informative reflective medium-paced

lottie1803's review

4.0
challenging informative reflective medium-paced

swimnkit's review

3.0
slow-paced
joannema7's profile picture

joannema7's review

5.0
informative inspiring
pkreads's profile picture

pkreads's review

5.0
dark funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

This book was so good. Informative. Interesting. Thought-provoking. And somehow also deeply human and at times moving. 

stalxwj's review

5.0
informative
pharp's profile picture

pharp's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 11%

Not interested
challenging funny informative reflective medium-paced

Gray Matters is a long, but ultimately enlightening read on the history of neurosurgery from it's early crude stages through the sophisticated techniques used in the present day, while exploring the potential future of this field. Theodore H. Schwartz is a neurosurgeon and while he provides insight into his training (it's an intense and long process!), he mixes examples of patients he has cared for to highlight surgical techniques or conditions of individuals he treats. Even though there is a lot of medical information here, this book is a pretty easy read. I appreciated the examples of famous individuals who had brain issues requiring surgery and the range of outcomes they had. Coming from the mental health field, I appreciated his take on the history of the lobotomy (sordid) and how that has advanced to more targeted surgeries for mental health conditions (think of deep brain stimulation for OCD). I learned a fair bit from this book, and it was a nice mix of historical information with a mix of personal experiences tied in.

nnnikkiniknik's review

5.0
fast-paced