The book was originally written as a self-help book to help a person from the time they get up until the time they go to sleep, or between the Zzzs. When the author had a stroke, everything in his life was wiped clean, including his hopes of publishing the finished book. Then the idea suddenly came to him to revisit each section from the standpoint of a stroke survivor. His life was changed as was the entire book. "Stroke of Genius: Between the Zzzs" was the net result.
The author has summarized lessons from his own life to help others. Throughout the book, he has separated his advice into 26 sections, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each section is paired with a song from popular music which helps drive the section's point home.
Each of the 26 sections includes a "PS" (for "Post Stroke") discussion, to see how the lessons apply for rebuilding your life and continue living a meaningful life after a stroke.
The combination of sound advice, supporting musical references, and a check of how well the advice holds up after a stroke, is not only impressive, but also all inclusive. There are gold nuggets for everyone.
Richard M. Kritzman grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and went to college at Michigan State. There he was introduced to much of the music that he shared in this book, and met his wife there. Later, he moved to West Michigan and had two children. His wife was killed in a car accident leaving him with a 5-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter. He continued working and raising the kids. Then about 5 years later, he got married to a lady that had two boys of her own. She adopted the kids and took on this new family of six.
Richard's career was rock solid as he progressed from his initial starting position of Assistant Technical Director on through to Senior Program Manager. As he worked his way up, he accumulated additional training along the way.
A couple of years before his retirement, he had the idea of writing a book about his career. Once retirement hit, he decided to get more serious about writing a summary of the lessons he learned along the way. He did it to give back something to those that came after him so they could learn from him even though he had moved on.
The book was finally complete almost two years after retirement when out of the blue he had a stroke. This gave him a completely new perspective about what is important.
Richard revisited the entirety of the book and added some notes about each section now that he was starting over.
His path to recovery included relearning how to walk, eat, talk, and think through various tasks like word searches and writing left handed.
