Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain
Author: Lisa Feldman Barrett
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Goodreads | The StoryGraph
Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.
Cover Description
From the author of How Emotions Are Made, a myth-busting primer on the brain in the tradition of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.
Have you ever wondered why you have a brain? Let renowned neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett demystify that big gray blob between your ears. In seven short essays (plus a bite-sized story about how brains evolved), this slim, entertaining, and accessible collection reveals mind-expanding lessons from the front lines of neuroscience research. You’ll learn where brains came from, how they’re structured (and why it matters), and how yours works in tandem with other brains to create everything you experience. Along the way, you’ll also learn to dismiss popular myths such as the idea of a “lizard brain” and the alleged battle between thoughts and emotions, or even between nature and nurture, to determine your behavior.
Sure to intrigue casual readers and scientific veterans alike, Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain is full of surprises, humor, and important implications for human nature — a gift of a book that you will want to savor again and again.
Review
Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain is a snack of a book, a conversational, fascinating, and revelatory bundle of great metaphors on how our brains work. I read it as part of my subscription to the Next Big Idea Club, which always has great selections.
I think this book does a great job of being “science for non-scientists” — it isn’t stuffy or jargony, nor is it simplified to the point of condescension. Barret does a really great job using metaphors and relating the information back to why it’s so important in real life (with some great party facts thrown in along the way.)
I especially appreciated the framing of the middle couple of sections, about how our knowledge about neuroscience leads to a responsibility — for our children, for our own actions, for our habits and our futures, and for how we treat others.
At about 125 pages, this one’s worth devouring in an afternoon!