOutside, National Geographic, New Scientist, Wired and The New York Times Magazine, as well as many others. A 1995 article of hers called "How to Win at Germ Warfare" was a National Magazine Award Finalist, and in 1996, her article on earthquake-proof bamboo houses took the Engineering Journalism Award in the general interest magazine category. Mary Roach also reviews books for The New York Times.

For more about Roach, read her much more entertaining personal statement on her web site.Photo by Chris Hardy Photography Mary Roach's Reading List Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal The alimentary canal — the much-maligned tube from mouth to rear — is as taboo, in its way, as the cadavers in Stiff, and as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. In Gulp we meet the scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks — or has the courage — to ask. How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Why doesn't the stomach digest itself? Can wine tasters really tell a $10 bottle from a $100 bottle? Why is crunchy food so appealing? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? We go on location to a pet food taste-test lab, a fecal transplant, and into a live stomach to observe the fate of a meal. Like all of Roach's books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies. “It's as gross as one might expect, but it's also enthralling. ... Roach's appRoach is grounded in science, but the virtuosic author delights in giving readers a thrill,” says Publisher’s Weekly. AVAILABLE IN APRIL. Packing for Mars Mary Roach explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity. Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can't walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour? To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As the author discovers, it's possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA's new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), she takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex Roach shows how and why sexual arousal and orgasm can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to make the bedroom a more satisfying place. Spook : science tackles the afterlife Mary Roach trains her considerable wit and curiosity on the human soul. What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that ”the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top? In an attempt to find out, Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. She begins the journey in rural India with a reincarnation researcher and ends up in a University of Virginia operating room where cardiologists have installed equipment near the ceiling to study out-of-body near-death experiences. Along the way, she enrolls in an English medium school, gets electromagnetically haunted at a university in Ontario, and visits a Duke University professor with a plan to weigh the consciousness of a leech. Her historical wanderings unearth soul-seeking philosophers who rummaged through cadavers and calves' heads, a North Carolina lawsuit that established legal precedence for ghosts, and the last surviving sample of "ectoplasm" in a Cambridge University archive. Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers-some willingly, some unwittingly-have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them. About the Spring Author Series at BWML Bud Werner Memorial Library presents a series of free author talks throughout spring 2013. We proudly welcome Jim Davidson (March 18), Cheryl Strayed (April 11), Chris Bohjalian (April 17), Mary Roach (April 30) and Kent Haruf (May 15) to the library, and the Steamboat Springs community. Each of these diverse award-winning authors will speak about their literary works and their writing processes during a talk in Library Hall. Each talk will be followed by a Q&A and an opportunity to have authors sign copies of their books. Books will be for sale on-site at the event courtesy of Off the Beaten Path Bookstore. THANK YOU to Bear Claw Condominiums/BREO Inc. for their generous support of this program!

Location: Street: Bud Werner Memorial Library City: Steamboat Springs, Province: Colorado Postal Code: 80487 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Acclaimed and bestselling science writers Mary Roach and Rebecca Skloot provide a fascinating discussion about Roach's new book titled Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal and the writing process associated with science-based literature.

Mary Roach, 'America's funniest science writer' (Washington Post), takes us down the hatch on a unforgettable tour of our insides. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: the questions inspired by our insides are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Like all of Roach's books, Gulp is as much about human beings as it is about human bodies.

Rebecca Skloot, the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, joins Ms. Roach for what is sure to be one of the season's most fascinating discussions!

This program is presented in partnership with the Illinois Science Council.

Seating is limited and available first come, first served. Reservations are not required. Books are available for purchase and the authors will autograph books at the program's conclusion. (lilithcat)… (more)

The irresistible, ever-curious and always bestselling author Mary Roach returns with a new adventure into the invisible realm that people carry around inside with Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. Join Left Bank Books and Feast magazine for a dinner party with Mary Roach. The author will read passages while L'Ecole Culinaire serves food inspired by the book, concluding with a Q&A and book signing. Tickets are $55, admitting one person and including dinner, the lecture, and a copy of Gulp, and are available at Gulp.brownpapertickets.com.

Location: Street: L'Ecole Culinaire Additional: 9811 S. Forty Drive City: Saint Louis, Province: Missouri Postal Code: 63124 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal Mary Roach With wit and unflagging curiosity, Mary Roach has explored the posthumous human body (Stiff), ectoplasm and the afterlife (Spook), sex (Bonk), and the scientific oddities of space travel (Packing for Mars). “One of those rare writers who can tackle the most obscure unpleasantness and distill the data into a hilarious and informative package,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle, Roach probes the creepy aspects of life we all wonder about but are usually too polite to mention. Her new book Gulp is an exploration of human digestion. Parkway Central Library 1901 Vine Street Philadelphia, PA 19103 (between 19th and 20th Streets on the Parkway) This is a FREE event; no tickets or reservations are required. For more information, please call 215-567-4341, or click here

Location: Street: Free Library of Philadelphia Additional: 1901 Vine Street City: Philadelphia, Province: Pennsylvania Postal Code: 19103-5207 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Join us for Read Germantown! Book Club meeting.

The March 2013 selection is Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. A limited number of copies of the monthly selection are available for checkout on a first-come, first-served basis to participants holding a valid Wolf River Library Consortium card.

Pre-registration is required and begins February 28.

Visit gclbookclub.blogspot.com or call 757-7323 for more information. (sly_hostetter)… (more)

Mary Roach - One Book One Marin 2013 Launch,
In conversation with astronaut Rusty Schweickart

Book Passage, along with The Marin County Free Library, City Public Libraries of Marin County and Dominican University of California, is pleased to announce the 2013 One Book One Marin reading program with the selection of Packing for Mars ($15.95) by Mary Roach. Join us for the launch of this county-wide celebration with a talk and signing by the author.

One Book One Marin provide readers with a shared reading experience that leads to open dialogue and celebrates the joy of reading. Previous authors celebrated in this program have included Isabel Allende, Amy Tan, Michael Chabon, Abraham Verghese, and Dave Eggers. For more information see www.onebookonemarin.org. (rybie2)… (more)