(1)From Chapter Eighteen: On Golden Pond...
From the moment I arrived in New Hampshire, I began taking backflip lessons from the University of Maine’s swimming coach, who summered near Squam Lake. I started with a belt around my waist, hooked up to a rope that assisted me in the flip, with a mattress to cushion the fall. After a week or so I graduated to the coach’s diving board, and Troy would sit poolside and watch his mother’s pathetic attempts to get herself all the way around, which generally ended with me landing on my back. I was terrified, always on the verge of tossing in the towel. After a month of this I moved to the float, the one in the movie, in front of the house, out in Squam Lake. It was the beginning of July, and I had less than a month to get it right. Every day when I wasn’t needed on the set I would be out there, diving backward, over and over again, my body slapping against the water as I failed to make it around. Then one day about three weeks into this ordeal on the lake, I finally got it right!
. Nothing to write home about, but I had managed to flip far enough over to have time to straighten my legs and enter the water headfirst. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to do it again, but at least I’d done it once. As I crawled, battered and bruised, onto the shore, out of the nearby bushes appeared Ms. Hepburn. She must have been hiding there, watching me practice. She walked over to where I was standing and said in her shaky, nasal, God-is-a-New-Englander voice, ‘Don’t you feel good?’ ‘Terrific,’ I answered. And it was true. ‘You’ve taught me to respect you, Jane. You faced your fear. Everyone should know that feeling of overcoming fear and mastering something. People who aren’t taught that become soggy.’ Thank you, Lord! I’d been redeemed. God knows the last thing in the world I wanted to be was soggy, certainly not in the eyes of Ms. Hepburn, a living testament to nonsogginess. It was odd. In the film the backflip was to prove myself to my father. In real life I had proved myself to Ms. Hepburn. Dad probably couldn’t have cared less if I’d done the dive myself or used a stunt double. We finally shot the diving scene in the third week of July. I managed a fairly good dive and was relieved to have it out of the way. Wrong, wrong, wrong, as Ms. Hepburn would say. A few days later we learned that the footage of the scene had somehow been damaged in the lab and I would have to do it all again. As though that weren’t bad enough, when we finally got around to reshooting, it was mid-September and the water was numbingly cold. I will never forget having to walk out on the diving board, all wet and shivering, while the crew sat in the camera boat in their down parkas. I was out of practice and too cold to execute the dive as well as I had the first time. When I came to the surface and said, ‘I did it! It was lousy, but at least I did it,’ those were my own words, spontaneous and totally true.
“Whether you’re a frequent or once-a-year flier, there’s something for everyone in this witty tell-all.” (Publishers Weekly )
“[An] insider’s perspective on the friendly skies . . . [an] entertaining, gonzo account.” (Booklist )
“A veteran flight attendant’s hilarious take on what really happens behind the scenes at 35,000 feet.” (People )
“Fun airplane reading.” (Washington Post )
“Poole knows what her readers want[:] juicy tidbits about celebrities (she delivers, with no names but sometimes enough description that you can figure it out), to know if flight attendants ever date passengers (yes) and the dirt on whether pilots are as skeezy as they sometimes seem (yes and no).” (Denver Post )
“Heather Poole is the fly-and-tell queen of the skies.” (Los Angeles Times )
AN EX-HEADMISTRESS, A BIKE, AND 12,000 MILES
'It's just over a month now since Barack Obama made history and became the United States' first black President: what, then, of the woman who accompanied him to the White House and is chatelaine of the place now?'
Daily Express 20/2
(6)A brain scientist's journey from a debilitating stroke to full recovery becomes an inspiring exploration of human consciousness and its possibilities
On the morning of December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven-year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist, experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. A neuroanatomist by profession, she observed her own mind completely deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life, all within the space of four brief hours. As the damaged left side of her brain--the rational, grounded, detail- and time-oriented side--swung in and out of function, Taylor alternated between two distinct and opposite realties: the euphoric nirvana 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 Jill was having a stroke, and enabled her to seek help before she was lost completely.
In My Stroke of Insight, Taylor shares her unique perspective on the brain and its capacity for recovery, and the sense of omniscient understanding she gained from this unusual and inspiring voyage out of the abyss of a wounded brain. It would take eight years for Taylor to heal completely. Because of her knowledge of how the brain works, her respect for the cells composing her human form, and most of all an amazing mother, Taylor completely repaired her mind and recalibrated her understanding of the world according to the insights gained from her right brain that morning of December 10th.
Today Taylor is convinced that the stroke was the best thing that could have happened to her. It has taught her that the feeling of nirvana is never more than a mere thought away. By stepping to the right of our left brains, we can all uncover the feelings of well-being and peace that are so often sidelined by our own brain chatter. A fascinating journey into the mechanics of the human mind, My Stroke of Insight is both a valuable recovery guide for anyone touched by a brain injury, and an emotionally stirring testimony that deep internal peace truly is accessible to anyone, at any time.
Questions for Jill Bolte Taylor
Amazon.com: Your first reaction when you realized what was happening to your body was one you would expect: "Oh my gosh, I'm having a stroke!" Your second, though, was a little more surprising: "Wow, this is so cool!" What could be cool about a stroke?
Taylor: I grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who is only 18 months older than I am. He was very different in the way he perceived experiences and then chose to behave. As a result, I became fascinated with the human brain and how it creates our perception of reality. He was eventually diagnosed with the brain disorder schizophrenia, and I dedicated my career to the postmortem investigation of the human brain in an attempt to understand, at a biological level, what are the differences between my brain and my brother’s brain. On the morning of the stroke, I realized that my brain was no longer functioning like a "normal" brain and this insight into my brother's reality excited me. I was fascinated to intimately understand what it might be like on the inside for someone who would not be diagnosed as normal. Through the eyes of a curious scientist, this was an absolutely rare and fascinating experience for me to witness the breakdown of my own mind.
Amazon.com: What did you learn about the brain from your stroke and your recovery that your scientific training hadn't prepared you for?
Taylor: My scientific training did not teach me anything about the human spirit and the value of compassion. I had been trained as a scientist, not as a clinician. I can only hope that we are teaching our future physicians about compassion in medicine, and I know that some medical schools, including the Indiana University School of Medicine, have created a curriculum with this intention.
My training as a scientist, however, did provide me with a roadmap to how the body and brain work. And although I lost my left cognitive mind that thinks in language, I retained my right hemisphere that thinks in pictures. As a result, although I could not communicate with the external world, I had an intuitive understanding about what I needed to do in order to create an environment in which the cells in my brain could be happy and healthy enough that they could regain their function. In addition, because of my training, I had an innate trust in the ability of my brain to be able to recover itself and my mother and I respected the organ by listening to it. For example, when I was tired, I allowed my brain to sleep, and when I was fresh and capable of focusing my attention, we gave me age-appropriate toys and tools with which to work.
Amazon.com: Your stroke affected functions in your left brain, leaving you to what you call the "la-la land" of your right hemisphere. What was it like to live in your right brain, and then to rebuild your left?
Taylor: When the cells in my left brain became nonfunctional because they were swimming in a pool of blood, they lost their ability to inhibit the cells in my right hemisphere. In my right brain, I shifted into the consciousness of the present moment. I was in the right here, right now awareness, with no memories of my past and no perception of the future. The beauty of La-la land (my right hemisphere experience of the present moment) was that everything was an explosion of magnificent stimulation and I dwelled in a space of euphoria. This is great way to exist if you don't have to communicate with the external world or care whether or not you have the capacity to learn. I found that in order for me to be able to learn anything, however, I had to take information from the last moment and apply it to the present moment. When my left hemisphere was completely nonfunctional early on, it was impossible for me to learn, which was okay with me, but I am sure it was frustrating for those around me. A simple example of this was trying to put on my shoes and socks. I eventually became physically capable of putting my shoes and socks on, but I had no ability to understand why I would have to put my socks on before my shoes. To me they were simply independent actions that were not related and I did not have the cognitive ability to figure out the appropriate sequencing of the events. Over time, I regained the ability to weave moments back together to create an expanse of time, and with this ability came the ability to learn methodically again. Life in La-la land will always be just a thought away, but I am truly grateful for the ability to think with linearity once again.
Amazon.com: What can we learn about our brains and ourselves from your experience, even if we haven't lived through the kind of brain trauma you have?
Taylor: I learned that I have much more say about what goes on between my ears than I was ever taught and I believe that this is true for all of us. I used to understand that I had the ability to stop thinking about one thing by consciously choosing to preoccupy my mind with thinking about something else. But I had no idea that it only took 90 seconds for me to have an emotional circuit triggered, flush a physiological response through my body and then flush completely out of me. We can all learn that we can take full responsibility for what thoughts we are thinking and what emotional circuitry we are feeling. Knowing this and acting on this can lead us into feeling a wonderful sense of well-being and peacefulness.
Amazon.com: You are the "Singin' Scientist" for Harvard's Brain Bank (just as you were before your stroke). Could you tell us about the Brain Bank (in song or not)?
Taylor: There is a long-term shortage of brain tissue donated for research into the severe mental illnesses. Most people don’t realize that when you sign the back of your license as an organ donor, the brain is not included. If you would like to donate your brain for research, you must contact a brain bank directly. There is also a shortage of "normal control" tissue for research. The bottom line reality is that if there were more tissue available for research, then more scientists would be dedicating their careers to the study of the severe mental illnesses and we would have more answers about what is going on with these disorders. The numbers of mentally ill individuals in our society are staggering. The most serious and disabling conditions affect about 6 percent--or one in 17--adults and 9-13 percent of children in the United States. Half of all lifetime conditions of mental illness start by age 14 years, and three-fourths by age 24 years.
For more information about brain donation to the Harvard brain bank, please call 1-800-BRAINBANK or visit them at: www.brainbank.mclean.org
If you would like to hear me sing the brain bank jingle, please visit www.drjilltaylor.com!
Woodbine House is proud to bring back into print a classic in disability literature. Written by the Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Good Earth and many other books, this personal account broke a national taboo when it was originally published in 1950. Buck's inspiring account of her struggle to help and understand her daughter with mental retardation was the first disclosure of its kind by a public figure. Today, much of the emotional experience Buck so eloquently describes still rings true. New material written especially for this edition amplifies her story and gives the book an important historical perspective.
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EINSTEIN by Walter Isaacson
‘Isaacson’s biography is readable and highly professional, based on extensive research and thorough checking by expert physicists and historians. Anyone coming to Einstein’s life and work for the first time will be accurately informed and intellectually stimulated…A memorable conclusion: “For some people, miracles serve as evidence of God’s existence. For Einstein it was the absence of miracles that reflected divine providence. The fact that the world is comprehensible, that it follows laws, is worthy of awe.” This is as pithy as Einstein himself’
Andrew Robinson, New Scientist 14/4
‘What captures the public attention will be the biographer’s revelation that Einstein fathered a daughter, Lieserl, before he married his fellow mathematician, Mileva Mari, and that the child mysteriously disappears from the record’
Lisa Jardine, The Times 28/4
‘[A] brilliant biography, rich with newly available archival material’
Literary Review, June issue
‘Beautifully written, it renders the physics understandable… Einstein was one of the creators of the modern world, and anyone that does not possess a biography of him should acquire this one’
Sunday Telegraph 3/6
‘With prodigious effort and businesslike calm, Isaacson has given us much more than Einstein the magus, he has given us Einstein the mensch’
Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times 3/6
‘Isaacson is excellent at explaining the science…. But moments later the reality of the understanding has slipped away and one’s sense of amazement returns. This is because Einstein is analyzing a world beyond the direct perception of our senses’
Daily Express 8/6
'YOU REALLY MUST READ… Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson: a highly readable, dramatic and revelatory biography'
Sunday Times 10/6
‘This book is popular science, biography, history and dramatic writing at its very best’
5 stars, London Lite 12/6
'A thorough exploration of his subject's life, a skilful piece of scientific literature and a thumping good read...It's one of the greatest stories of modern science and to his credit and my surprise, Isaacson has done a first-rate job in telling it. This is, quite simply, a riveting read'
Robin McKie, Observer 10/6
'This book is a splendid achievement'
Daily Telegraph 23/7
'[Isaacson] has written a great book, one that provides everything one would want from a biography of Einstein'
The Spectator 30/6
'YOU REALLY MUST READ… a highly readable, dramatic and revelatory biography'
Sunday Times 17/6
'A readable, dramatic and revelatory life, based on a mass of new letters'
Sunday Times 1/7
‘The popular Einstein story is impossible to resist. A young man fails his mathematics exams yet becomes the world’s greatest scientist. He works in obscurity. When he publishes his great papers, he’s ignored. Despite all this – and his autism – he triumphs. But he does so only with the help of his wife, a key source of his ideas. It turns out that none of that is true. The reality, however, is even better’
FT 4/8
‘This book reads very much like a labour of love… While Einstein may have changed from scientific revolutionary to reactionary during his career, his life remained fascinating and complex to the end, and this book does him justice’
Independent on Sunday 12/08
'In the end, Einstein left his mark on the world because he always had the courage to stand up to conventional wisdom and was never afraid to ask seemingly naïve questions, most of which began with the words "what if?". This tendency to rebel was the source of his creativity and his real talent was an ability to focus on mundane things that his contemporaries had overlooked. He has always deserved a biography that radiates intelligence, wit and eloquence - and now, thanks to Walter Isaacson, he finally has one'
Sunday Business Post (Ireland) 5/8
‘His sympathetic biography of “science’s pre-eminent poster boy” can justifiably claim to be more comprehensive than any before.
‘Isaacson still manages to explain Einstein’s revolutionary thinking with infectious enthusiasm, but it is the man behind the science who is now brought into sharper focus’
Guardian 25/8
‘Walter Isaacson’s achievement is to take us beyond the myth of the huge brain. Through an artful mix of biography and lucid illumination of the most mind-blowing theoretical leaps in science, he makes the case that Einstein’s genius depended not on ‘brute processing power’, but imagination, independence, creativity and passion’
5 stars, Mail on Sunday 2/9
'It is the portrayal of [Einstein's] weaknesses and foibles that makes this book and Albert himself such a delight. He might have been able to understand quantum theory and imagine the universe as a series of equations that swept through existence like a wave, but people! He was just like the rest of us. His private life as a lover, husband and father shows many faults and mistakes. The book is a glorious attempt to showing a towering genius in human terms' Venue 28/9
'A compelling biography of the little scientist who never wore socks and who changed the way we see the world. Isaacson elegantly and fluently interweaves Einstein's interestingly chaotic personal life with confidently lengthy accounts of the work'
Favourite Biographies of 2007, Sunday Times 25/11
'A wealth of information about a complex and divided character. Einstein said his public acclaim made him feel a fraud, but he was an adept manipulator of his own image; when it was rumoured that he was too absent-minded to remember his socks in the morning, he stopped wearing them so as not to disappoint anyone'
Tim Martin, Biographies of the Year Daily Telegraph 24/11
EINSTEIN by Walter Isaacson - 9781847370488
'In the end, Einstein left his mark on the world because he always had the courage to stand up to conventional wisdom and was never afraid to ask seemingly naïve questions, most of which began with the words "what if?". This tendency to rebel was the source of his creativity and his real talent was an ability to focus on mundane things that his contemporaries had overlooked. He has always deserved a biography that radiates intelligence, wit and eloquence - and now, thanks to Walter Isaacson, he finally has one'
Sunday Business Post (Ireland) 5/8
"Albert comes vividly to life and so do his space-warping, mind-bending theories. Isaacson uses personal letters that have only recently become available and it turns out he was as passionate about the female of our species as he was about the rest of the universe"
Alan Alda, Hawkeye and Science buff, The Times 8/11
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