A collection of true stories of the amazing (and terrifying) world of neuroscience.

I enjoyed this immensely. Neuroscience is fascinating to me and the author is clearly very knowledgeable on the subject. I appreciated his casual voice; it made it a complex and emotionally difficult topic very readable. It is certainly alarming at times, as so much has been learned about neurology by way of horrible accidents and disturbing practices. In all, though, outstandingly interesting.

Sending out as a thank you for a RABCK. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

This arrived today, thank you so much. I’m really looking forward to it.

Very much enjoyed this book. It was very approachable while still being educational and informative. As the author describes it, the book starts with the basics and moves higher throughout the brain into what makes us human. I especially enjoyed that the author didn’t come across as condescending nor did he dumb down the concepts. There is a happy medium and I definitely think Kean found it. I’ve added the rest of his books to my list.

Mailed as part of the wishlist Tag game.

The wishlist-tag book arrived safely on this warm day; many thanks! I've enjoyed several other books by Kean, including Caesar's Last Breath and The Disappearing Spoon, and look forward to reading this one!

Another very entertaining and informative read! As often happens with books I really enjoy, this one's studded with markers for the many bits I wanted to cite in my review - too many to actually use without quoting most of the book, so I'll have to be more selective.

First, a shout-out to the charming and funny use of rebuses on each chapter as a little brain-exercise for the reader; I was pleased that I got them all, though some were quite challenging!

There are many interesting anecdotes about neurosurgery, from the early days of trepanation and other "try anything and see if it helps" techniques to the increasingly subtle methods in modern medicine. There's a section on the creation of masks for the WWI soldiers who were hideously deformed in battle - these were purely cosmetic, not functional fixes, yet the psychological benefits were huge. This leads to a discussion of how people perceive faces - their own and others - and how sight works in general. I was intrigued by the bit about using mirrors to help people reduce the phantom pains from lost limbs - a way to use external sources to help rewire the brain. My favorite catastrophic-brain-injury patient, Phineas Gage, gets some mention here too, and there's much more. Gruesome accounts of body-snatching, peculiar mental injuries (including people who lost the ability to form long-term memories), experiments both miraculous and terrifying... Lots to appreciate here! (And don't miss the "notes and miscellanea" at the end; some fun nuggets in there as well.)

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book, bagged against the elements, in the gazebo in the Raymond town common; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2020 D for December challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2020 What's in a Name challenge, for the embedded "Elin" in the title. ***

*** Released for the 2020 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***