Sacks, Oliver W.

The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
105 editions published between 1970 and 2010 in 22 languages and held by 4,108 libraries worldwide
Explores neurological disorders and their effects upon the minds and lives of those affected.

Musicophilia : tales of music and the brain by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
28 editions published between 2007 and 2011 in 3 languages and held by 3,149 libraries worldwide
Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does--humans are a musical species. Oliver Sacks's compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our own brains, and of the human experience. Here, he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people. Music is irresistible, haunting, and unforgettable, and Oliver Sacks tells us why.--From publisher description.

An anthropologist on Mars : seven paradoxical tales by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
30 editions published between 1995 and 2006 in English and Finnish and held by 2,838 libraries worldwide
The author profiles seven neurological patients, including a surgeon with Tourette's syndrome and an artist whose color sense is destroyed in an accident but finds new creative power in black and white.

Seeing voices : a journey into the world of the deaf by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
28 editions published between 1989 and 2009 in 4 languages and held by 2,501 libraries worldwide
"This book will shake your preconceptions about the deaf, about language and about thought--. Sacks [is] one of the finest and most thoughtful writers of our time."--Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Awakenings by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
67 editions published between 1973 and 2005 in 13 languages and held by 2,488 libraries worldwide
A series of case studies of some of the people who developed a sleeping-sickness after World War I and remained in a sleep state until given the drug L-Dopa. Also describes their lives, the transformation after awakening, and then describes parts of the film made from these case studies.

Uncle Tungsten : memories of a chemical boyhood by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
37 editions published between 2001 and 2002 in English and held by 2,387 libraries worldwide
Long before Oliver Sacks became a neurologist and one of our finest science writers, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals -- and also by chemical reactions, the louder and smellier the better. His curiosity was encouraged and abetted by brilliantly quirky relatives: Auntie Len, who taught him that the beauty of numbers can be found in the spiral face of a sunflower; Uncle Dave, who invited the boy to his light-bulb factory; and two older brothers who entertained him by making ammonium dichromate "volcanoes." But Sacks's childhood was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, when he was evacuated from London and sent to live in a boarding school that rivaled Dickens's grimmest creations. He was sustained through those difficult years by his passion for learning and for finding patterns in the world around him. Overflowing with humor, sadness, sensuous recollection, and the almost physical rapture of discovery, Uncle Tungsten re-creates the wonder of science as it is first experienced and chronicles the birth of an extraordinary and original mind.

The mind's eye by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
16 editions published between 2010 and 2011 in English and held by 1,979 libraries worldwide
Includes stories of people who are able to navigate the world and communicate with others despite losing what many of us consider indispensable senses and faculties: the power of speech, the capacity to recognize faces, the sense of three-dimensional space, the ability to read, and the sense of sight. This book is a testament to the complexity of vision and the brain and to the power of creativity and adaptation, and it provides a whole new perspective on the power of language and communication, as we try to imagine what it is to perceive through another person's eyes, or another person's mind.

The island of the colorblind ; and, Cycad island by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
14 editions published between 1996 and 2007 in 4 languages and held by 1,615 libraries worldwide
Oliver Sacks has always been fascinated by islands - their remoteness, their mystery, above all the unique forms of life they harbor. For him, islands conjure up equally the romance of Melville and Stevenson, the adventure of Magellan and Cook, and the scientific wonder of Darwin and Wallace. Drawn to the tiny Pacific atoll of Pingelap by intriguing reports of an isolated community of islanders born totally colorblind, Sacks finds himself setting up a clinic in a one-room island dispensary, where he listens to these achromatopic islanders describe their colorless world in rich terms of pattern and tone, luminance and shadow. And on Guam, where he goes to investigate the puzzling neurodegenerative paralysis endemic there for a century, he becomes, for a brief time, an island neurologist, making house calls with his colleague John Steele, amid crowing cockerels, cycad jungles, and the remains of a colonial culture. The islands reawaken Sacks' lifelong passion for botany - in particular, for the primitive cycad trees, whose existence dates back to the Paleozoic - and the cycads are the starting point for an intensely personal reflection on the meaning of islands, the dissemination of species, the genesis of disease, and the nature of deep geologic time. Out of an unexpected journey, Sacks has woven an unforgettable narrative which immerses us in the romance of island life, and shares his own compelling vision of the complexities of being human.

A leg to stand on by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
68 editions published between 1984 and 2009 in 8 languages and held by 1,429 libraries worldwide
Dr. Oliver Sacks's books Awakenings, An Anthropologist on Mars and the bestselling The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat have been acclaimed for their extraordinary compassion in the treatment of patients affected with profound disorders.

Migraine by Oliver W Sacks ( Book )
36 editions published between 1970 and 2009 in 8 languages and held by 1,030 libraries worldwide
The many manifestations of migraine can vary dramatically from one patient to another, even within the same patient at different times. Among the most compelling and perplexing of these symptoms are the strange visual hallucinations and distortions of space, time, and body image which migraineurs sometimes experience. Portrayals of these uncanny states have found their way into many works of art, from the heavenly visions of Hildegard von Bingen to Alice in Wonderland. Renowned neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks argues that migraine cannot be understood simply as an illness, but must be viewed as a complex condition with a unique role to play in each individual's life.--From publisher description.