The best fall reads for creative souls
If your idea of a perfect day includes trying a new recipe, learning a hands-on skill, or diving into a hobby that feeds your soul, you’re a true Hobbyist Reader. We celebrate your creative spirit and love for meaningful pastimes—whether you're exploring nature, perfecting your sourdough, or finding balance through mindful self-care.
This fall, we’ve gathered a fresh list of new books made to inspire your inner artist, chef, thinker, and seeker. From cozy cookbooks to reflective reads that nurture personal growth, these titles are ideal companions for crisp mornings, creative weekends, and winding down as the leaves begin to fall.
November New Releases
Athens: Food, Stories, Love: A Cookbook
by Diane Kochilas
New York Times bestselling author Diane Kochilas's latest cookbook, with 150 recipes, explores all of the greatest dishes from Greece's most-visited city.
Everyone's favorite Greek chef, Diane Kochilas, is back with a cookbook dedicated to exploring the food of Athens. Diane has lived in Athens for thirty years and has been witness to the enormous social and culinary changes all around her. To navigate the city's gastronomic scene today is to discover a city overflowing with new creative energy in its kitchens and myriad of international ingredients in its markets. These new global influences on the Athenian table live side by side with Greece's great gastronomic traditions. Souvlaki, hand pies, and the classic pasta casserole pastitsio are included here along with Athenian "fancy" dishes like Noua, a classic Athenian pot roast, and Chicken Milanese, combining chicken, rice, and a velvety cream sauce. Giving readers a taste of the ways in which the culinary traditions of other countries are shaping the way Athens eats today, Diane offers a recipe for a French-influenced cross between a croissant and spanakopita, shares an Italian twist on a Greek classic with Shrimp Saganaki Risotto, updates a Greek bean dish with a Grec-Mex twist on gigantes, and much more. As with all of Diane's other books, the recipes in Athens are home-cook friendly. So, bring a taste of today's Athenian table to your home with Athens: Food, Stories, Love.
Cookies: The Best Recipes for the Perfect Anytime Treat [A Baking Cookbook]
by Vaughn Vreeland - New York Times Cooking New York Times Cooking
Delight your friends and family (and yourself) with 100 delicious cookies from NYT Cooking.
Dessert is sometimes seen as a bonus, but what could be more essential than delightful treats? From NYT Cooking and curated by recipe creator, video journalist, and YouTube personality Vaughn Vreeland, Cookies is the ultimate collection of treats-from classic recipes that taste like home, to flavor-packed bites that will become your new go-tos.
When you need a trusted recipe for the Best Chocolate Chip or Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, look no further. If you'd like something fresh, try the Salted Margarita Bars or Lemon-Turmeric Crinkle Cookies. Feeling a little nutty? Rum-Buttered Almond or Peanut Butter Miso Cookies might do the trick. And when you can't wait to break out the holiday cookie tin, Gochujang Caramel Cookies and Pistachio Pinwheels will have you feeling festive all year long.
Featuring time-tested recipes and expert guidance from trusted writers Yossy Arefi, Melissa Clark, Dorie Greenspan, Eric Kim, Genevieve Ko, Yewande Komolafe, Samantha Seneviratne, Susan Spungen, Vaughn himself, and many others, Cookies will serve up delight and inspiration for any party, picnic, or regular Tuesday night. Because you deserve a cookie.
Make Do with What You Have: 100 Delicious New Recipes from Favorite Old-School Meals
by Kardea Brown
The New York Times bestselling author of The Way Home returns with over 100 fabulous recipes--delicious updates of her favorite childhood meals.
From Kardea Brown: Growing up in a household with a single parent taught me how to make use of things we already had. She made gourmet meals with simple kitchen staples. I invite readers to do the same with my twist on Old School Classic recipes.
Kardea Brown is back with this practical and flavorful cookbook everyone needs. Offering crowd and palate pleasing dishes from morning to noon, and night.
Breakfast
Break the fast with Geechee Egg Rice, Sausage and Grits and On the Run Breakfast Sandwiches.
Lunch
Dig into Turkey Burgers, Tuna Melts, and Ramen Chicken Noddle Soup.
Dinner
Welcome friends and family home with filling, mouthwatering dishes like Grilled "Poke" Chops, Chicken Mafe and "The Poor Man's Meal".
Desserts
Sweeten meals with delights such as Ma's goodie bars, Warm Sticky Apple Pudding and Lemon Snowball Cookies.
Filled with inviting and tasty food that won't break the bank, illustrated with over 100 color photos, Make Do with What You Have allows you to enjoy great meals every day.
October New Releases
Baking and the Meaning of Life: How to Find Joy in 100 Recipes
by Helen Goh
In her hotly anticipated debut solo cookbook, Yotam Ottolenghi pastry chef and recipe developer Helen Goh draws on her rich multicultural heritage to deliver more than 100 of her favorite recipes
No one knows the "why" or "how" of baking better than Helen Goh, recipe developer with Yotam Ottolenghi for more than a decade and co-author of New York Times bestselling books Sweet and Comfort.
With the debut of her first solo cookbook, Goh shares her distinctive approach to baking informed by her multicultural heritage with 100 delicious desserts of all kinds as well as savory bakes.
Drawing on her upbringing in Malaysia and Australia, her acclaimed work with Ottolenghi where she specialized in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavors, and even her active psychotherapy practice, Goh not only shares her favorite baking recipes, but also reflections on life, sharing how baking can bring us together and add meaning and joy to both significant and everyday moments.
With recipes like Chocolate Tahini Cake with Sesame Brittle, Plum and Pistachio Bars, and Pandan and Coconut Chiffon Cake, and more shareable treats that offer both tried-and-true and creative flavors, this book is a celebration of community and pleasure through baking. Goh's Champagne and Blackcurrant Celebration Cake is perfect for a graduation party or New Year's Eve, and a batch of Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes or Red Plum, Almond, and Lime Baby Cakes for a charity bake sale could be small but powerful building blocks of connection and solidarity.
All of her desserts are impressively sweet ways to celebrate milestones reached and connect with family and friends. After your sweet tooth has been satisfied, there are more than 15 savory baking dishes, from a Puttanesca Galette with Lemon Ricotta to Potato, Garlic, and Rosemary Focaccia.
With inventive flavor combinations that showcase Goh's creativity, a wealth of time-tested bakes, and her philosophies on living and baking well, Baking and the Meaning of Life is a one-of-kind companion bakers will return to again and again to spread joy, one cookie, cake, or cheese puff at a time.
Does Anyone Else Feel This Way?: Essays on Conquering the Quarter-Life Crisis
by Eli Rallo
From TikTok star and the author of I Didn't Know I Needed This Eli Rallo, a reflection on the anxiety of transitioning into adulthood, navigating the quarter-life crisis, and realizing you're actually not alone.
Does anyone else feel like they're the only one having a quarter-life crisis? As a senior in college, Eli Rallo expected her post-grad years to be filled with certainty, that she would finally feel that she was the "adult" she had long dreamed she'd be, with a cool job, an amazing apartment, fabulous friends, and lots of fun and flirty date nights. Instead she was met with crippling social anxiety, no idea what direction her career was taking, an inability to stop comparing herself to her peers' picture-perfect lives on social media, and a looming sense that she may never feel certain--about her dating life, friendships, career, or even herself.
With deep honesty, raw emotions, humor, and relatability, Eli analyzes life in your twenties with a candid and heartfelt approach, asking and answering questions like:
Even though early adulthood doesn't look just like Sex and the City or Thirteen Going on Thirty the way Eli thought it would, with Does Anyone Else Feel This Way? Eli shows you that you're not the only one who misses the days when they could swing by the dining hall or just wants to call their mom to make it all go away. With a look at her own misadventures and hard-won life lessons, Eli shares the journey she's been on to find herself as an adult, and the twists and turns she's taken while navigating her own quarter-life crisis.
Family Thai: Bringing the Flavors of Thailand Home
by Arnold Myint - Kat Thompson
One of Eater's Best New Cookbooks Fall 2025
The James Beard nominee and chef of the Thai restaurant International Market in Nashville, Arnold Myint, shares how to make the Thai food he grew up with in a cookbook that is approachable yet packs a punch of flavor
In Family Thai, Arnold breaks down an often-intimidating cuisine into accessible building blocks for every home cook, beginning with pantry staples--what's fish sauce? what are the differences between soy sauces?--and moving on to teaching readers essential skills like how to steam the perfect sticky rice or how to make their own noodles if they can't find them stocked nearby.
Arnold also shares what he likes to cook at home and adaptations of Thai cuisine that have been inspired by his hometown of Nashville and his travels around the world. From there, he takes us into the vibrant and colorful world of Thai street food--including shumai, shrimp toast, curry puffs, and more--classic noodle dishes, his own original creations, and, of course, his mother's classic recipes.
Longtime fans of International Market, who have been begging for their favorite classic recipes for years, will find them among these pages.
Arnold Myint grew up as a restaurant kid and was lucky enough to be surrounded by delicious Thai food. His parents, Thai and Burmese immigrants, first opened Nashville's International Market & Restaurant in 1975--a rarity in Tennessee, where Asian cuisine hadn't quite expanded beyond Americanized Chinese takeout. The Myints were determined to introduce Americans to the fiery, bold, and fragrant Thai flavors that had always brought them comfort, and it turned out that a taste of Thailand was exactly what Nashville needed.
Almost 45 years later, after attending culinary school in New York City and working with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Arnold now owns and runs International Market, where he continues to serve the comforting, soul-feeding recipes of his mother while also jazzing things up with his own Thai-Southern flare. During the pandemic, Arnold began reaching out to an all-new audience as well through Instagram, teaching "Thai 101" basics to an ever-growing number of viewers.
When Thais greet each other, they don't ask how are you or what's up? Instead, they ask, Kin lao yang? or have you eaten? Feeding people is how Patti and Win Myint--and now Arnold--show their love, not just for their family but for everyone within reach. In Family Thai, Arnold shares his boldly flavorful food and welcoming, heartfelt approach with home cooks everywhere.
Lidia's the Art of Pasta: An Italian Cookbook
by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich - Tanya Bastianich-Manuali
The ultimate pasta cookbook; 100+ authentic Italian recipes, from the bestselling author, television icon, and "doyenne of Italian cooking" (The New York Times).
No one knows pasta like Lidia Bastianich. Through her bestselling cookbooks and award-winning television programs, she has introduced generations of home cooks to the wonders of Italy's greatest export. Now, for the first time, she has compiled her decades of expertise into one authoritative volume: the definitive book on pasta.
An utterly indispensable resource for every kitchen, Lidia's The Art of Pasta is a one-stop guide to pasta in every form, from Old World classics like Ricotta Gnocchi and cacio e pepe to Italian American favorites like Manicotti and Lasagna Napoletana.
Recipes include:
-Lasagna Napoletana. Recipes include:
-Spaghetti with Lobster Sauce
-Pumpkin Ravioli with Butter and Sage
-Bucatini all'Amatriciana
-Italian Mac and Cheese
-Spaghetti and Meatballs
-Trenette with Pesto Genovese
-Fettucine Alfredo
Through more than a hundred simple, perfect recipes, Lidia showcases pastas of all kinds--both fresh and dried, stuffed, baked, and sauced; in soups and pasta salads; plus, of course, directions for making fresh pasta doughs and sauces at home. The one-stop guide to all things pasta, the book is filled with simple, authentic, flavor-forward Italian dishes that the whole family will love. Tutti a tavola a mangiare!
Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity
by Cas Holman - Lydia Denworth
A designer, educator, and play expert calls for adults to add more fun, exploration, and imagination to their lives
"Radiant and essential ... this book brings a sense of transcendence. Reading it was not only inspiring; it was joyful." --Elizabeth Gilbert, NYT bestselling author of Big Magic
We're all born playful. But when we grow up, we learn to suppress this critical, hardwired instinct and our lives become ruled by "getting things done." As world-famous designer Cas Holman explains, this disconnection from our playful selves is hazardous to everything from our emotional wellbeing to our ability to problem solve and innovate. The emerging science of play shows that it sparks joy, wonder, creativity, and insight at any age.
Here, Holman explains the power of "free play" through open-ended, unstructured activities that we become absorbed in with no obvious goal or purpose. The ways we can play are endless and what recharges us most is unique to each of us: whether it's a piece of art we create, an entertaining conversation with a stranger, or an experiment to shake up a routine task. Weaving in inspiring stories and eye-opening research, Holman shows us that adopting a playful mindset is crucial in helping us:
- Overcome fear of failure and embrace new ways of thinking
- Destress, reset, and connect with each other
- Grow our creativity at every stage of our lives
- Find joy in bleak times
Playful draws on psychology, history, art, and design thinking to make a powerful case for the vital importance of play for grown-ups in a world obsessed with productivity. Provocative, wise, and full of spirit, it will inspire you to (re) learn how to play.
That's a Great Question, I'd Love to Tell You
by Elyse Myers
Writer, comedian, and content creator Elyse Myers gets real about life's awkward moments in her bold, funny, and unfiltered debut book
Elyse Myers is known to her twelve million followers as "The Internet's Best Friend," sharing her relatable stories and comedic sketches and serving as an advocate for topics such as neurodivergence, impostor syndrome, body image, and more. Whether she's making people laugh with tales of disastrous dates or giving a voice to that awkward internal monologue many of us have, she has three simple goals behind everything she makes: To make people feel known, loved, and like they belong.
In That's a Great Question, I'd Love to Tell You, Elyse delivers a debut collection of deeply personal stories and hand-drawn illustrations, offering even more intimate reflections beyond what fans have seen on her social media, including:
Plus, tales involving bad dates and is-this-a-dates; the tempting yet futile urge to reinvent yourself, panic attacks and escape hatches, and favorite pens and systems to use them, all while loving and letting yourself be loved, preferably at the same time.
September New releases
I'm Not Trying to Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches
by Drew Nieporent
Drew Nieporent has been a staple of the New York dining scene for decades, establishing a host of iconic restaurants like Nobu, Tribeca Grill, and Montrachet. But his career started from much more humble beginnings--the grill at the local McDonald's.
A middle class kid from New York's East Side, Drew spends his childhood tagging along with his father to help restaurants get their liquor license, igniting a lifelong obsession with food. His passion takes him on a winding, continent-spanning journey, crossing paths with legendary chefs, iconic athletes, and movie stars as he grows into one of the most influential names in the culinary world. From waiting tables on a cruise ship to getting his first three-star review; from squabbling with Cornell professors to partnering with Robert DeNiro; this is more than a story of one man's extraordinary life--it's a story of an evolving industry. As culinary trends come and go, and relationships blossom and combust, Nieporent navigates it all with a simple yet powerful philosophy: give the customer what they want.
Told in Drew's unforgettable voice, I'm Not Trying To Be Difficult is a rollicking memoir that feels like sitting across the dinner table from someone who has seen it all--one of the last great restaurateurs.
Awake: A Memoir
by Jen Hatmaker
From Jen Hatmaker--beloved New York Times bestselling author and host of the For the Love podcast--a brutally honest, funny, and revealing memoir about the traumatic end of her twenty-six-year-long marriage, and the beginning of a different kind of love story.
At 2:30 a.m. on July 11th, 2020, Jen Hatmaker woke up to her husband of twenty-six years whispering in his phone to another woman from their bed. It was the end of life as she knew it. In the months that followed, she went from being a shiny, funny, popular leader, to a divorced wreck on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds parenting five kids alone with no clue about her own bank accounts. Having led millions of women for over a decade--urging them to embrace authenticity, find radical agency, and create healthy relationships--this seemed nothing less than total failure.
In Awake, Jen shares for the first time what happened when she found herself completely lost at sea--and how she made it to shore. In candid, surprisingly funny vignettes spanning forty years of girlhood, marriage, and parenting, Jen lays bare the disorienting upheaval of midlife--the implosion of a marriage, the unraveling of religious and cultural systems, and the grief that accompanies change you didn't ask for. And, drawing on all her resources--from without and from within--Jen dares to question the systems beneath the whole house of cards, and to reckon with the myths, half-truths, and lies that brought her to this point.
More than one woman's story, Awake is a critical analysis of the story given to all of us: the story of gender limitations, religious subservience, body shame, self-erasure. With refreshing candor, Jen explores a Midlife Renaissance--grieving what's lost, cherishing possibility, and entering the second half of life wide awake.
Give Me a Word: The Promise of an Ancient Practice to Guide Your Year
by Christine Valters Paintner
""An excellent book for readers interested in finding a new meditation technique or nonsectarian spiritual practice or who simply want to slow down and give more depth to their lives."" --Library Journal
Your word is waiting, hovering just beneath the surface. All you need is the quiet courage to listen and receive it.
Beginning in around the third century CE, a group of monastics known as the desert mothers and fathers retreated to the deserts of northern Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to pursue lives of silence and prayer. A key phrase, repeated often among the sayings of the desert mothers and fathers, is ""Give me a word."" This tradition of asking for a word was a way of seeking something on which to ponder for many days, weeks, months--sometimes a whole lifetime.
Fast-forward many centuries to the present day, and we find the practice of seeking a word being reclaimed by the spiritually minded in new ways. For nearly two decades, Abbey of the Arts has posted an online invitation to its virtual community before Christmas, inviting people to listen for a word to guide them in the year ahead. Hundreds of participants look forward to the practice each year.
In Give Me a Word, spiritual director and poet Christine Valters Paintner offers thirty contemplative and creative practices inviting you to slow down and listen for a word to guide you through the year ahead. Instead of chasing after resolutions, Paintner encourages a more mindful approach--letting go of expectations and becoming open to wisdom from unexpected places.
Give Me a Word will gently lead you through the process of receiving your word, testing its resonance, and embracing its meaning. As you reflect on and live by this word, you'll find it offering insight, clarity, and purpose throughout the year. Give Me a Word invites you to enter a season of deep listening, inner growth, and spiritual discovery.
Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love: A Cookbook
by Samin Nosrat - Aya Brackett
From the bestselling author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat--and one of America's most beloved chefs and teachers--125 meticulously tested, flavor-forward, soul-nourishing recipes that bring joy and a sense of communion
With all the generosity of spirit that has endeared her to millions of fans, Samin Nosrat offers more than 125 of her favorite recipes--simply put, the things she most loves to cook for herself and for friends--and infuses them with all the beauty and care you would expect from the person Alice Waters called "America's next great cooking teacher." As Samin says, "Recipes, like rituals, endure because they're passed down to us--whether by ancestors, neighbors, friends, strangers on the internet, or me to you. A written recipe is just a shimmering decoy for the true inheritance: the thread of connection that cooking it will unspool."
Good Things is an essential, joyful guide to cooking and living, whether you're looking for a comforting tomato soup to console a struggling friend, seeking a deeper sense of connection in your life, or hosting a dinner for ten in your too-small dining room. Here you'll find go-to recipes for ricotta custard pancakes, a showstopping roast chicken burnished with saffron, a crunchy, tingly Calabrian chili crisp, super-chewy sky-high focaccia, and a decades-in-the-making, childhood-evoking yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Along the way, you'll also find plenty of tips, techniques, and lessons, from how to buy olive oil (check the harvest date) to when to splurge (salad dressing is where you want to use your best ingredients) to the best uses for your pressure cooker (chicken stock and dulce de leche, naturally).
Good Things captures, with Samin's trademark blend of warmth, creativity, and precision, what has made cooking such an important source of delight and comfort in her life.
In Defense of Dabbling: The Brilliance of Being a Total Amateur
by Karen Walrond
Resist grind culture and discover the joy of dabbling.
From Karen Walrond, author of The Lightmaker's Manifesto and Radiant Rebellion, comes a delightful jaunt into how to be a total amateur--by doing the things you love even if you're not any good at them.
In today's grind culture, hobbies become side hustles. Work creeps into leisure time. Perfectionism reigns. We look up to experts, and we look down on amateurs. And when someone asks us what we like to do, we realize we have absolutely no idea.
But amateur just means ""one who loves."" So what if being a total amateur is actually a good thing? What if we've been so focused on achieving that we have forgotten how to be interesting?
In her new book, Karen Walrond strikes out to discover the things she loves that demand no excellence--just desire. As she cultivates practices and rituals, without any expectation of success or accolades, she shows us how to do the same. And she helps us learn Seven Attributes of Intentional Amateurism: curiosity, mindfulness, self-compassion, play, zone-stretching, connection, and awe.
Follow Walrond as she dabbles in throwing pottery, swimming laps, playing piano, learning to surf, and photographing the Milky Way (spoiler: it doesn't all go well). Listen in on her conversations with other amateurs--and experts too--about how intentional amateurism enhances mental and social health. And to get you started on your own intentional amateurism practice, she also serves up a list of more than two hundred ideas for things to dabble in--ways to discover your own path to being a total amateur.
Walrond reminds us that it's in the living that we create a life, so failure isn't a concern; in fact, it's kind of the point. If we get better at a hobby or a craft, that's simply a byproduct, never the goal. Transcendence awaits: What joy might we find if we simply started doing the things we love?
Sally's Baking 101: Foolproof Recipes from Easy to Advanced
by Sally McKenney
The ultimate baking book for home cooks of all skill levels with 101 sweet and savory, foolproof recipes plus helpful tips for best results--from the creator of the beloved website Sally's Baking Addiction.
"Sally has a gift for creating recipes that bakers trust and that families and friends crave. There's so much to learn and so much to love here."--New York Times bestselling author Dorie Greenspan
For years, Sally's Baking Addiction has been the trusted online resource for anyone who wants to make delicious baked goods from scratch. An expert self-taught baker, Sally McKenney has been dedicated to developing and perfecting a wide range of baking recipes and her devoted audience trusts her implicitly. In this collection of 101 irresistible recipes, she presents an array of crowd-pleasing bakes to suit every occasion and craving, from cookies and bars to cakes, pies, breads, and brunch fare. Sprinkled throughout the book, you'll find a selection of her most treasured fan favorites, including Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Strawberry Cake, Homemade Pizza Dough, and Classic Apple Pie.
Sally shares everything you need to know to be a successful home baker including basic baking principles, tools and ingredients, detailed how-to's, and step-by-step photos. She also offers her best tips and tricks, such as how to brown butter, prepare your baking pans, freeze baked goods, test for doneness, and so much more. Simpler recipes are included if your time is limited or you're just beginning your baking journey, like Chewy Banana Walnut Cookies, Thick & Fudgy Brownies, Lemon Lavender Olive Oil Cake, and the Ultimate Fruit Crisp. Advanced bakers will be excited to try Cream Cheese Puff Pastry Danishes, Tiramisu Cake Roll, Sky-High Chocolate Mousse Pie, and Asparagus & Smoked Salmon Tart. Many of the recipes are somewhere in between, including Buttermilk Chive Fantail Rolls, Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies, Caramel Sheet Cake, and Butternut Squash & Sage Chicken Pot Pie.
With Sally's Baking 101 as your guide, you'll gain the knowledge you need to feel confident baking from scratch with tempting, reliable recipes guaranteed to delight family and friends.
Super Natural: How Life Thrives in Impossible Places
by Alex Riley
From scorching deserts to frozen seabeds, from the highest peaks of the Himalaya to the hadal depths of the oceans, there are habitats on this Earth that appear hostile to life--yet where, nevertheless, life flourishes. In North American forests, wood frogs awaken each spring from solid blocks of ice. Under the Saharan sun, shielded by silvery hairs, desert ants sprint through the midday heat that is lethal to any other animal. At the bottom of ice-covered lakes, painted turtles pass months without breathing oxygen. Transporting readers to far-flung environments we could never call home, in Super Natural, award-winning science writer Alex Riley paints an awe-inspiring portrait of life's remarkable resilience even under the harshest circumstances.
Riley illuminates ecosystems on every continent to tell the stories of creatures exquisitely adapted to endure unimaginable deprivations--of water, oxygen, food, sunlight--and extremes of heat and cold, of pressure and altitude. To survive half a year without food on barren islands, snakes will shrink and regrow their digestive systems--even their hearts. At the site of the Chernobyl disaster, fungi harness radiation to thrive. Evolution, we see, can and will carve out a niche just about anywhere.
Super Natural shows us how, at nature's furthest limits, the rules of biology as we know them are rewritten--and how, in life's astonishing ingenuity and persistence even in the face of calamity and change, we can find hope for the future of life on Earth.
Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy
by Mary Roach
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.