Beach Reads: An Anthropologist on Mars

Summer is an especially nice season to whip out a good book: Whether you're at the beach, waiting for a flight or just trying to distract your mind from the miserable, miserable heat, there's no shortage of opportunities to get lost between the pages.

We asked Babbo's Books owner Leonora Stein to offer some suggestions for great summer reading. Her choice for this week is entitled An Anthropologist on Mars.

Title: An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales

Author: Oliver Sacks

Genre: Essays

Plot: Renowned neuroscientist Oliver Sacks has made a career of studying the peculiarities of the human brain, and it should come as no surprise that there are many: How can surgeon diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome successfully operate on patients? How is it that an autistic professor, who struggles to comprehend basic human emotions, possesses an intuitive knowledge of animal behavior?

Sacks investigates these questions as more than just case studies, but portraits of human beings whose brains have found remarkable ways to manage their circumstances.

Stein says:

"The stories can be tragic. The first one is about a painter who loses all concept of color. It's awful. But at the same time they're so fascinating, and he describes them in such a wonderful way that you almost forget you're learning things.

It's so incredible what the brain can do—and how the brain can malfunction, and what connects to what. It's just amazing how little we actually know about it all. He's a neuroscientist, and he has to say a number of times in the book, 'We don't know why this happened.'"

This book—as well as stacks of others—is available at Babbo's Books, located at 242 Prospect Park West.