In REPLACEABLE YOU, author Mary Roach tackles the past and current science behind replacing worn out or missing body parts as well as body augmentation, and keeping an eye on the future and what we can expect in the years to come. Roach travels within the United States and abroad to look into several topics such as pig farms where replacement organs are grown for human transplantation, cosmetic surgery clinics specializing in fat redistribution (for bigger butts), companies at the forefront of prosthetic limb innovation, and hair regrowth and transplantation, among many others.

If you’ve read Mary Roach before, you’re well aware of what you’re getting into. Mary is endlessly curious and approaches these subjects with a genuine desire to not only understand how these processes work, but to present it to her audience in an easily digestible and oftentimes hilarious way. This isn’t my first rodeo with Roach, but I can easily say that this was the funniest of her work to date. I laughed out loud at her asides and footnotes and the way that she is more than willing to use self-deprecating humour. The bit about the early days of blood donation or the chapter studying the creative ways in which men had a certain body part replaced or.. rebuilt.

To be honest, this can be a fairly grim subject, especially when looking into something like organ donation following death, but I feel like Mary’s approach is one that can get even the most squeamish reader on board. This is an easy recommendation and I would not be surprised to see it land on my year-end list.