An Anthropologist on Mars

Categories: Science , Staff Picks , Nonfiction

Neurologist Oliver Sacks is back after a five-year writing absence with a new book currently on the New York Times Best Sellers List called Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.  I’ve just picked up my library copy and am excited to read it.  In the meantime, I thought I’d write about one of his earlier books. 

In An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales, Sacks discusses seven medical cases that challenge our understanding of the brain and how it works.  Here are a few:

• An artist loses all color vision after a car accident and now sees and paints only in black and white
• A young man has a brain tumor that leaves him with no memory of events past 1970
• A surgeon experiences the compulsive tics of Tourette syndrome except while operating
• An autistic boy named Stephen Wiltshire uses his extraordinary drawing skills to communicate with the world

An Anthropologist on Mars is a fascinating read.  Paintings and drawings are also included to give you a better insight into the patients' mental lives.  And, I also discovered by accident that the cover of this book glows in the dark!

Sacks’ Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood, The Island of the Colorblind and Cycad Island, and Seeing Voices: A Journey Into the World of the Deaf are also on my “to read” list.