Review: 'A Brain Wider than the Sky: A Migraine Diary,' by Andrew Levy

What's it about? Levy, an author and professor, keeps a migraine diary, trying to put into his own words what Emily Dickinson, Alexander Pope and Virginia Woolf have all included in their writing: the misery that is a migraine, and the fear of the next onslaught.

Who knew? Migraines are 50 percent more common than depression, and three times more women suffer migraines than men. Also, many scholars and medical professionals believe that Alice in Wonderland (the Lewis Carroll books, not the Disney movie) is about falling into the rabbit hole of a migraine.

Worth the read? Yes. With 12 percent of Americans suffering from migraines, it can give you a better understanding of their pain if you're in the other 88 percent. If you do suffer migraines, it gives a rounded picture of migraine research, then and now, and a picture of acceptance on Levy's part.

Jen A. Miller, Times correspondent