100 books like Born on a Blue Day

I never knew there was a name for what medical doctor Joel Salinas described in this fascinating book: Mirror Touch.

If you are one of those people who flinch/touch your own cheek when you see someone slapped in a movie or physically redden or cringe when another person is embarrassed—you, yourself, may have the “mirror touch” capacity that the doctor describes.

As Dr. Salinas explains, all of us have “mirror neurons,” which allow us to feel empathy with other people going through physical or emotional pain. However, some of us, mirror-touch synesthetes like Dr Salinas, can have twice the usual number of mirror neurons, causing them to feel, in their own bodies, the pain of another person upon seeing or even hearing it described.

The book tells of how the doctor’s gift makes him “feel the pain” of his patients and his struggle to find boundaries that allow him to… show more.

This book made me laugh out loud!

In this winner of the 2023 Independent Publisher Book Award bronze medal, the author tells true tales of his everyday life as a writer in New York City’s East Village and Brooklyn. We hear stories of the quirky situations and characters he encounters, stories that often take a meandering path due to, as the author tells us, his diagnosis of A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder).

The author’s unique, quirky writing style has him begin one funny story, which then leads to another and another, then circles back to the first. As author Tyler Gore himself said in an interview, “I strongly feel that both my sense of humor and my creativity are connected to my A.D.D., and that seems like a fair trade-off for occasionally losing my glasses on the train.”

I love books with the theme of accepting who you are: working with your gifts and managing your struggles. This book is a great example of a book that guides girls on the autism spectrum to appreciate their uniqueness!

The brilliant young author Siena Castellon, who is herself on the autism spectrum, wrote this book when she was still a teenager. Readers follow the author’s developing awareness of the mix of gifts and challenges her unique form of perception brings. 

Siena Castellon, who is “UN Youth Ambassador for Neurodiversity,” gives excellent and practical tips for coping with differences (“Did I say the wrong thing?”  “Did I come off as too ‘nerd-y’? ) in this celebration of the gifts of those on the spectrum.

I was bowled over by Maureen Seaberg’s book, which brings together recent research that shows our human sensory capacity is much greater than we believed before!

In these days of rising AI, when we are taking a hard look at the limitations of our human capacities, Seaberg’s book shows that we human beings have much amazing sensory potential that remains undeveloped and can know first-hand the blended sensations of synesthesia or out-of-body experiences.

No wonder the book was included in Malcolm Gladwell’s “Next Big Idea Book Club”! I stayed awake an extra two hours one night because I could not put the book down. This book gave me a jolt of wonder about the world and our place within it.

First of all, I love everything I've ever read from Helen Hoang.

Getting inside the heads of her characters feels like such a privilege, always providing a different way of viewing the world. In this book, watching the characters come to understand and love each other through neurodivergence, language, and cultural differences was so beautiful. I couldn't put it down!

Neuroscientist David Eagleman uses a delightful array of examples—from historical to contemporary, geological to quotidian—to explain the marvels and complexities of the human brain. Although, as someone who lost all her sight later in life, I sometimes find myself wishing for the brain plasticity of a two-year-old, I am grateful for the amount of change that can occur in even the older brain. Most excitingly to a blind person living in an ocular centric world, Livewired reveals how “Sensory organs feed many different information sources to the brain,” and the consequence of this diversity is that: “your brain doesn’t know, and it doesn’t care, where the data come from.” I can only hope reading this book helps non-blind humans learn to be as impartial as their brains.

The Undying Tower brings a new flavour of sci-fi dystopian. Not only do we have an apocalyptic world-building itself from the ashes, but the world might not be as rudimentary as it first looks. In a landscape where a percentage of the population never ages, it presents interesting and unique challenges to those who do and those who do not. The blend of futuristic genetic modification, as well as dealing with mental health in the unique aspect of synesthesia, makes for a compelling and heart-felt read.

Is the brain a separate, independent entity from who we are? Do our brains control us, or do we control our brains? Or is it something in between? In an often lyrical, easy-to-understand narrative, neuroscientist David Eagleman argues that it’s the unconscious that influences most of what we do, even before we’re aware that we’ve decided to do something.

Oliver Sacks was a person who really loved science and being a scientist. Instead of describing some neurological condition or syndrome then explaining why that condition matters to our humanity, he describes the condition and the people who have it in ways that make it clear why it matters. 

In Musicophilia, Sacks’ object of study is musical disorders, including cases of people who suddenly showed a great interest in music after having little prior interest, as well as people who suddenly lost all love for music. He also looks at people who have hallucinations of music, and struggle to find where the sound is coming from. 

Only the Beautiful is one of the most important books I’ve ever read.

I’ve read many excellent books, but this one highlights the value of human life in such a profound way. It’s weighty, and definitely not an easy “beach” read. Yet, for all the emotions that rise to the surface throughout, I was left with a cord of hope. I’m a mother of a couple of children with special needs.

Historically, society has not placed a high value on the lives of children like mine. However, each day I see the light and beauty they bring to the world. I hope every believer will read this book and take the message to heart.