The Friends of The Princeton Public Library Book Club is reading The Diving Bell And The Butterfly by Jean-Dominque Bauby. Join them on Thursday, June 9th at 4:00pm to be a part of the discussion. The full review from Library Journal is as follows: Two days after this remarkable book was published in France to great acclaim, its author died of heart failure. What caused such a stir was the method Bauby used to write it.

For in December 1995, the 44-year-old former editor-in-chief of the French Elle magazine had suffered a severe stroke that left his body paralyzed but his mind intact, a condition known as “locked-in syndrome.” Able to communicate only by blinking his left eyelid, he dictated this book letter by letter to an assistant who recited to him a special alphabet. The result is a marvelous, compelling account of Bauby’s life as a “vegetable,” full of humor and devoid of self-pity. Although he was trapped in the diving bell of his body, Bauby’s imagination “takes flight like a butterfly…

…you can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas’s court.” His celebration of life against all odds is highly recommended.