A Writer Reports on His Own Brain Surgery.

Steve Fishman was reporting in Nicaragua when a blood vessel burst in his brain. During his treatment, he researched his condition and its treatment, and interviewed the surgeons who operated on him. The blood vessel was repaired, but Fishman developed epilepsy as a result of the surgery. His book about the experience is called A Bomb in the Brain.

Jon Sarkin was working as a chiropractor when he suffered a massive stroke. Afterwards, he became an obsessive visual artist whose work was as fragmented and cluttered as his mind had become. Sarkin is the subject of a new book, Shadows Bright as Glass, by science writer Amy Nutt.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Knopf), a memoir by the late Jean-Dominique Bauby.