April, May Books

The Upside of Irrationality- Dan Arielly

Quirky neuro-ecconomics forever! I love this stuff, my favorite parts being the experiments about work and learned helplessness, which I plan to use in my own next book. Much more of the same kind of fun stuff as in "Predictably Irrational," but I just can never get enough. Very interesting stuff.

My Stroke of Insight- Jill Bolte Taylor

I enjoyed this quite a bit- the memoir of a neuroscientist who struggled to recover from her own stroke, after knowing enough to know that she was having a stroke. The whole thing was fascinating, though occasionally somewhat dry. The last chapters in particular were interesting, especially to anyone with an interest in mindfulness, and pre-verbal states of awareness. A great book to assign (and probably is regularly assigned) for a brain and behavior 101 kind of class.

Real Happiness - Sharon Salzberg

Ladies and gentlemen, I have my new go-to recommendation book for patients and people who want to learn a little about meditation. HIGHLY recommend this to any beginner. Just enough humor, just enough science, just enough spirituality, and plenty of heart and wisdom to make this an easy read, crystal clear book for anyone who wants a book about meditation that is also highly simplified and straightforward. Seriously, cant recommend this enough. Comes with guided meditation CD too.

Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters - Alan S. Miller, Satoshi Kanazawa

Kinda goofy evolutionary psychology book, with some great ideas and theories, and some, well, rather dubious ones. The whole thing is by nature rather essentialist especially as it relates to the sexes, but some fun theories that may or may not be totally legit. Like, why do men like large breasts, long blonde hair, blue eyes, and and certain other attributes? Amusing evolutionary explanations for these and other questions.

The Ape in the Corner Office - Richard Conniff

MORE evolutionary psychology- this one with a focus on worklife. A lot of the same references as my favorite pop quirky psych stuff (Paul Ekman, Franz DeWaal, John Gottman etc), but a pretty fun read nonetheless. Interesting ideas about social dynamics, and humans evolving to be part of tribes and tribal culture, and the evolution of social behavior. Worth a quick read if you're into that sort of thing.

The Four Hour Work Week - Tim Ferriss

Ridiculous title aside, okay, and ridiculous ideas aside... I dunno, this book was weirdly inspiring, I found Ferriss’s energy and enthusiasm for living life simply infectious... In a good way. Although some chapters veer into hypersepcific (ie, efficiency with product orders) other chapters on setting up a lifestyle (his mantra is “lifestyle design”) that you love, and for minimal work and money is inspiring. And actually, not minimal work, just a lot of work smarter not harder kinds of strategies for negotiating work from home, taking more time off now and enjoying life rather than deferring everything until retirement is sort of the name of his game. Just the chapters on importance of and how to travel, combined with the chapters on being more productive at work and getting over procrastination by simplifying and slowing down were worthwhile. If you’ve got a travel bone or an entrepreneurial bone in your body, definitely give this a read.

Made to Stick - Chip and Dan Heath

Another social psych-ish book on why ideas from marketing campaigns or urban legends, are “sticky,” and how to make ideas stick. I particularly liked the sections on writing, teaching, and spiritual ideas, but the whole thing is chock full of fun and engaging case studies and straightforward explanations of useful principles for advertisers, marketers, public health advocates, or anyone trying to get their ideas to "stick."

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Amy Chua

Where to even begin. You've probably heard the controversy- domineering Chinese mother writes memoir about near abusive treatment of kids to raise perfect Ivy-leaguers, and been horrified by the highlights (lowlights) of the book- ripping up child's insufficient mother's day card, locking 3 year old outside, calling daughter human garbage, etc, and yes, these were deeply disturbing and well treaded ground for the outrage. What I found bizarre as well though, was her self-satisfied smug tone, her sadism seemed directed not only at the kids but at the reader, to the point that I felt claustrophobic, boxed-in and judged. I felt like she dared me to judge her so she could accuse me of racism, and the whole thing came off as utterly contemptuous of both Western and Eastern culture, and I suppose most contemptuous of herself. Strange to so forcefully choose to perpetuate such negative stereotypes of so many groups. I'm left both deeply puzzled and deeply disturbed.

The Social Animal - David Brooks

Okay, where to begin with genre here- nonfiction novelization of an intro psychology textbook? As written by a well-known political journalist? That about captures it. A nonfiction narrative story of an imaginary couple and their backgrounds and relationship, that basically draws from all old and new psychology, mostly developmental and social psychology research and describes said research. Kind of an interesting idea. Definitely a fun and interesting book. Were I teaching developmental or social psychology, or even psych 101 I'd probably assign this book, as it is really fun, a helpful way to make real and memorable a lot of the scientific principles and studies that are usually pretty dry. Funnily enough, it directly cites all of these favorite kinds of books I've read- Nudge, Predictably Irrational, Networked, How We Decide, Overall, a fun read. Recommend this.