Sacks, Oliver. An Anthropologist on Mars.

Neurologist and practicing physician Oliver Sacks has written nearly a dozen popular books on the unusual functions of the human mind and, in doing so, has given us new insights into what constitutes humanness.  An Anthropologist on Mars is one of my favorite books of essays by Sacks.  This is a collection of seven essays, including an essay about a painter who loses all sense of color after an accident and a narrative about Temple Grandin—from which the title is derived.  One of my favorite essays in the collection is about a highly regarded surgeon who is consumed by the compulsive tics of Tourette's Syndrome unless he is operating.  Oliver Sacks’ books are thought-provoking, entertaining, and inspiring.  Read this one if you haven’t read it already.  And you can look forward to his new book,Hallucinations, which is due out this coming fall.