My Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor
My Stroke of Insight, Jill Bolte Taylor
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My Stroke of Insight

Author: Jill Bolte Taylor

Narrator: Jill Bolte Taylor

Unabridged: 5 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 07/03/2008


Synopsis

The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment.

On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life—all within four hours­—Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover.

For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter." Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.

About The Author

Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist who teaches at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Bloomington, Indiana. She is the national spokesperson for the mentally ill for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Brain Bank) and the consulting neuroantomist for the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. Since 1993 she has been an active member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Her story has been featured on the PBS program Understanding Amazing Brain, among others. She was interviewed on NPR’s The Infinite Mind and ABC News, and was named one of the 100 of the World’s Most Influential People of 2008 by Time magazine.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lena on September 20, 2008

Jill Bolte Tayor was a 37-year old neuroanatomist when she experienced a massive stroke that severely damaged the left hemisphere of her brain. My Stroke of Insight is her account of what happened that day, her subsequent 8-year recovery, and how these events changed her life for the better. The most......more

Goodreads review by Marlan on February 24, 2013

I'm a neurologist, so I approached this book from a different angle than most readers, I imagine. In short, it was not what I expected. Although she was a neuroanatomist prior to the stroke, the book is not science-y at all. That is both good and bad. The good: A first-hand account of being afflicted b......more

Goodreads review by Natalie on December 08, 2008

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I wanted this book to be several other books than the one it actually was. I found it alternately fascinating and incredibly irritating. Taylor is a brain scientist who had a stroke and recovered enough to write about it. The chance to learn about......more

Goodreads review by Antonia on March 12, 2011

Oh, gag. Yes, really. I'm glad the author used her stroke to find nirvana, but honestly, stroke just ain't this pretty. The first half of this book, more or less, was a page turner and I was fascinated. Dr. Taylor was a successful 37-year-old neuroanatomist who suffered a hemorrhagic stroke as a resu......more


Quotes

"Transformative...[Taylor's] experience...will shatter [your] own perception of the world."
ABC News

"[Dr. Taylor] brings a deep personal understanding to something she long studied: that the two lobes of the brain have very different personalities."
The New York Times

"Fascinating...invaluable...fearless...This book is about the wonder of being human."
Robert Koehler, Tribune Media Services