Audiobooks by Susan R. Barry

Dear Oliver: An Unexpected Friendship with Oliver Sacks

To the world, he was Dr. Sacks, the brilliant neurologist behind bestselling books like Musicophilia and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. To professor Susan Barry, he became Dear Oliver-her mentor, friend, and confidant over the course of their ten-year correspondence. It begins with a letter that Sue almost doesn't send. Sue's unheard-of case history-as a 'stereoblind' patient who acquired 3D vision in adulthood-so fascinates Dr. Sacks that he immediately asks to visit her. As 'Stereo Sue,' she becomes the subject of one of his indelible New Yorker pieces-and, as a fellow neuroscientist, his sounding board for every kind of intellectual inquiry. Their shared passions spark a friendship that buoys both of them through life's crests and falls: as Sue becomes an author, as she supports her father in his decline, and as Oliver becomes a patient himself-battling cancer that robs him of his own vision. Dr. Sacks's letters to Sue offer listeners an unprecedented glimpse of the man himself-from his compassion and insight to his love of the periodic table. Throughout Dear Oliver, we are reminded that true friends help each other see the world a little differently.

Susan R. Barry (Author), Jonathan Keeble, Rengin Altay (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

Dear Oliver: An unexpected friendship with Oliver Sacks

'Dear Dr. Sacks . . . You asked me if I could imagine what the world would look like when viewed with two eyes. I told you that I thought I could . . . But, I was wrong.' When Susan Barry first wrote to Oliver Sacks, she never expected a response, let alone the deep friendship that blossomed over ten years of letters. Sue, herself a neuroscientist, wrote to share an extraordinary development in her own medical history. Born with problems with her vision, Sue had been told she would never acquire the ability to see in 3D - and yet she did, a development at odds with decades of research. Within days, Oliver replied, 'Your letter fills me with amazement and admiration.' Sharing an interest in visual perception and a deep love of science, Sue and Oliver began writing back and forth, delving deeper into the mysteries of sight and marvelling at the adaptive capacity of the human body. But in a painful twist of fate, as Sue's vision improved, Oliver's declined, and his characteristic typed letters shifted to handwritten ones. Sue later recognised this to be an early sign of the cancer that ultimately ended his extraordinary life. A funny, fascinating, and intimate glimpse of the great Oliver Sacks, Dear Oliver is also a love letter to scientific inquiry, and a testimony to the power of friendship at any time in life.

Susan R. Barry (Author), Jonathan Keeble, Rengin Altay (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free

Coming to Our Senses: A Boy Who Learned to See, a Girl Who Learned to Hear, and How We All Discover

A neurobiologist reexamines the personal nature of perception in this groundbreaking guide to a new model for our senses.  We think of perception as a passive, mechanical process, as if our eyes are cameras and our ears microphones. But as neurobiologist Susan R. Barry argues, perception is a deeply personal act. Our environments, our relationships, and our actions shape and reshape our senses throughout our lives. This idea is no more apparent than in the cases of people who gain senses as adults. Barry tells the stories of Liam McCoy, practically blind from birth, and Zohra Damji, born deaf, in the decade following surgeries that restored their senses. As Liam and Zohra learned entirely new ways of being, Barry discovered an entirely new model of the nature of perception. Coming to Our Senses is a celebration of human resilience and a powerful reminder that, before you can really understand other people, you must first recognize that their worlds are fundamentally different from your own.

Susan R. Barry (Author), Rengin Altay (Narrator)

Audiobook

Play Sample Listen For Free