Switched On

By John Elder Robison,

Book cover of Switched On: A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening

Book description

An extraordinary memoir about the cutting-edge brain therapy that dramatically changed the life and mind of John Elder Robison, the New York Times bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST

Imagine spending the first forty years…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Switched On as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The inner workings of the mind are the root of creativity and empathy. Neurodivergence as well as mental disorders figure into many of my books.

While I’m a novelist, I often read nonfiction about everything from schizophrenia and synesthesia to—in this case—the autism spectrum—and memoirs are especially rewarding. I first heard about this book through an article in Discover magazine and was thrilled to come across Jon Elder Robinson’s account of participating in a brain stimulation experiment that awoke parts of his brain he’d never been able to access.

Until this time, he describes being in essence “blind” to social…

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Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up…

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