|  | Author: Ph.D., Jill Bolte Taylor
Publisher: Plume
List Price: $15.00
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as of 11/22/2009 23:10 CST details
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Rating:  302 reviews
Sales Rank: 287
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.5
ISBN: 0452295548
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.196810092
EAN: 9780452295544
ASIN: 0452295548
Publication Date: May 26, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 302
 Stroke of Insight September 30, 2009
Suzy Q "Kelsey"
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Needed this book for a paper in my neuroscience class. Really cheap and good quality!
 Good Book September 28, 2009
Sandy Hutchison
After my brother of 62 had a mild stroke, this book was a great ensightful read. Amazing what the brain can do and how you can impact its function yourself. We are reading the book for our bookclub.
My Stroke of Insight Brings Wonderful Insight Into the Mind of a Stroke Survivor September 27, 2009
Nathaniel A. Reddy
Jill Taylor's poignant recollection of her experiences as a stroke survivor illuminates just how resilient and adaptable the human brain really is. Taylor expertly recounts the harrowing moments when she was suffering from a hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain including the experience of losing the logical and linear control the left hemisphere has over our own perception of our selves. She chronicles in a simple yet scientific language how she was able to recover her cognitive and physical abilities through her own tenacious will to recover and the loving aid from doctors, family and friends.
My Stroke of Insight is worth a read for anybody, but especially for those who have dealt with stroke survivors before. Taylor provides a fresh perspective towards the healing of stroke victims which is underlined by her extensive knowledge as a neuroscientist. The book has just enough illustrations to highlight some of the more complex explanations regarding the anatomy of the brain as it relates to her specific brain injury.
Taylor uses an almost conversational tone to relay her story to the reader. This tone, while not what I was expecting works in that you feel that Taylor is sitting down with you and discussing her story directly with you. I believe that this particular stylistic choice works, especially once you understand just how her brain was affected. By midway through the book I felt that this story was written by the left brain in order to describe just how the right brain was able to function throughout Taylor's recovery. Also, the inclusion of sporadic illustrations and Taylor's abilities to describe complex neurological functions in a nonscientific language allows easy access to all readers.
The Beginning
Taylor begins the story with three very important chapters involving her life before her stroke, and some scientific information regarding brain anatomy, the mechanics of a stroke, and the asymmetry of the brain hemispheres. These chapters allow the reader to see who Taylor was before the stroke and provides enough scientific background to understand just how and why Taylor was affected the way she was.
The Stroke
The next three chapters describe in detail the morning of Taylor's stroke. Taylor effectively conveys the breakdown of her cognitive abilities as blood seeped into her brain and drowned the neurons of her left hemisphere. The reader is able to see in horrifying detail how the loss of the left hemisphere can amplify sensation and affect how we can control our own body. One of the most interesting descriptions Taylor provides is how she lost the ability to be aware of her body in three-dimensional space which in her words was like being ". . .released from that restrictive circuitry, my right hemisphere relished in its attachment to the eternal flow"(Taylor, 71).
It is also in these chapters where we are able to see just how the left hemisphere of our brain affects our daily lives. When Taylor lost the function of her left hemisphere she lost the ability to perceive 3-d or even distinguish one shape from another. She was unable to speak, read or understand language, and could not differentiate the different sounds coming into her ears. But to me the most interesting cognitive loss that Taylor described was the loss of linear comprehension. Taylor could not comprehend the future or the past, and only existed in the present.
Recovery
The aspects of Jill's recovery, though to me not as scientifically interesting, provide the emotional meat of the story. Taylor chronicles how, with the aid of her mother G. G., she was able to gain back the physical and cognitive abilities she had lost. What is interesting about Taylor's recovery is that she does not describe it as recovery, because she believes that she became a different person after the stroke, because she was able to choose which aspects of her left brain she wanted to recover. She also details how every minor accomplishment was a major milestone in her recovery, and how those who are caring for stroke survivors need to be aware of this as well.
Quotes
"Yelling louder does not help me understand you better! Don't be afraid of me. Come closer to me. Bring me you gentle spirit. Speak more slowly. Enunciate more clearly. Again! Please, try again! S-l-o-w down. Be kind to me. Be a safe place for me. See that I am a wounded animal, not a stupid animal. I am vulnerable and confuse. Whatever my age, whatever my credentials, reach for me. Respect me. I am in here. Come find me"(Taylor 75). At the hospital shortly after her stroke.
"By breaking the effort of sitting upward, I found regular success along the way--and celebrated accordingly--with sleep"(Taylor 93). Concerning her recovery.
"I celebrated the joy I felt and the lessons I had learned. I was touched by the daunting reality: I was a stoke survivor"(Taylor 114). After surgery.
Again this book provides a wonderful inside look into the mind of a stroke victim, by using a conversational tone which can be enjoyed by both the trained neuroscientist and the lay person. I would heartily suggest this book to anyone who has been affected by stroke, and to those who are looking for an interesting perspective on stroke recovery.
Delivery a little slower than I thought September 26, 2009
Moriah Smith
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I ordered this book as soon as I found out that I needed it for class and it's just what I needed. The only problem with this purchase is that the delivery was a little slower than I expected so i almost didn't get the book in time for my assignment. Otherwise, not complaints.
Drain Bamage September 23, 2009
Robert Carlberg (Seattle)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The best part of this book is the author's first-person account of what it feels like to have a massive hemorrhagic stroke in your left hemisphere, rendering her speechless, languageless, movement impaired, frightened and totally dependent. The irony is that up until that time, the 37-year old author was a noted researcher and speaker on, of all things, neurology.
Following the stroke Taylor embarked on a marathon 8-year long struggle to regain her language, relearn her movement, recover her strength and to some extent return to her old career. Yet the process of re-learning every little thing also gave her the opportunity to re-evaluate everything she used to do and be, and she made some conscious choices along the way to try to become a better person the second time around. She claims to be more patient, more compassionate and more "stop-and-smell-the-roses" than she used to be.
All this is fine and makes a good story. If she'd have left it at that the book would have earned an easy five stars.
Unfortunately the last third of the book expands on the now mostly-discredited left-brain/right-brain functional dichotomy, and very repetitively goes over and over how the author feels about peacefulness and meditation and prayer and deep breathing exercises and something she calls "Angel Cards." It's all a bunch of New Age crap that damages the credibility of the mostly scientific and mostly sober first two thirds.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 302
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