The Secret Lives of the Brain
By David Eagleman

What this book is about: What we’re learning from brain science about how our brains function, and the implications this has for our understanding of ourselves and society. Through actual cases of people with bizarre brain injuries and descriptions of neuroscience experiments, the book presents what we’ve learned about the brain and how it impacts our behavior. It demonstrates that we’re only consciously aware of a very small portion of our mental functioning. Thus, who we think we are is the minority of who we really are. Our subconscious is the center of who we are and our conscious is on the fringe. The impact of that revelation is the final frontier of our understanding of the universe, according to Eagleman. It’s on par with discovering that Earth isn’t the center of the universe. Essentially, it’s the discovery that our conscious selves aren’t the center of who we are. This realization could have profound implications for our justice system, which Eagleman spends significant time exploring.

Why you should read this book:

• It's a fascinating read.
• You will learn things about yourself and others that you could never have imagined.
• You’ll learn what you need to know to be informed about the growing debate over whether a person who commits a crime can be held accountable if he had no control over his behavior.
• You’ll learn that if you have a particular gene you’re 10 times more likely to kill someone, 13 times more likely to commit armed robbery and 44 times more likely to commit sexual assault than someone who doesn’t have it.
• You’ll understand that our brains have multiple, overlapping experts who weigh in and compete over different choices, and that this is a key to the complexity of our high-level functioning.