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Monday, September 8, 2014

Book Review - Gulp - Mary Roach

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Title:  Gulp

AuthorMary Roach

Review:  When I finished this book I turned to my husband and said, “wow that was so interesting.”  He commented back, “Mary knows how to make science readable and enjoyable for anyone.”  I would have to agree with that, I loved this book.  I knew a few things she talked about – c-diff – I had a friend who had the procedure done and it cured her – the whole house would smell when she used the bathroom until she had this done – gross but what is more gross I ask you?  The smell is awful with C-diff so I think a bit of donor bowel is not such a back thing compared to the odor.

If you are interested at all in what you eat and how your digestive system works this is a great book to read.  Great knowledge to share at a party and so interesting to boot.  Saliva has healing properties?  Who knew – dogs did but not me.  I can’t imagine that not everyone would find this book fascinating. 

Mary Roach had been recommended to me by my husband and several other friends who know I love to read and they were correct.  This book is a trip through the alimentary canal and back – can people be fed bottom up?  Why are colonics so popular?  Do they actually do anything at all?  Well read this book and find out. 

Mary had also written about space, sex, and dead bodies – I will be reading those books next – Check her out – science for everyone to read and understand.  Loved it!!!!


Published:  Published April 1st 2013 by W. W.Norton & Company
ISBN:  9780393081572
Page Count: 348
Quick Review:  5 out 5 stars –
Why I Read this Title:  Picked up at my local library

Synopsis:   The irresistible, ever-curious, and always best-selling Mary Roach returns with a new adventure to the invisible realm we carry around inside.

“America’s funniest science writer” (Washington Post) takes us down the hatch on an 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. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find names for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts? Can constipation kill you? Did it kill Elvis? We meet scientists who tackle the questions no one else thinks—or has the courage—to ask. And we go on location to a pet-food taste-test lab, a bacteria 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.
 Mary Roach
Author Information:   Mary Roach is the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. Her writing has appeared in such publications as Salon, GQ, Vogue, and the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Oakland, California.

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