Mary Roach brings human anatomy talk to Liberty Hall April 23

Lawrence Public Library brought Mary Roach to Liberty Hall for a free evening talk that mixed hard science with the kind of wit that has made her one of the country’s most recognizable nonfiction writers. The program ran from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, April 23, with doors opening at 6 p.m., no registration required, and a book signing afterward with The Raven Book Store.

Roach came to Lawrence as the author of eight New York Times bestsellers, including Stiff, Gulp, Fuzz and Packing for Mars. Her newest book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, was released Sept. 16, 2025 by W. W. Norton & Company and reached instant New York Times bestseller status. The publisher says the book follows her reporting from a Boston burn unit, a xenopig facility in China, a stem-cell hair nursery in San Diego and an iron lung from the 1950s, tracing the fast-moving world of prosthetics, organ replacement, stem cells, 3D printing and the ethics of bodily repair.

The event was part of the 2026 Ross and Marianna Beach Author Series, one of the library’s signature public programs. Lawrence Public Library says the series began after a 2010 gift helped launch the New Stories capital campaign, then expanded in 2013 with another major gift from the Ross & Marianna Beach Foundation. The series has been built to pull in more than just regular book buyers, drawing readers, writers, townies, book clubs, hardcore fans, university faculty and students into the same room.

That civic feel fit Liberty Hall, which gave the talk a setting more associated with Lawrence history than with a standard bookstore appearance. The current building was erected Jan. 20, 1912, after an electrical fire destroyed the Bowersock Opera House in 1911. Liberty Hall traces its roots back to 1856, when Kansas’ first abolitionist newspaper, The Herald of Freedom, occupied the corner of 7th and Massachusetts Streets. The hall’s main theater seats about 1,050, making the Roach appearance less like a niche author event and more like a marquee public gathering in the middle of downtown Lawrence.