Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D wrote this New York Times bestseller after 8 years of recovery from a stroke. At the age of 37 she experienced an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) which accounts for only 2 percent of all hemorrhagic strokes. Prior to the stroke she was a trained and published neuroanatomist who was working in the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry at McLean Hospital in Belmont. Among other tasks, she collected brains.

What makes this book unique is that as a trained neuroanatomist she was able to describe in minute and personal detail the experience of having such a stroke. She could literally watch her brain systems shut down, one by one. She was alone in her apartment when the stroke occurred. Just how she managed to call for help is a suspense short story in its own right.

Initially the book explains the science of the brain for the reader. It then covers the stroke experience. Following that it describes her treatment (and more importantly, her mistreatment) by hospital staff. From that experience she is able to offer suggestions for how to treat stroke victims. The hero in the story is her mother who immediately came to live with her and devised years of patient painstaking day-by-day care.

Despite the fact that the book is repetitive and preachy (the author is a bit full of herself), it offers a fascinating insight indeed into the horror of a stroke.