It is a hard thinker and in many ways beautifully captured human lives and our shifting perspectives. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Coming to Our Senses provides a fascinating case of people who grew up with disability comprehend with the world when the certain disability is restored.
Exploring the science behind with true stories of people dealing the world with their new acquired senses.
Informative and impressive read.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving the eARC in exchange of an honest feedback.

The way our brain processes our senses is totally fascinating to me, so I had to request this when I saw it on Netgalley. It tells the story of a young man who lost his sight quite young and later had it restored surgically, and of a woman who lost her hearing as a child and had it restored as an adult. I think it’s easy to hear about that kind of thing and just think, “Oh, they can see/hear now!” but it turns out it’s way more complicated than that. For example, the boy who regained his vision had to learn how to navigate things we don’t even notice, like the way hallways appear to narrow in the distance and distinguishing between what’s an actual obstacle on the path in front of you and what’s just a shadow that you can walk over normally. I liked that the author actually has some experience in the matter – she had vision that made everything appear flat until undergoing surgery that allowed her to see “in stereo”, so she understands what it’s like to adjust to seeing the world in a whole new way.

I reviewed this book for The New York Times Book Review, at the following link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/books/review/comnig-to-our-senses-susan-barry.html

Coming To Our Senses is about two case studies of adults who were born blind (Liam) and deaf ( Zohra) and has regained their senses in their adulthood. This book reminds me of the cases in Oliver Sacks' books. Such an interesting and informative read on how re-gaining the use of our senses are not only based on our anatomy and physiology, but also on our psychology and the environment surrounding us. Highly recommend this book!

This book is out of my comfort zone but it surprised me in the best way. I took longer than I expected to finish it, because I needed some time to reflect upon the content. I'm very impressed and glad that I requested this title. I'll definitely think about it for a long time.

"by year eight, it was thought, the brain was not plastic enough to allow for the development of a new sense."

despite how informative this book was, it did not feel like info dumping for me. we get to follow liam and zohra's stories from the beginning, through all the hardships and successes. didn't expect butloved the mention of 2020 and how mask—wearing shifted our way of communicating, both for hearing people and those with auditory difficulties. the book is accompanied by really helpful images of optical illusions and great explanations on why they do work, or not.

sensory perception is a fascinating subject i knew little about but i knew i was deeply interested in because of my human language class. this book felt like an extension of that and just solidified how fascinating i found the way our brains work, how they adapt to any circumstances, how crucial the very first years of life are in our future.

i truly sense the world differently after this book!

I got this book on NetGalley as an ARC. Getting it as an ARC doesn’t affect my review.
I liked this book. It talked about blind or deaf people regaining hearing or sight, respectively. It was interesting how it wasn’t easy for them to use the implanted lenses(in the case of the blind boy) or the implant(in the deaf girl). I learned that blind people don’t always embrace the sense of sight great in the long term as they end up being confused with things like lines and angles and shadows. The whole “belongingness” is hard for people who gain new senses. With the author’s vision issue that made her have to have therapy as an adult to finally be able to have stereo vision, it helps us understand the issues that blind and deaf people face in their lives. I think I would read more like this on NetGalley from this author.

This is a really thought provoking book that raised questions I'd never thought about before. Such as how do people with new or regained sight and hearing cope with a whole new world around them? The answer is with resilience, support and a lot of persistence.

I little while ago, I saw a YouTube video where a colorblind man is given a set of glasses which allow him to see colors the way non-colorblind people do. One of the people with him asks “What color is my shirt?” and the man answers correctly. I remember wondering how he could identify a color that he had never been able to see.

I was reminded of that video when reading this book, which talks about how our brains process sight and sound by following the experiences of a blind man and a deaf woman who have these senses activated as adults. It was fascinating to learn about the pitfalls and difficulties that they experienced and how these struggles illuminate how much information we are able to interpret without being aware that we are doing so.

The book was informative without being overly technical, and the author did a great job of providing visual and describing aural examples in a way that allowed me to understand the struggles that these people faced.

Thanks to Basic Books for providing an advanced reading copy via NetGalley.

Fascinating premise: that individuals who are deaf or blind from an early age, and then have corrective surgery or therapy at a much later date and regain their sight or hearing are not necessarily better off. Because they have learned ways of adapting to life and making their own way in the world, this sudden correction can even produce depression or a crisis. Author, Susan Barry, presents two case studies; Liam, who was born with very poor eyesight and Zohra who was deaf as a young child. She presents the science behind their deficiencies, the ways that they coped with their world and the challenges that they had once sight and hearing were restored. I kept reading parts of the book to my family and we agreed that the research and stories were very interesting. The author also includes many more titles that she used when doing her research that I plan on reading. Just incredible, I will recommend this to my friends!