Replaceable You

Adventures in Human Anatomy

By: Mary Roach

Narrated by: Mary Roach

One of Literary Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025
A Goodreads Readers' Most Anticipated Fall Book

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. Today we’re attempting to grow body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3D printers. How are we doing? Are we there yet?

In Replaceable You, Mary Roach explores 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? Can a donated heart be made to beat forever? Can an intestine provide a workable substitute for a vagina?

Roach dives in with her characteristic verve and infectious wit. Her travels take her to the OR at a legendary burn unit in Boston, a “superclean” xeno-pigsty in China, and a stem cell “hair nursery” in the San Diego tech hub. She talks with researchers and surgeons, amputees and ostomates, printers of kidneys and designers of wearable organs. She spends time in a working iron lung from the 1950s, stays up all night with recovery techs as they disassemble and reassemble a tissue donor, and travels across Mongolia with the cataract surgeons of Orbis International.

Irrepressible and accessible, Replaceable You immerses readers in the wondrous, improbable, and surreal quest to build a new you.

Interesting

4 stars - It was really good

The body is the most complex machine in the world and because of that you cannot easily replace what breaks. This book goes over various surgeries, research, and trials that are working to replace various parts of the body. Each chapter discusses a different topic of the body, like skin graphs, human and animal organ transplants, joint replacements, iron lungs, etc.

This book was fascinating and well researched. You could tell Roach had a good time visiting various places to learn about each of these topics and learn how to replace parts of the human body. What was surprising for some of these topics is how far the research still has to go or how quickly some of them are progressing. There is no linear line for all of them and it was just fascinating learning about all the different aspects of the body and what it takes to try and replace them.

Overall, Roach has presented another fascinating and well written book about the body and I highly recommend it, especially if you like learning about medical science and research.

TW: graphic depictions of medical content, animal experimentation and death,

Interesting NF on replacing worn out body oarts,

A fun and interesting non-fiction book about the parts of the human body, their fallibility and the possibility of obtaining replacement parts. The book discusses the many on-going attempts by scientists, researchers and doctors to create, transplant and/or manufacture said parts that would be either implantable or simply enhance the viability of our parts for years to come. Examples include teeth, valves, hair, eyes or eye lenses, skin and more.

Replaceable You is a 5 star book that examines the various parts of the human body that may wear out over time, and what science and medicine are able to do for us vis-a-vis these parts. Science writer Mary Roach takes a deep dive into examining the complex machine known as the human body - the only machine for which replacement parts are not readily available. Have no fear, science is working hard to rectify this problem. Skin from frogs? No problem! Noses from brass? Ok! Eye parts from jet canopies? Strange but true! Soon 3-D printers may be create parts for us. Mary Roach, who is up for most anything, is willing to try a few of sciences new tricks on herself.

Roach’s books are informative and engaging. Combining a brief outline of the facts with the details of the problem, including moral quandaries, etc. and information on ideas that have previously been or yet-to-be been tried, her humorous tongue-in-cheek style of writing make this book a delight to read. I have read several other books by Roach, Fuzz is my favorite thus far.As always Mary Roach presents well-researched information backed by scientific facts and plenty of humor which makes it all easier-to-understand. Fascinating to read and learn from. I’ve enjoyed all of her books ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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I will read anything Mary Roach writes

This short, scrumptious little book is a delight, and I love having Mary herself as the narrator. I laughed out loud several times. 5/5 stars

2025 Mary Roach!!!!

It is a good year when Mary Roach drops a new book!!! Another great read. I recommend this and all other Mary Roach books.

Mary Roach does it again....

Always down for some Mary Roach. Her writing is fun, and she always seems to write about the slightly morbid and quirky topics I love. Plus I'm related to her, apparently.