4.5 stars

David Adam, an editor at Nature magazine has written a smart book (no pun, intended) that offers fascinating insights into the workings of the brain.

It contains strange and interesting stories and anecdotes pertaining to the brain and intelligence and it also deals with the controversy of defining and measuring intelligence. Drugs, brain stimulating therapies, and other methods that have been tried to enhance cognitive skills are also talked about. The author himself became a guinea pig to test out some of these.

From a famous brain being dropped on the floor to the astounding skills of savants, to IQ determining whether a criminal will be spared the death penalty, this book offers much entertainment! I kept relating bits and pieces to my husband and children (12 and 14) as I was reading it. I couldn’t help myself - I had to share! I highly recommend this book and now I definitely want to check out the author’s first book, The Man Who Couldn’t Stop, which relates his struggles with OCD.