100 Best Human Brain Books of All Time

We've ranked the best human brain books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Thinking, Fast and Slow book cover1

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Kahneman

5.0
Major New York Times bestseller
Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012
Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the best books of 2011
A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title
One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year
One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011
2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient

In the internatio
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success book cover2

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Carol S. Dweck

4.7
Now updated with new research — the book that has changed millions of lives.

After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales book cover3

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

Oliver Sacks

4.7
If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it. Dr. Oliver Sacks recounts the stories of patients struggling to adapt to often bizarre worlds of neurological disorder. Here are people who can no longer recognize everyday objects or those they love; who are stricken with violent t
The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science book cover4

The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Norman Doidge

4.7
An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they’ve transformed - people whose mental limitations or brain damage were seen as unalterable. We see a wo
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business book cover5

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Charles Duhigg

4.6
A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns inside her brain, neurologists discover, have fundamentally changed.

Marketers at Procter & Gamble study videos of people making their beds. They are desperately trying to figure out how to sell a new produ
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything book cover6

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything

Joshua Foer

4.5
The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory

An instant bestseller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tri
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School book cover7

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

John Medina

4.5
Most of us have no idea what’s really going on inside our heads. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know—like the need for physical activity to get your brain working its best.

How do we learn? What exactly do sleep and stress do to our brains? Why is multi-tasking a myth? Why is it so easy to forget—and so important to repeat new knowledge
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking book cover8

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Malcolm Gladwell

4.5
Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology and displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, Blink changes the way you'll understand every decision you make. Never again will you think about thinking the same way.

Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a bo
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion book cover9

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Robert B. Cialdini

4.5
Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly
Man's Search for Meaning book cover10

Man's Search for Meaning

Viktor E. Frankl

4.5
Man's Search for Meaning has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 psychiatrist Viktor Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the stories of his many patients, Frankl argues that we can
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma book cover11

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Bessel van der Kolk

4.5
A New York Times Science Bestseller

“Packed with science and human stories, the book is an intense read. . . . The struggle and resilience of [van der Kolk’s] patients is very moving.” —New Scientist


A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing


Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of comb
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness book cover12

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness

Susannah Cahalan

4.5
An award-winning memoir and instant New York Times bestseller that goes far beyond its riveting medical mystery, Brain on Fire is the powerful account of one woman’s struggle to recapture her identity.

When twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. Days earlier, she had been o
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking book cover13

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Susan Cain

4.5
The book that started the Quiet Revolution

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.

In Quiet, Susan Cain a
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind book cover14

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind

V. S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee, et al.

4.5
Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments -- using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandr
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain book cover15

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

David Eagleman

4.5
If the conscious mind—the part you consider you—accounts for only a tiny fraction of the brain’s function, what is all the rest doing? This is the question that David Eagleman—renowned neuroscientist and acclaimed author of Sum—answers in a book as accessible and entertaining as it is deeply informed by startling, up-to-the-minute research.
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams book cover16

Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

Matthew Walker

4.4
Why We Sleep is an important and fascinating book…Walker taught me a lot about this basic activity that every person on Earth needs. I suspect his book will do the same for you.” —Bill Gates

A New York Times bestseller and international sensation, this “stimulating and important book” (Financial Times) is a fascinating dive into the purpose and power of slumber.

With two appearances on CBS This Mor
The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human book cover17

The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

V. S. Ramachandran

4.4
V. S. Ramachandran is at the forefront of his field-so much so that Richard Dawkins dubbed him the "Marco Polo of neuroscience." Now, in a major new work, Ramachandran sets his sights on the mystery of human uniqueness. Taking us to the frontiers of neurology, he reveals what baffling and extreme case studies can teach us about normal brain function and how it evolved. Synesthesia becomes a window
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain book cover18

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

Oliver Sacks

4.4
With the same trademark compassion and erudition he brought to The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition. In Musicophilia, he shows us a variety of what he calls “musical misalignments.” Among them: a man struck by lightning who suddenly desires to become a pianist at the age of forty-two; an entire gr
How to Win Friends & Influence People book cover19

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Dale Carnegie

4.4
You can go after the job you want—and get it!
You can take the job you have—and improve it!
You can take any situation—and make it work for you!

Dale Carnegie’s rock-solid, time-tested advice has carried countless people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. One of the most groundbreaking and timeless bestsellers of all time, How to Win Friends & Influence People will teach
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions book cover20

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Dan Ariely

4.3
Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin?

Why does recalling the Ten Commandments reduce our tendency to lie, even when we couldn't possibly be caught?

Why do we splurge on a lavish meal but cut coupons to save twenty-five cents on a can of soup?

Why do we go back for second helpings at the unlimited buffet, even when our stomachs are a
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind book cover21

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

4.3
100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism?
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference book cover22

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Malcolm Gladwell

4.3
An alternate cover edition exists here.

The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller,
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ book cover23

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Daniel Goleman

4.3
Everyone knows that high IQ is no guarantee of success, happiness, or virtue, but until Emotional Intelligence, we could only guess why. Daniel Goleman's brilliant report from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience offers startling new insight into our "two minds"—the rational and the emotional—and how they together shape our destiny.

Through vivid examples, Goleman delineates the five crucia
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness book cover24

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Richard H. Thaler

4.3
Every day, we make decisions on topics ranging from personal investments to schools for our children to the meals we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, we often choose poorly. The reason, the authors explain, is that, being human, we all are susceptible to various biases that can lead us to blunder. Our mistakes make us poorer and less healthy; we often make bad decisions involving educ
Outliers: The Story of Success book cover25

Outliers: The Story of Success

Malcolm Gladwell

4.3
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey book cover26

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

Jill Bolte Taylor

4.3
The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment

On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all
Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain book cover27

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

John J. Ratey

4.3
The authors embark upon a fascinating journey through the mind-body connection, showing how exercise is truly our best defense against everything from depression to ADD, from addiction to Alzheimer's.
The Brain: The Story of You book cover28

The Brain: The Story of You

David Eagleman

4.3
Locked in the silence and darkness of your skull, your brain fashions the rich narratives of your reality and your identity. Join renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman for a journey into the questions at the mysterious heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are “you”? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be hum
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst book cover29

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert M. Sapolsky

4.3
The New York Times bestseller

"It's no exaggeration to say that Behave is one of the best nonfiction books I've ever read." --David P. Barash, The Wall Street Journal


"It has my vote for science book of the year." --Parul Sehgal, The New York Times

"Hands-down one of the best books I've read in years. I loved it." --Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Washin
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us book cover30

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Daniel H. Pink

4.3
The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret t
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains book cover31

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Nicholas Carr

4.3
“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?

Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling
How the Mind Works book cover32

How the Mind Works

Steven Pinker

4.3
In this extraordinary bestseller, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading cognitive scientists, does for the rest of the mind what he did for language in his 1994 book, The Language Instinct. He explains what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and ponder the mysteries of life. And he does it with the wit that prompted Mark Ridl
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language book cover33

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language

Steven Pinker

4.3
The classic book on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind.

In this classic, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker w
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos book cover34

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Jordan B. Peterson

4.2
What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths of ancient tradition with the stunning revelations of cutting-edge scientific research.

Humorous, surprising, and informative, Dr. Peterson tells us why skateboarding boys and girls must be left alone, what terrible fate awa
A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age book cover35

A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age

Daniel H. Pink

4.2
Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain book cover36

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain

Antonio Damasio

4.2
Since Descartes famously proclaimed, "I think, therefore I am," science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—"one of the world’s leading
How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence book cover37

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence

Michael Pollan

4.2
Could psychedelic drugs change our worldview? One of America's most admired writers takes us on a mind-altering journey to the frontiers of human consciousness

When LSD was first discovered in the 1940s, it seemed to researchers, scientists and doctors as if the world might be on the cusp of psychological revolution. It promised to shed light on the deep mysteries of consciousness, as well as offer
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession book cover38

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

Daniel J. Levitin

4.2
Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life—even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a
The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity book cover39

The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity

Norman Doidge

4.2
Now a New York Times Bestseller!

The bestselling author of The Brain That Changes Itself presents astounding advances in the treatment of brain injury and illness


In The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge described the most important breakthrough in our understanding of the brain in four hundred years: the discovery that the brain can change its own structure and function in response to menta
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World book cover40

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Cal Newport

4.2
One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results.

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide th
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom book cover41

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Jonathan Haidt

4.2
In his widely praised book, award-winning psychologist Jonathan Haidt examines the world’s philosophical wisdom through the lens of psychological science, showing how a deeper understanding of enduring maxims-like Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, or What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger-can enrich and even transform our lives.
The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force book cover42

The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force

Jeffrey M. Schwartz MD, Sharon Begley

4.2
A groundbreaking work of science that confirms, for the first time, the independent existence of the mind–and demonstrates the possibilities for human control over the workings of the brain.

Conventional science has long held the position that 'the mind' is merely an illusion, a side effect of electrochemical activity in the physical brain. Now in paperback, Dr Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley's
Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long book cover43

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long

David Rock

4.2
Meet Emily and Paul: The parents of two young children, Emily is the newly promoted VP of marketing at a large corporation while Paul works from home or from clients' offices as an independent IT consultant. Their lives, like all of ours, are filled with a bewildering blizzard of emails, phone calls, yet more emails, meetings, projects, proposals, and plans. Just staying ahead of the storm has bec
The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind book cover44

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind

Michio Kaku

4.2
The New York Times best-selling author of Physics of the Impossible, Physics of the Future and Hyperspace tackles the most fascinating and complex object in the known universe: the human brain.

For the first time in history, the secrets of the living brain are being revealed by a battery of high tech brain scans devised by physicists. Now what was once solely the province of science fiction has bec
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning book cover45

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, Mark A. McDaniel

4.2
To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concr
On Intelligence: How a New Understanding of the Brain Will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines book cover46

On Intelligence: How a New Understanding of the Brain Will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines

Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee

4.2
From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines

Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the PalmPilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he stands ready to revolutionize both neuroscience and computing in one stroke, with a new understanding of intellige
The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery book cover47

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery

Sam Kean

4.2
From the author of the bestseller The Disappearing Spoon, tales of the brain and the history of neuroscience.

Early studies of the functions of the human brain used a simple method: wait for misfortune to strike-strokes, seizures, infectious diseases, lobotomies, horrendous accidents-and see how the victim coped. In many cases survival was miraculous, and observers could only marvel at the transf
When Breath Becomes Air book cover48

When Breath Becomes Air

Paul Kalanithi

4.2
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve me
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones book cover49

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

James Clear

4.2
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is
Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom book cover50

Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom

Rick Hanson

4.2
Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and other great teachers were born with brains built essentially like anyone else's. Then they used their minds to change their brains in ways that changed history.

With the new breakthroughs in neuroscience, combined with the insights from thousands of years of contemplative practice, you, too, can shape your own brain for greater happiness, love, and wisdom.

Buddha's Brai
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience book cover51

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

4.2
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famous investigations of "optimal experience" have revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity, and a total involvement with life. In this new edition of his groundbreaking classic work, Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates the ways this posit
How We Decide book cover52

How We Decide

Jonah Lehrer

4.2
The first book to use the unexpected discoveries of neuroscience to help us make the best decisions.

Since Plato, philosophers have described the decision-making process as either rational or emotional: we carefully deliberate, or we “blink” and go with our gut. But as scientists break open the mind’s black box with the latest tools of neuroscience, they’re discovering that this is not how the mind
The Female Brain book cover53

The Female Brain

Louann Brizendine M.D.

4.2
This comprehensive new look at the hormonal roller coaster that rules women's lives down to the cellular level, "a user's guide to new research about the female brain and the neurobehavioral systems that make us women," offers a trove of information, as well as some stunning insights. Though referenced like a work of research, Brizedine's writing style is fully accessible. Brizendine provides a fa
Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (Revised and Expanded): The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Lack of Focus, Anger, and Memory Problems book cover54

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life (Revised and Expanded): The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Lack of Focus, Anger, and Memory Problems

Daniel G. Amen

4.2
BRAIN PRESCRIPTIONS THAT REALLY WORK
In this breakthrough bestseller, you'll see scientific evidence that your anxiety, depression, anger, obsessiveness, or impulsiveness could be related to how specific structures in your brain work. You're not stuck with the brain you're born with. Here are just a few of neuropsychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen's surprising--and effective--"brain prescriptions" that can
Hallucinations book cover55

Hallucinations

Oliver Sacks

4.2
Have you ever seen something that wasn’t really there? Heard someone call your name in an empty house? Sensed someone following you and turned around to find nothing?

Hallucinations don’t belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. People with migraines may see shimmering arcs of light or tiny, Lilliputian figures of an
Mapping the Mind book cover56

Mapping the Mind

Rita Carter

4.2
Today a brain scan reveals our thoughts, moods, and memories as clearly as an X-ray reveals our bones. We can actually observe a person's brain registering a joke or experiencing a painful memory. Drawing on the latest imaging technology and the expertise of distinguished scientists, Rita Carter explores the geography of the human brain. Her writing is clear, accessible, witty, and the book's 150
The Mind's Eye book cover57

The Mind's Eye

Oliver W. Sacks

4.1
In Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks explored music and the brain; now, in The Mind's Eye, he writes about the myriad ways in which we experience the visual world: how we see in three dimensions; how we recognize individual faces or places; how we use language to communicate verbally; how we translate marks on paper into words and paragraphs; and, even how we represent the world internally when our eyes
How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed book cover58

How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed

Ray Kurzweil

4.1
The bold futurist and bestselling author explores the limitless potential of reverse-engineering the human brain

Ray Kurzweil is arguably today’s most influential—and often controversial—futurist. In How to Create a Mind, Kurzweil presents a provocative exploration of the most important project in human-machine civilization—reverse engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and usin
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness book cover59

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Kay Redfield Jamison

4.1
The personal memoir of a manic depressive and an authority on the subject describes the onset of the illness during her teenage years and her determined journey through the realm of available treatments.
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products book cover60

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Nir Eyal

4.1
How do successful companies create products people can’t put down?

Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? What makes us engage with certain products out of sheer habit? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us?
Nir Eyal answers these questions (and many more) by explaining the Hook Model—a four-step process embedded into the products of many successful com
The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind book cover61

The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind

Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

4.1
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Simple, smart, and effective solutions to your child’s struggles.”—Harvey Karp, M.D.


“Daniel Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson have created a masterly, reader-friendly guide to helping children grow their emotional intelligence. This brilliant method transforms everyday interactions into valuable brain-shaping moments. Anyone who cares for children—or who loves a child—should r
62

In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind

Eric R. Kandel

4.1
Nobel Prize winner Kandel intertwines cogntive psychology, neuroscience, and molecular biology with his own quest to understand memory.
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload book cover63

The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload

Daniel J. Levitin

4.1
New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin shifts his keen insights from your brain on music to your brain in a sea of details.

The information age is drowning us with an unprecedented deluge of data. At the same time, we’re expected to make more—and faster—decisions about our lives than ever before. No wonder, then, that the average American reports frequently losing ca
An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales book cover64

An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales

Oliver Sacks

4.1
Paradoxical portraits of seven neurological patients, including a surgeon consumed by the compulsive tics of Tourette's syndrome unless he is operating; an artist who loses all sense of color in a car accident, but finds new creative power in black & white; & others.
Grit book cover65
In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and business people both seasoned and new that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called grit.

Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, Angela Duckworth explains why
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid book cover66

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

Douglas R. Hofstadter

4.1
Douglas Hofstadter's book is concerned directly with the nature of “maps” or links between formal systems. However, according to Hofstadter, the formal system that underlies all mental activity transcends the system that supports it. If life can grow out of the formal chemical substrate of the cell, if consciousness can emerge out of a formal system of firing neurons, then so too will computers at
Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts book cover67

Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts

Stanislas Dehaene

4.1
A breathtaking look at the new science that can track consciousness deep in the brain

How does our brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists are closer to cracking this mystery than ever before.

In this lively book, Stanislas Dehaene describes the pioneering work his lab and t
Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation book cover68

Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation

Daniel Siegel

4.1
From a pioneer in the field of mental health comes a groundbreaking book on the healing power of "mindsight," the potent skill that is the basis for both emotional and social intelligence. Mindsight allows you to make positive changes in your brain-and in your life.

- Is there a memory that torments you, or an irrational fear you can' t shake?
- Do you sometimes become unreasonably angry or upset an
69

Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are

Joseph LeDoux

4.1
Following up his 1996 "The Emotional Brain, " the world-renowned brain expert presents a groundbreaking work that tells a more profound story: how the little spaces between the neurons--the brain's synapses--are the channels through which we think, feel, imagine, act, and remember. In 1996 Joseph LeDoux's "The Emotional Brain" presented a revelatory examination of the biological bases of our emoti
How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain book cover70

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

Lisa Barrett

4.1
“Fascinating . . . A thought-provoking journey into emotion science.” — Wall Street Journal

“A singular book, remarkable for the freshness of its ideas and the boldness and clarity with which they are presented.” — Scientific American

“A brilliant and original book on the science of emotion, by the deepest thinker about this topic since Darwin.” — Daniel Gilbert, best-selling author of Stumbling o
The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It book cover71

The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It

Kelly McGonigal

4.1
The first book to explain the new science of self-control and how it can be harnessed to improve our health, happiness, and productivity.

After years of watching her students struggling with their choices, health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., realized that much of what people believe about willpower is actually sabotaging their success. Committed to sharing what the scientific community alre
You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself book cover72

You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself

David McRaney

4.1
An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise.

Whether you’re deciding which smart phone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being whose every decision is based on cool, detached logic, but here’s the truth: You are not so smart. You’re just as deluded as the rest of us--but that’s okay, because being deluded is part of being human.
Awakenings book cover73

Awakenings

Oliver Sacks

4.1
Awakenings--which inspired the major motion picture--is the remarkable story of a group of patients who contracted sleeping-sickness during the great epidemic just after World War I. Frozen for decades in a trance-like state, these men and women were given up as hopeless until 1969, when Dr. Oliver Sacks gave them the then-new drug L-DOPA, which had an astonishing, explosive, "awakening" effect. D
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants book cover74

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Malcolm Gladwell

4.1
In his #1 bestselling books The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has explored the ways we understand and change our world. Now he looks at the complex and surprising ways the weak can defeat the strong, the small can match up against the giant, and how our goals (often culturally determined) can make a huge difference in our ultimate sense of success. Drawing upon examples from
Stumbling on Happiness book cover75

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert

4.1
• Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink? • Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight? • Why do dining companions insist on ordering different meals instead of getting what they really want? • Why do pigeons seem to have such excellent aim; why can’t we remember one song
76

The Other Brain: From Dementia to Schizophrenia, How New Discoveries about the Brain Are Revolutionizing Medicine and Science

R. Douglas Fields

4.1
Despite everything that has been written about the brain, a very important part of this vital organ has been overlooked in most books -- until now. The Other Brain is the story of glia, which make up approximately 85 percent of the cells in the brain. Long neglected as little more than cerebral packing material ("glia" means glue), glia are sparking a revolution in brain science.

Glia are completel
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook book cover77

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook

Bruce D Perry and Maia Szalavitz

4.1
A renowned psychiatrist reveals how trauma affects children--and outlines the path to recoveryHow does trauma affect a child's mind--and how can that mind recover? In the classic The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, Dr. Perry explains what happens to the brains of children exposed to extreme stress and shares their lessons of courage, humanity, and hope. Only when we understand the science of the mind
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 book cover78

Emotional Intelligence 2.0

Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves

4.1
"Emotional Intelligence 2.0 succinctly explains how to deal with emotions creatively and employ our intelligence in a beneficial way."
--THE DALAI LAMA

For the first time ever in a book, TalentSmart's revolutionary program helps people identify their EQ skills, build these skills into strengths, and enjoy consistent performance in the pursuit of important life objectives. The book contains proven st
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion book cover79

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Jonathan Haidt

4.1
Why can’t our political leaders work together as threats loom and problems mount? Why do people so readily assume the worst about the motives of their fellow citizens? In The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the origins of our divisions and points the way forward to mutual understanding.

His starting point is moral intuition—the nearly instantaneous perceptions we all ha
Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior book cover80

Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

Leonard Mlodinow

4.1
Leonard Mlodinow, the best-selling author of The Drunkard’s Walk and coauthor of The Grand Design (with Stephen Hawking), gives us a startling and eye-opening examination of how the unconscious mind shapes our experience of the world and how, for instance, we often misperceive our relationships with family, friends, and business associates, misunderstand the reasons for our investment decisions, a
Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To book cover81

Idiot Brain: What Your Head Is Really Up To

Dean Burnett

4.1
The brain is an absolute marvel—the seat of our consciousness, the pinnacle (so far) of evolutionary progress, and the engine of human experience. But it’s also messy, fallible, and about 50,000 years out of date. We cling to superstitions, remember faces but not names, miss things sitting right in front of us, and lie awake at night while our brains endlessly replay our greatest fears. Idiot Brai
Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain book cover82

Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain

Antonio Damasio

4.1
From one of the most significant neuroscientists at work today, a pathbreaking investigation of a question that has confounded philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists for centuries: how is consciousness created?

Antonio Damasio has spent the past thirty years studying and writing about how the brain operates, and his work has garnered acclaim for its singular melding of the scientific and
Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain book cover83

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

Maryanne Wolf

4.0
The act of reading is a miracle. Every new reader's brain possesses the extraordinary capacity to rearrange itself beyond its original abilities in order to understand written symbols. But how does the brain learn to read? As world-renowned cognitive neuroscientist and scholar of reading Maryanne Wolf explains in this impassioned book, we taught our brain to read only a few thousand years ago, and
The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind book cover84

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

Julian Jaynes

4.0
At the heart of this seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that consciousness didn't begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only 3000 years ago & is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually all aspects of psychology, history & religion.
Preface
Introduction
The mind of man
The c
Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain for Life book cover85

Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain for Life

David Perlmutter, Kristin Loberg

4.0
The bestselling author of Grain Brain uncovers the powerful role of gut bacteria in determining your brain's destiny.

Debilitating brain disorders are on the rise-from children diagnosed with autism and ADHD to adults developing dementia at younger ages than ever before. But a medical revolution is underway that can solve this problem: Astonishing new research is revealing that the health of your b
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature book cover86

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Steven Pinker

4.0
“In a work of outstanding clarity and sheer brilliance Steven Pinker banishes forever fears that a biological understanding of human nature threatens humane values.”
—Helena Cronin, author of The Ant and The Peacock

“A mind blowing, mind openingexpos. Pinker's profoundly positive arguments for the compatibility of biology and humanism are unrivalled for their scope and depth and should be mandatory,
Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions book cover87

Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions

Brian Christian and Griffiths

4.0
A fascinating exploration of how insights from computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives, helping to solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mind

All our lives are constrained by limited space and time, limits that give rise to a particular set of problems. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we
The Human Brain Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function, and Disorders book cover88

The Human Brain Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function, and Disorders

Rita Carter

4.0
This award-winning science book uses the latest findings from neuroscience research and brain-imaging technology to take you on a journey into the human brain.

CGI illustrations and brain MRI scans reveal the brain's anatomy in unprecedented detail. Step-by-step sequences unravel and simplify the complex processes of brain function, such as how nerves transmit signals, how memories are laid down an
Flowers for Algernon book cover89

Flowers for Algernon

Daniel Keyes

4.0
The story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently book cover90

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently

Steve Silberman

4.0
NeuroTribes is a sweeping and penetrating history, presented with a rare sympathy and sensitivity. It will change how you think of autism.' - From the foreword by Oliver Sacks

What is autism: a devastating developmental condition, a lifelong disability, or a naturally occurring form of cognitive difference akin to certain forms of genius? In truth, it is all of these things and more - and the futur
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry book cover91

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

Jon Ronson

4.0
In this madcap journey, a bestselling journalist investigates psychopaths and the industry of doctors, scientists, and everyone else who studies them.

The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psyc
The Male Brain book cover92

The Male Brain

Louann Brizendine

4.0
From the author of the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller The Female Brain, here is the eagerly awaited follow-up book that demystifies the puzzling male brain.



Dr. Louann Brizendine, the founder of the first clinic in the country to study gender differences in brain, behavior, and hormones, turns her attention to the male brain, showing how, through every phase of life, the "male reality" is
Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five book cover93

Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five

John Medina

4.0
What’s the single most important thing you can do during pregnancy? What does watching TV do to a child’s brain? What’s the best way to handle temper tantrums? Scientists know.

In his New York Times bestseller Brain Rules, Dr. John Medina showed us how our brains really work—and why we ought to redesign our workplaces and schools. Now, in Brain Rules for Baby, he shares what the latest science says
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery book cover94

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery

Henry Marsh

4.0
What is it like to be a brain surgeon? How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands, to cut into the stuff that creates thought, feeling, and reason? How do you live with the consequences of performing a potentially lifesaving operation when it all goes wrong?

In neurosurgery, more than in any other branch of medicine, the doctor's oath to "do no harm" holds a bitter irony. Operations on t
The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness book cover95

The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness

Antonio R. Damasio

4.0
The publication of this book is an event in the making. All over the world scientists, psychologists, and philosophers are waiting to read Antonio Damasio's new theory of the nature of consciousness and the construction of the self. A renowned and revered scientist and clinician, Damasio has spent decades following amnesiacs down hospital corridors, waiting for comatose patients to awaken, and dev
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard book cover96

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Chip Heath and Dan Heath

4.0
Why is change so difficult and frightening? How do you create change when you have few resources and no title or authority to back you up? Chip and Dan Heath, the best-selling authors of Made to Stick, are back with a ground-breaking book that addresses one of the greatest challenges of our personal and professional lives — how to change things when change is hard.

In their follow-up book to the cr
Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers book cover97

Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

David Perlmutter, Kristin Loberg

4.0
From#1 New York Times bestselling author Dr. Perlmutter, the devastating truth about the effects of wheat, sugar, and carbs on the brain, and a 4-week plan to achieve optimum health.

In Grain Brain, renowned neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, blows the lid off a finding that's been buried in medical literature for far too long: carbs are destroying your brain. Even so-called healthy carbs like whole
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know book cover98

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know

Malcolm Gladwell

4.0
Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers -- and why they often go wrong.

How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us
The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life book cover99

The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life

Joseph Ledoux

4.0
The Emotional Brain investigates the origins of human emotions and explains that many exist as part of complex neural systems that evolved to enable us to survive.
100

Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are

Sebastian Seung

4.0
We know that each of us is unique, but science has struggled to pinpoint where, precisely, our uniqueness resides. Is it in our genes? The structure of our brains? Our genome may determine our eye color and even aspects of our personality. But our friendships, failures, and passions also shape who we are. The question is: how?Sebastian Seung, a dynamic professor at MIT, is on a quest to discover t