April Book Club -- Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

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Our Book Club will be reading Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, which received 50% of the votes in the poll.

The book has 16 chapters, so we’ll do 4 chapters a week as the recommended pace. I assume since it’s non-fiction, spoilers will be less of a thing.

I will maybe attempt to post discussion questions for each chapter???

April 1-7:

  • He’s Smart but His Birds are Sloppy
  • Life in a Box
  • Star Crazy
  • You Go First

April 8-14:

  • Unstowed
  • Throwing Up and Down
  • The Cadaver in the Space Capsule
  • One Furry Step for Mankind

April 15-21:

  • Next Gas: 200,000 Miles
  • Houston, We Have a Fungus
  • The Horizontal Stuff
  • The Three-Dolphin Club

April 22-30:

  • Withering Heights
  • Separation Anxiety
  • Discomfort Food
  • Eating Your Pants

I’m already intrigued by the chapter titles! :laughing:

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My library has none of these books, but I figure I have a bit of time to try and find which ever we decide on

3 Likes
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Voted for Autonomous. I’ve already read it so it feels like I’ve already done my class homework.

6 Likes
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Hpb.com

Half Price books is an excellent resource too, I purchased one of my science novels for class for $2 a couple years ago with $2 shipping.

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My library doesn’t have the top two either so I’ll look into sourcing them otherwise.

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6

Oh man I want to read all of them!!! and they are all available at my library so that does not help to narrow it down.

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wait I can vote for all four?

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8

Yep!

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9

Those whose libraries don’t have the books–don’t forget that interlibrary loan may be an option!

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10

What may not be available in a hard copy, your library may also have available as an e-book or audiobook.

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12

So since we are all becoming housebound, was there an inaugural book selected? There is a lot of threads I may have missed something!

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Voting closes on the 15th – the poll says in 2 days so Idk what time zone. It currently looks like Packing for Mars by Mary Roach is the front runner, but Autonomous by Annalee Newitz could still pull ahead.

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14

Just reserved and downloaded my ebook.

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Alright, time to dig my copy out of either a) a box in my bedroom or b) a box in storage. Your guess is as good as mine as to which box it is. Guess we’ll find out when I go home Saturday!

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16

Oh good, my library has this in ebook. I didn’t vote for Packing for Mars but Stiff was fantastic so I expect to like this too.

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17

At least it’s in one of TWO boxes…

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Well…one of two locations! There are several “BOOKS” boxes in storage :upside_down_face:

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I adore Mary Roach, I think I listened to Stiff as an audiobook.

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Downloaded to my iPad!

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Ooo, I’ll follow along! I read this book a few months ago, it’s fabulous!

1 Like