Selected Staff Pick

Selected Staff Pick

Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science

From Library Journal: "The fascinating story of the construction foreman who survived for 10 years after a 13-pound iron rod shot through his brain. Fleischman relates Gage's "horrible accident" and the subsequent events in the present tense, giving immediacy to the text...The author presents scientific background in a conversational style and jumps enthusiastically into such related topics as phrenology, 19th-century medical practices, and the history of microbiology.

He shows how Gage's misfortune actually played an intriguing and important role in the development of our knowledge of the brain...Phineas Gage brings a scientific viewpoint to a topic that will be delightfully gruesome to many readers."