Parkinson’s Awareness Month and More

Did you know that Oliver Sacks once bought a house during a swim around New York’s City Island? He lived there for over twenty years.

In his upcoming essay collection Everything In Its Place, Dr. Sacks recalls, “I had stopped about halfway around to look at a charming gazebo by the water’s edge, got out and strolled up the street, saw a little red house for sale, was shown round it (still dripping) by the puzzled owners, walked along to the real estate agent and convinced her of my interest (she was not used to customers in swim trunks), reentered the water on the other side of the island, and swam back to Orchard Beach, having acquired a house in midswim.”

Everything In Its Place goes on sale on April 23. Preorder your copy from your favorite bookseller here. In a prepublication review, The Scientist says: “We readers can rejoice that, while cancer may have claimed his body, his voice continues to ring out… His agility with the microscope of prose—zooming in on acute scenes from his own life, then back out to encapsulate life and science as a whole—is in full flourish in [this] latest book.”

Have you read Maria Popova’s beautiful new book ‘Figuring’? It explores creativity, love, humanity, and science through the interconnected lives of artists, writers, and scientists across four centuries, from Johannes Kepler to Margaret Fuller, who sparked the feminist movement in the nineteenth century, to Rachel Carson, who launched modern environmentalism with her classic book Silent Spring.

April is Parkinson’s Awareness Month. More than 10 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s Disease. Though we cannot yet cure it, researchers have found many ways to slow the disease’s progression—from new medications to virtual reality to intense exercise. Watch 60 Second Docs’ video about Scott Newman’s rigorous training program for people with PD here.

Kind regards,
The Sacks Team

Please consider supporting the nonprofit Oliver Sacks Foundation. Thank you.