Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I debated over whether to give this book three, four, or five stars. The information that Dr. Taylor presents about the brain and stroke is worth five stars, without question. But I have a few complaints about how she presents this information; and lots of complaints about the "self-help" aspects of this book. I almost wish I could post two reviews of this book -- a five-star review for the information about the brain and stroke; and a two-star review for everything else about the book. I ended up giving the book a (somewhat charitable) compromise rating of four stars (but in some ways the four star rating is too low; and in others it is way too high). Let's start with the positives: This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in the human brain and how it functions, any health care professional or caregiver who deals with stroke patients, anyone who has a friend or family member who has had a stroke, and anyone who is concerned about the possibility that they might someday suffer from a stroke (a statistical possibility, since about 700,000 Americans will have a stroke this year). If you want to know about what it's like to have a stroke and to recover from it, this is the book to read. Dr. Taylor is a brain scientist who had a stroke and lived to tell her story of survival, recovery, and rehabilitation. The information she provides about her personal experience is priceless for anyone who wants to better understand what happens when someone has a stroke, and what is needed for recovery and rehabilitation. This information is also of extreme value for anyone who wants to better understand how the brain works to make us who we are. Five stars for the information on the brain and stroke. But now I must deal with the negatives, and comment on the "two-star" aspects of this book. First of all, the writing style is a bit amateurish; but we can excuse Dr. Taylor for that, since she's a brain scientist, not a professional writer. But I do have a bit of a problem with how she tells her story. What bothers me about her account is her description of what was going on in her mind while she was having the stroke and during her recovery. She describes herself as having certain thoughts that just don't seem plausible given her description of the mental impairments she was suffering at the time. She makes a point of saying that the language centers of her left cerebral cortex had been impaired, silencing the inner voice in her head, leaving her mind in a state of peaceful quiet. Yet she goes on to describe thoughts that were running through her mind. (How could she have such thoughts without that inner voice?) I got the feeling that she was actually describing the thoughts that went through her mind years later as she was recalling her stroke experience. (But, given the fact that our minds actually "construct" our memories as we reflect on our past experiences rather than simply recording our experiences and playing them back for us with perfect accuracy, this sort of thing is to be expected.) But what really annoyed me about this book was that, in the last few chapters, it turned into a sappy, shallow, self-help book of the "learn-to-love-yourself-and-think-happy-thoughts" variety; and includes what has to be the single corniest sentence ever written in the English language: "When my bowels move, I cheer my cells for clearing that waste out of my body." (p. 156) In these later chapters, the book even delves into "New Age" stuff like "energy dynamics", Feng Shui, and "Angel Cards". I felt that this seriously compromised the integrity of the valuable information that Dr. Taylor presented about brain science and stroke recovery. This information is so valuable that I would still recommend the book in spite of its many shortcomings; but I would encourage you to take the last few chapters of the book with a grain of salt.