Skip to main content
close
Font size options
Increase or decrease the font size for this website by clicking on the 'A's.
Contrast options
Choose a color combination to give the most comfortable contrast.
Warning: getimagesize(./images/events/readingpl/FSS_Author_Photo_Pria_Anand.jpg): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /app/data/event.php line 452
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /app/data/event.php line 453
Notice: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /app/data/event.php line 454
Image for event:  The Mind Electric: The Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains

The Mind Electric: The Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains

A Virtual Chat with Neurologist Pria Anand

2025-07-31 14:00:00 2025-07-31 15:00:00 America/New_York The Mind Electric: The Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains Join us for a virtual author talk with neurologist Pria Anand, as she discusses her new book, The Mind Electric, how our brains catalog our experiences, and how medicine interprets our stories. Reading Public Library -

Thursday, July 31
2:00pm - 3:00pm

Add to Calendar 2025-07-31 14:00:00 2025-07-31 15:00:00 America/New_York The Mind Electric: The Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains Join us for a virtual author talk with neurologist Pria Anand, as she discusses her new book, The Mind Electric, how our brains catalog our experiences, and how medicine interprets our stories. Reading Public Library -

Join us for a virtual author talk with neurologist Pria Anand, as she discusses her new book, The Mind Electric, how our brains catalog our experiences, and how medicine interprets our stories.

Join us for a virtual chat with neurologist and author Pria Anand, as she discusses her new book, The Mind Electric: The Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains

Register to ask the author questions and attend this live virtual event here.

Stories are etched into the very structure of our brains, coded so deeply that the impulse for storytelling survives and even surges after the most devastating injuries. But our brains are also porous—the stories they concoct shaped by cultural narratives about bodies and illness that permeate the minds of doctors and patients alike. In the history of medicine, some stories are heard, while others—the narratives of women, of Black and brown people, of displaced people, of disempowered people—are too often dismissed.

In The Mind Electric, neurologist Pria Anand reveals—through case study, history, fable, and memoir—all that the medical establishment has overlooked: the complexity and wonder of brains in health and in extremis, and the vast gray area between sanity and insanity, doctor and patient, and illness and wellness, each separated from the next by the thin veneer of a different story.

Moving from the Boston hospital where she treats her patients, to her childhood years in India, to Isla Providencia in the Caribbean and to the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, she demonstrates again and again the compelling paradox at the heart of neurology: that even the most peculiar symptoms can show us something universal about ourselves as humans.

About the Author:

Pria Anand is a neurologist and the author of The Mind Electric, out from Simon & Schuster (U.S.) and Little, Brown (U.K.) in June 2025. Her stories and essays have appeared in Time Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Medical School, and she trained in neurology, neuro-infectious diseases, and neuroimmunology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital. She is now an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine, and she cares for patients at the Boston Medical Center.

This program is brought to you through the generosity of the Friends of the Reading Public Library. Thank you, Friends!

Check out more upcoming virtual author talks and enjoy recordings from past events by exploring our Friends Speaker Series page.

AGE GROUP: | Adults |

EVENT TYPE: | Virtual Event | Friends Speaker Series | Brochure | Author Event |

Reading Public Library

rdg@noblenet.org
Phone: 781-944-0840

Hours
We're closed Friday July 04 due to Independence Day
We're closed Sunday July 06 due to Closed on Sundays during the summer
Mon, Jun 30 9:00AM to 9:00PM
Tue, Jul 01 9:00AM to 9:00PM
Wed, Jul 02 9:00AM to 9:00PM
Thu, Jul 03 1:00PM to 9:00PM
Fri, Jul 04 Closed
(Independence Day)
Sat, Jul 05 9:00AM to 5:00PM
Sun, Jul 06 Closed
(Closed on Sundays during the summer)


About the Library

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. To ask questions about accessibility or request accommodations, please contact the library at rdgadmin@noblenet.org.

If the Reading Public schools are closed due to snow, all Children's programming will be canceled.

Upcoming Events

Tue, Jul 01, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Reading Public Library - Studio

Wed, Jul 02, 6:30pm - 7:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Cancelled
Sat, Jul 05, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library

Sat, Jul 05, 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Reading Public Library - Teen Space

Mon, Jul 07, 10:00am - 11:30am
Reading Public Library - Studio

Mon, Jul 07, 10:00am - 10:45am
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Mon, Jul 07, 11:15am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Mon, Jul 07, 2:30pm - 4:30pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B),Conference Room,Library Lawn

Tue, Jul 08, 4:00pm - 4:30pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Tue, Jul 08, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)
This event is full

Wed, Jul 09, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Wed, Jul 09, 6:30pm - 7:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Wed, Jul 09, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Reading Public Library - Local History Room
This event is full

Thu, Jul 10, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Fri, Jul 11, 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Reading Public Library - Outdoor Patio

Sat, Jul 12, 10:00am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library - Children's Program Room

Cancelled
Sat, Jul 12, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library

Mon, Jul 14, 10:00am - 10:45am
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Mon, Jul 14, 10:00am - 11:30am
Reading Public Library - Studio

Mon, Jul 14, 11:15am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Tue, Jul 15, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Tue, Jul 15, 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Tue, Jul 15, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Reading Public Library

Wed, Jul 16, 6:30pm - 7:00pm
Reading Public Library - Library Lawn

Thu, Jul 17, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Reading Public Library - Children's Program Room
Registration opens Thursday, July 3 2025 at 9:00am

Fri, Jul 18, 10:00am - 1:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Fri, Jul 18, 12:00pm - 3:00pm
Reading Public Library - Teen Space

Cancelled
Sat, Jul 19, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library

Mon, Jul 21, 10:00am - 10:45am
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Mon, Jul 21, 10:00am - 11:30am
Reading Public Library - Studio

Mon, Jul 21, 11:15am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Tue, Jul 22, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Reading Public Library - Local History Room
This event is full

Tue, Jul 22, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)
Registration opens Tuesday, July 8 2025 at 9:00am

Wed, Jul 23, 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)
Registration opens Wednesday, July 9 2025 at 9:00am

Wed, Jul 23, 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B),Conference Room,Library Lawn

Wed, Jul 23, 6:30pm - 7:00pm
Reading Public Library - Children's Program Room

Thu, Jul 24, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Reading Public Library - Conference Room

Thu, Jul 24, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Fri, Jul 25, 10:00am - 11:00am
Reading Public Library - Local History Room

Fri, Jul 25, 3:30pm - 4:30pm
Reading Public Library - Outdoor Patio
Registration opens Friday, July 11 2025 at 3:30pm

Cancelled
Sat, Jul 26, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library

Sat, Jul 26, 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Reading Public Library - Teen Space

Mon, Jul 28, 10:00am - 11:30am
Reading Public Library - Studio

Mon, Jul 28, 10:00am - 10:45am
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Mon, Jul 28, 11:15am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Mon, Jul 28, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Mon, Jul 28, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Tue, Jul 29, 9:00am - 9:00pm
Children's Room

Tue, Jul 29, 10:00am - 12:00pm
Reading Public Library - Conference Room

Tue, Jul 29, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Reading Public Library - Children's Program Room
Registration opens Tuesday, July 15 2025 at 9:00am

Wed, Jul 30, 6:30pm - 7:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B)

Thu, Jul 31, 1:00pm - 5:00pm
Reading Public Library - Community Room (A & B),Library Lawn