A Stitch of Time: The Year a Brain Injury Changed My Language and Life Paperback – May 1, 2018

I started reading the book last night, expecting to read a couple of chapters, but couldn't put it down, and ended up staying up all right reading and watching the sun rise as I finished. This book is a delicate balance of beautiful prose, engaging storytelling, and fascinating revelations about words, language, memory, relationships and finding and creating oneself through the challenges that shape us. The author also has a wonderful ability to flip back and forth between living through the massive changes in her brain and life and the hindsight with which she is writing the book, allowing the reader to experience both simultaneously. The book gives great insight into aphasia, recovery, and the many delicate balances that keep our brains functioning. Highly recommend to people interested in the more scientific subjects covered in the book, and those just looking for an engaging, engrossing story to suck you in and keep you up all night reading.

I am not a good enough writer to do this book justice in a review. The writing is beautiful and the book incredibly thought provoking. It ended up taking a long time to read, because I'd read one chapter and then spend a day or two thinking about it before moving onto the next, but I just as easily could have read it in one sitting. The author portrayed her experience with so much clarity and depth that her story became vividly real as if the reader is experiencing those moments alongside her. But beyond that, this book subtly paints a picture of some kind of deeper truth about the way we interact with the world that will stay with me for a very long time. I sincerely hope there will be more books by Lauren Marks in the future. Highly recommend.

One minute she was on stage in Edinburgh singing karaoke with her friend. Then an aneurysm in her brain she didn't know she had ruptured, and she woke in a Scottish hospital, unable to speak, read, or write. This time of her life, which she refers to as The Quiet, had a name—aphasia. She struggles to regain her speaking ability and succeeds over the following months.The most interesting thing in her account is the change in her personality. Her boyfriend expects her to return to the girl she was, but that woman is gone forever. She is a new creation and struggles to learn who she has become.A fascinating account of how the brain works, and what it is like when it doesn't.

I took a writing class with Lauren years ago and knew, when I first heard her read, that any book she wrote would be published. We didn't really stay in touch but I watched the progress with her memoir on Facebook and having read it, I can say it was even better than what I'd imagined. I bought the book initially to support Lauren, however, about the time it came out I decided to study French intensively. I felt that I would relate to the topic a bit more since I was going to be without my native language for a while. Of course it was nothing comparable and yet I read on because Lauren's writing is insightful even if you've never experienced what she has, and it's musical. It's easy to read. You want to know more and yet you're not racing through the pages as the language itself is beautiful, kind of ironic given that the whole book is about a struggle with language.For an example of her insight, "We use words to describe ourselves to others, but also to describe ourselves to our ourselves." Wow - so true but I had never thought about it.She's also funny. It's impressive how she kept her sense of humor like when she told her neurosurgeon, "well I'll give you a piece of my mind." Or when she asked herself if she would actually let a university rivalry inform her choice of a neurosurgeon," I thought that this book would be more suited to someone who had gone through something similar to what Lauren had but really, it's just a damn good memoir for anyone to read.

This is the remarkable story of a young woman’s battle with aphasia after suffering an aneurysm. The exceptionally articulate book is written by the young woman herself as she regains her life and language.

Informative.... Appeals to a select audience.... Can be discouraging to someone who does not attain the author 's level of recovery

Several years before the start of her Lauren’s ‘adventure’, I had a cerebral aneurysm rupture in the same left temporal lobe area. In my case, after an emergency room craniotomy & vessel clipping, I ended up with an area of encephalomalacia, a significant level of expressive aphasia, limitations on memory abilities (storage & access), and a loss of thinking speed and ability to interact in “high-pressure” interactions. I found the book to be a fascinating recounting of Lauren’s aneurysm experience, and learned more about a number of aspects of my adventure! The description & discussion of her medical and recovery encounters & procedures (including neurosurgeon, neurologist, nurses, neuro-therapists, family & friends) was most interesting – her journal scribbles provided an amazing level of detail for someone in an impaired condition! Lauren is also very open and honest about her many positive & negative thoughts and feelings, which tend to start up after a level of recovery has occurred. This book provides a black & white example of brain plasticity, as the “short-circuits” and “disconnects” that are left after a brain-vessel blowout are slowly rewired. I am looking forward to further books by Lauren in the future – she is a very skilled and educational writer. After one experiences TBI, the recovery period never ends……..

Lauren Marks book is a wonderful read... her unique and profound life-changing experience is generously shared with us. I was riveted from first page to last as she unfolds her story with such warmth, fun and intelligence. A Stitch in Time stretched my horizons, gave me new insights and had me laughing out loud. Please read it!