Chris’s Corner

Reading List

Mental Biology by W.R. Klemm

An ‘outside-the-box’ neuroscience book that not only explains the structure of the brain but presents a new explanatory model of how the brain works: circuit impulse patterns (CIPs). Discussions of conscious thought (its role in learning and memory), self-awareness and the existence of free will are prevalent throughout the book. Klemm’s corollary to Descartes’ axiom “I think, therefore I am” is the book’s guidepost: “I will become what I think.” Klemm keeps true to his word when he states on page 23 that “This book will show both how the brain shapes its own destiny and how what you think and do shapes brain function.”

Neurocomic by Dr. Matteo Farinella and Dr. Hana Ros

A graphic novel that is really a neuroscience guidebook appropriate for 7th grade and up. It uses neuron forests, memory caves and a castle of deception to show how the brain works and to introduce readers to important researchers in the history of neuroscience. One of my favorite lines of the book happens near the end: “Maybe this is the real secret of the human brain: it’s a great storyteller.” The same can be said of Neurocomic: it is a “great storyteller” of the brain.

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant

This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the “whys” and “hows” of achievement and success in our highly interconnected world. Adam Grant demonstrates that the “givers” of the world succeed more often and for a longer period of time than people who are “takers” and “matchers.”

Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Surprising Insights Into How You Think by Stephen M. Kosslyn & G. Wayne Miller

This book turns our understanding of how the brain works from left/right to top-down. The popular notion that the brain is divided into left and right hemispheres is debunked by Stephen M. Kosslyn and G. Wayne Miller in this book. Kosslyn and Miller clearly demonstrate that the near universal story about the left (analytical and logical) and right (artistic and intuitive hemispheres of the brain is not based in science. Rather, Kosslyn and Miller use decades of peer reviewed neuroscience research to show that the top and bottom parts of the brain work as a “single interactive system.” They call their approach “the theory of cognitive modes” and it demonstrates that there is no “cerebral tug of war” between one-side of the brain and the other.

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

A clearly written and practical guidebook about the brain that everyone can understand and use. John Medina provides examples of how the brain learns and how we can use that knowledge in our every day lives.

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough

My favorite education book of 2012. The book explores the connection between academic achievement and character development through the experiences of educators and researchers. Paul Tough demonstrates that we (parents, teachers, social workers, clergy, pediatricians, etc…) as a society can create the conditions that lead all children up the ladder of success. It is a hopeful book about education based on scientific research and practical experiences.