Overview
In November 2005, Bonnie Blodgett was whacked with a nasty cold. After a quick shot of a popular nasal spray up each nostril, the back of her nose was on fire. With that, Blodgett a professional garden writer devoted to the sensual pleasures of garden and kitchen was launched on a journey through the senses, the psyche, and the sciences. Her olfactory nerve was destroyed, perhaps forever. She had lost her sense of smell.
Phantosmia a constant stench of every disgusting thing you can think of tossed into a blender and pureed is the first disorienting stage. It s the brain s attempt, as Blodgett vividly conveys, to compensate for loss by conjuring up a tortured facsimile. As the hallucinations fade and anosmia (no smell at all) moves in to take their place, Blodgett is beset by questions: Why are smell and mood hand-in-hand? How are smell disorders linked to other diseases? What is taste without flavor? Blodgett s provocative conversations with renowned geneticists, smell dysfunction experts, neurobiologists, chefs, and others ultimately lead to a life-altering understanding of smell, and to the most transformative lesson of all: the olfactory nerve, in ways unlike any other in the human body has the extraordinary power to heal.
Full Product Details
Author: Bonnie Blodgett
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Imprint: Houghton Mifflin
Dimensions:
Width: 14.70cm
, Height: 2.50cm
, Length: 21.10cm
Weight: 0.363kg
ISBN: 9780618861880
ISBN 10: 0618861882
Pages: 245
Publication Date: 16 June 2010
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
This is a marvelous and deeply affecting book. I was gripped from the first page. --Bill Bryson, author of A Walk in the Woods and A Really Short History of Nearly Everything In this powerful memoir of a lost sense, Bonnie Blodgett helps us better understand the mysterious nature of smell. It turns out that our most ancient sense just might also be the most important. --Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide Human! Real! An intriguing insight into the process of what happens when medicine becomes personal. Courageous and compelling--it gives new meaning to 'wake up and smell the flowers.' --Dr. Doris Taylor, Director of the Center for Cardiac Repair at the University of Minnesota
This is a marvelous and deeply affecting book. I was gripped from the first page. <b>Bill Bryson</b>, author of <i>A Walk in the Woods</i> and <i>A Really Short History of Nearly Everything</i> In this powerful memoir of a lost sense, Bonnie Blodgett helps us better understand the mysterious nature of smell. It turns out that our most ancient sense just might also be the most important. --<b>Jonah Lehrer</b>, author of <i>How We Decide</i> Human! Real! An intriguing insight into the process of what happens when medicine becomes personal. Courageous and compelling it gives new meaning to wake up and smell the flowers. --<b>Dr. Doris Taylor</b>, Director of the Center for Cardiac Repair at the University of Minnesota
