Now On the Reading Stand:Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks

I have about 100 pages left to read, and even so, this network science book is already declared another winner.

Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis and James H. Fowler

Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on your happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much we truly influence one another are revealed in the studies of Drs. Christakis and
Fowler, which have repeatedly made front-page news nationwide.

In Connected, the authors explain why emotions are contagious, how health behaviors spread, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. Intriguing and entertaining, Connected overturns the notion of the individual and provides a revolutionary paradigm-that social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics, and much more. It will change the way we think about every aspect of our lives.

From Publishers Weekly
Harvard professor and health care policy specialist Christakis (Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care) became interested in social connectivity when observing that the mortality rate of spouses spike after a partner passes away. Christakis sought out a collaboration with Fowler, a health systems and political scientist, and together they compare topology (the hows of a given structure) across different social networks to better explain how participation and positioning enhances the effectiveness of an individual, and why the "whole" of a network is "greater than the sum of its parts." Five basic rules describe the relationship between individuals and their networks-including mutual adaptation, the influence of friends and friends' friends, the network's "life of its own"-but the results do more than promote the good of the group: they also spread contagions; create "epidemics" of obesity, smoking and substance abuse; disseminate fads and markets; alter voting patterns; and more. A thorough but popular take on a complex phenomenon, this volume offers an entertaining guide to the mechanics and importance of human networking. 13 b/w illustrations, 8-page color insert.
Reviews

"Christakis and Fowler have written the book on the exciting new science of social networks. With passion and precision, these two internationally renowned scientists expose the invisible webs that connect each of us to the other, and in so doing cast our lives here together in an astonishing new light. We think we are individuals who control our own fates, but as Christakis and Fowler demonstrate, we are merely cells in the nervous system of a much greater beast. If someone you barely know reads Connected, it could change your life forever. How? Read it yourself and find out."-- "The book has all sorts of interesting information about how our friends influence our lives, for better and for worse." -- (Daniel Gilbert, bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness )

"[In a category of] works of brilliant originality that can stimulate and enlighten and can sometimes even change the way we understand the world." (The New York Times )

"Groundbreaking...." (Kirkus )

"An entertaining guide to the mechanics and importance of human networking." (Publishers Weekly )

"Engaging and insightful...sure-to-be a blockbuster...Connected succeeds in connecting with its audience." (SeedMagazine.com )

"Illuminating...The authors excel at drawing out the devil in the detail. [Connected] has profound implications." (New Scientist )

"Intriguing." (SmartMoney.com )

"Connected explores the startling intricacies of social networks." (O, The Oprah Magazine )

"The book has all sorts of interesting information about how our friends influence our lives, for better and for worse." (MarieClaire.com )

"Connected argues convincingly that it's not enough to understand how individuals behave. The book details examples of how individual behaviors affect other members of a social network."-ScienceNews.com

"This wonderful book by Christakis and Fowler could well be one of the most important works of the decade. In a clear and engaging way, the authors apply their creative and provocative findings on social networks to understanding not only our social relationships but also the forces that shape our world. Full of fascinating stories and examples, this book is essential in understanding our very nature. A must read." (Ed Diener, Joseph Smiley Distinguished Professor of Psychology University of Illinois and author of Happiness )

"Fascinating... the dozens of interconnected stories of research findings by Chriastkis and Fowler and others leave me eager to learn about the next wave of research in this area." (Andrew Gelman, author of Red State, Blue State )

"What makes us human -- for good and bad -- is our social nature. Nowhere is this complex, wonderful, and sometimes dark part of us more clearly revealed than in Connected. In a social world exploding with new ways to interact, Connected is a user's guide for ourselves in the 21st century." (Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics and author of Predictably Irrational )

"A God's-eye view of social relationships that may make you dizzy. Every business leader, teacher, and parent should see their life from this vantage." (Chip Heath, author Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die )

"An old adage tells us, 'You can't chose your family.' After reading Connected, you will find that you can't choose many things in your life. Others choose them for you! Christakis and Fowler take a fresh look at an old idea: that who we know matters. Connected is a lively, well-written account of social networks and their power to shape our lives. Complicated ideas become easy to understand and the mysteries of science unfold in front of your eyes. The world becomes smaller and more meaningful after reading this engaging book." (Sudhir Venkatesh, author of Gang Leader for a Day )

"From health and happiness to fads and financial markets, Christakis and Fowler take us on a dazzling tour of the world of social networks. And in showing how these networks matter in our individual lives, the authors also make the deeper point that "network thinking" is the key to understanding how all our lives fit together."- Duncan Watts, author of Six Degrees

Matt Ridley: The Origins of Virtue

The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation by Matt Ridley 

If, as Darwin suggests, evolution relentlessly encourages the survival of the fittest, why are humans compelled to live in cooperative, complex societies? In this fascinating examination of the roots of human trust and virtue, a zoologist and former American editor of the Economist reveals the results of recent studies that suggest that self-interest and mutual aid are not at all incompatible. In fact, he points out, our cooperative instincts may have evolved as part of mankind's natural selfish behavior--by exchanging favors we can benefit ourselves as well as others. Brilliantly orchestrating the newest findings of geneticists, psychologists, and anthropologists, The Origins of Virtue re-examines the everyday assumptions upon which we base our actions towards others, whether in our roles as parents, siblings, or trade partners. With the wit and brilliance of The Red Queen, his acclaimed study of human and animal sexuality, Matt Ridley shows us how breakthroughs in computer programming, microbiology, and economics have given us a new perspective on how and why we relate to each other.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon Review

Human life, scientific journalist Matt Ridley suggests, is a complex balancing act: we behave with self-interest foremost in mind, but also in ways that do not harm, and sometimes even benefit, others. This behavior, in a strange way, makes us good. It also makes us unique in the animal world, where self-interest is far more pronounced. "The essential virtuousness of human beings is proved not by parallels in the animal kingdom, but by the very lack of convincing animal parallels," Ridley writes. How we got to be so virtuous over millions of years of evolution is the theme of this entertaining book of popular science, which will be of interest to any student of human nature.

From Library Journal

Relying heavily on game theory, zoologist and science writer Ridley focuses on how cooperation evolved in the generally selfish world of humankind. The result is a fascinating tale incorporating studies in theoretical and evolutionary biology, ecology, economics, ethology, sociology, and anthropology. Ridley details many complex behaviors, such as altruism in animals and humans, and reviews many anthropological investigations to show how these behaviors manifest themselves in differing groups. He also develops some absorbing ideas regarding extinct civilizations. Unfortunately, his conclusions are sometimes at odds with his claim that individual property rights are the key to conservation and that environmentalists are misguided. His criticisms of conservation efforts and of the concept of the "noble savage" can be one-sided, and his sources are limited. Still, the material will captivate a wide audience, including scholars who appreciate the original literature cited. Highly recommended. --Constance A. Rinaldo, Dartmouth Coll. Biomedical Lib., Hanover, N.H.

Michael White: A Genome-Sized Media Failure

Visualizations of networked linkages between genetic components broadly across the human genome (right) and in a smaller, hierarchically arranged subset (left). Image: Gerstein et al./Nature

Last week, the large genome sciences consortium ENCODE (ENCyclopedia of DNA Elements) made a big splash by presenting its long-awaited results in a publishing extravaganza. This was a fantastic opportunity for scientists and science journalists to explain to the public some of the exciting and important research findings in genome biology that are changing how we think about health, disease, and our evolutionary past. But we blew it, in a big way.

If you read anything that emerged from the ENCODE media blitz, you were probably told some version of the "junk DNA is debunked" story. It goes like this: When scientists realized that classical, protein-encoding genes make up less than 2% of the human genome, they simply assumed, in a fit of hubris, that the rest of our DNA was useless junk. (You might have also heard this from your high school or college teacher. Your teacher was wrong.) Along came the ENCODE consortium, which found that, far from being useless, junk DNA is packed with functionality. And so everything scientists thought they knew about the genome was wrong, wrong wrong.

The Washington Post headline read, "'Junk DNA' concept debunked by new analysis of human genome." The New York Times wrote that "The human genome is packed with at least four million gene switches that reside in bits of DNA that once were dismissed as 'junk' but that turn out to play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave."

Influenced by misleading press releases and statements by scientists, story after story suggested that debunking junk DNA was the main result of the ENCODE studies. These stories failed us all in three major ways: they distorted the science done before ENCODE, they obscured the real significance of the ENCODE project, and most crucially, they mislead the public on how science really works.

What you should really know about the concept of junk DNA is that, first, it was not based on what scientists didn't know, but rather on what they did know about the genome; and second, that concept has held up quite well, even in light of the ENCODE results. Among the reasons that scientists in the 1970s and '80s began to believe that much of the genome is non-functional was the observation that very similar species could have very different genome sizes. There is no reason to believe that similar species require dramatically different amounts of functional DNA, and thus something other than functional requirements must explain differences in genome size. Scientists also discovered that our genomes contain parasitic, virus-like elements called "transposons" that have the ability copy themselves within our cells. This DNA ecosystem makes our genomes more like a jungle than a precision machine. At the latest count, transposon-derived DNA makes up at least half of our genome. The transposon-derived sequences in our genomes do not have to be explained by invoking some useful function for it. There is no mystery here: this DNA is there because it can replicate.

The primary scientific task of the ENCODE group was to scope out the biochemical landscape of the genome, and put the resulting data out as a resource. The Human Genome Project gave us the text of our genome, but this text is essentially impossible to read without an interpretive guide of key biochemical landmarks. ENCODE, in what was a genuine, technological tour-de-force, measured dozens of different kinds of biochemical landmarks, which can be suggestive of important functions, but do not by themselves demonstrate that a region of the genome is doing something useful for us. This distinction was obscured by the press releases put out by ENCODE, and largely lost on most of the reporters who covered the story. Missing from press releases and news reports was a description of what non-functional DNA looks like: it carries many of the same biochemical landmarks as functional DNA. The widely reported claim of debunked junk DNA is simply wrong.

The media reports on ENCODE used the word 'breakthrough,' but it is too early to fully measure the success of ENCODE, despite the high quality of the data. Ten years out, the reference human genome sequence is a must-have tool for nearly all biomedical researchers. Will the ENCODE results become equally indispensable to our efforts to understand the connection between our genomes and our health? ENCODE's results are very big, but not comprehensive: they don't include every type of cell or class or regulatory protein that we're interested in. As our genome technology improves (which it is doing at a rate that might put the iPhone to shame), we may decide that we need to re-do much of the work done by ENCODE.

And many are worried that our funding agencies have become addicted to Big Science,
prioritizing massive data generation efforts over the more idea-driven work of smaller, individual labs.

The most damaging aspect of our massive failure to get the ENCODE story right was that readers were served up a terrible distortion of the scientific process. A rule of thumb you should apply whenever reading about supposed breakthroughs is this: past scientists weren't as dumb or credulous as they're made out to be. Scientists tend to be a cautious and skeptical lot, not given to cooking up new theories based on a blithe and arrogant dismissal of what they don't understand. They work hard to base their ideas on the best data available at the time, and then they work hard to come up with even better data.

Dr. Michael White is a systems biologist studying genes and their regulation, in the Department of Genetics and the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is co-founder of the online science pub The Finch and Pea.

From "The User Illusion" to "Enriching the Brain"

"What is done by what is called myself is, I feel, done by something greater than myself in me." -- James Clerk Maxwell

I took advantage of the long weekend to polish off Tor Norretranders' The User Illusion, and what a book it was. I bogged down for a while mid-week, but got my second wind Monday, and after re-reading a couple of passages that I'd spaced out on, was able forge all the way to the end. Ahh, the finish line!

This book is far more than a neuroscience tome. Among the variegated science topics covered and called upon are Information Theory (Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver), the limits of science and knowledge (Zeno of Elea and Kurt Godel), physics, entropy (James Clerk Maxwell), computer science (Alan Turing), the Big Bang theory, cosmology, the Gaia hypothesis, evolution, emergence, complexity, chaos, fractals, gestalt theory, religion, endosymbiosis, genetics, consciousness, the bicameral mind, and more. Fortunately, I'd already read much about many of these topics. What an accomplishment by Norretranders to attempt to tie it all together. Bravo!

One of the main themes is that our consciousness operates by using a compressed amount of information bits (exformation), and thus our view of reality is actually an expected simulation based on much, much larger numbers of information bits experienced (and discarded) by the senses. This conscious "I" is only a very small part of the entire body's "me" and it requires a half-a-second delay (Benjamin Libet) to produce its unconscious simulation.


Now, just in time for the start of the school year, it's on to:

Enriching the Brain: How to Maximize Every Learner's Potential by Eric Jensen 

"Eric Jensen—a leading expert in the translation of brain research into education, argues in Enriching the Brain that we greatly underestimate students’ achievement capacity. Drawing from a wide range of neuroscience research as well as related studies, Jensen reveals that the human brain is far more dynamic and malleable than we earlier believed. He offers us a powerful new understanding of how the brain can be “enriched,” across the board to maximize learning, memory, behavior and overall function. The bottom line is we have far more to do with how our children’s brains turn out than we previously thought. Enriching the Brain shows that lasting brain enrichment doesn’t occur randomly through routine or ordinary learning. It requires a specific, and persistent experiences that amount to a “formula” for maximizing brain potential. Parents, teachers and policy-makers would do well to memorize this formula. In fact, the lifelong potential of all school age kids depends on whether or not we use it. Offering an inspiring and innovative set of practices for promoting enrichment in the home, the school, and the classroom, this book is a clarion call. All of us, from teachers to parents to policymakers must take their role as ‘brain shapers’ much more seriously and this book gives the tools with which to do it."

My Obsessive Reading

I have an "indexing gene." I love checklists and reference data. I used to catalogue the creative credits for my favorite comic books, in pencil, on 3" x 5" index cards, during the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous dogsled races televised in the mid-seventies. I thought it was fun. Like most collectors, I would also make ultra-detailed "want lists" of missing, desired issues, and reading lists of favorite authors.

For a time in the nineties, I joined legendary comic fan Jerry Bails' indexing apa (amateur press association), apa-i. I 've contributed to the online Grand Comic Book Database., Askart, and other databases -- the ultimate versions of my old catalog card system.

These days, when I finish a nonfiction book, I write down the title and author(s) in a notebook. Sometimes I forget, but usually I record the books soon after reading. In true OCD fashion, I have to actually finish a book in order to record it. Partially finished books don't count. Believe it or not, just seeing the title/author information again helps me recall much of what I've read.

I originally read popular science and math books for the nonfiction genre, but after the 2008 financial crisis meltdown, I realized I knew nothing of business, and went on a business, economics, and investing book jag. Then in 2010, I shifted gears again to the current trend of mainly psychology and neuroscience reads. The "Behavioral Economics" business books made a nice bridge to these psychology books. I think my "psychology phase" is winding down now. What's next? Probably learning theory.

For "extra credit," I have typed out my list of my obsessesive fact-based reading conquests. You might enjoy reading a few of them yourself, so I have roughly categorized them. Frankly, after typing out this list, I'm a bit blown away at how much material I've consumed so far, and this doesn't even count all the comics, art books, magazines, and crime novels. I'm sure I've also missed a few books that I forgot to record. Here's the list, alphabetized by author.

Biography/Memoir/Military/Pop Culture

The Wire: Truth Be Told - Rafael Alvarez and David Simon

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest - Stephen E. Ambrose

Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany - Stephen E. Ambrose 

D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II - Stephen E. Ambrose

The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany 1944-45 - Stephen E. Ambrose

Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness - Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele

Under Cover: An Illustrated History of American Mass-Market Paperback - Thomas L. Bonn ; Foreword by John Tebbel

Possible Side Effects - Augusten Burroughs

Running with Scissors: A Memoir - Augusten Burroughs

The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1) - Robert A. Caro

Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson) - Robert A. Caro

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York - Robert A. Caro

From Birdland to Broadway: Scenes from a Jazz Life - Bill Crow

Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller - Burke Davis

Miles: The Autobiography - Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe

Django Reinhardt - Charles Delaunay

I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron
Rod Serling: The Dreams and Nightmares of Life in the Twilight Zone/a Biography - Joel Engel

Grant Green: Rediscovering the Forgotten Genius of Jazz Guitar - Sharony Andrews Green  

Searching for Robert Johnson: The Life and Legend of the "King of the Delta Blues Singers" - Peter Guralnick

Summer of '49 - David Halberstam

The Fifties - David Halberstam  

Howard Hughes: The Secret Life - Charles Higham

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World - A. J. Jacobs

Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece - Ashley Kahn

Too Marvelous for Words: The Life and Genius of Art Tatum - James Lester

Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs - A Parody by Fake Steve Jobs (Daniel Lyons)

The Terrible Hours: The Greatest Submarine Rescue in History - Peter Maas 

Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia - Peter Maas

Stan Getz: A Life in Jazz - Donald L. Maggin

Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War - William Manchester

Jim Thompson: Sleep with the Devil - Michael J. McCauley

Positively Fifth Street: Murderers, Cheetahs, and Binion's World Series of Poker - James McManus

Cornell Woolrich: First You Dream, Then You Die - Francis M. Nevins

Hardboiled America: Lurid Years of Paperbacks - Geoffrey O'Brien

Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta - Robert Palmer

Dance of the Infidels: A Portrait of Bud Powell - Francis Paudras 

Straight Life: The Story of Art Pepper - Art Pepper and Laurie Pepper

Bill Evans: How My Heart Sings - Peter Pettinger

Goodfellas - Nicholas Pileggi  

Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson - Robert Polito

Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet - Lewis B. Puller Jr.

Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music, and Redemption of Jelly Roll Morton - Howard Reich and William M. Gaines

The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes 

A Bridge Too Far: The Classic History of the Greatest Battle of World War II - Cornelius Ryan 

The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day - Cornelius Ryan

Serling: The Rise and Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man - Gordon F. Sander

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash - Jean Shepherd

Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters - Jean Shepherd    

Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage - Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew

Between Covers: The Rise and Transformation of Book Publishing in America - John William Tebbel   

Off the Wall (David Berkowitz) - Charles Willeford

Something About a Soldier - Charles Willeford

Business/Economics/Finance/ Investment

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More - Chris Anderson

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions - Dan Ariely

The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home - Dan Ariely

Corporate Cults: The Insidious Lure of the All-Consuming Organization - Dave Arnott

Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart - Ian Ayres

The Numerati - Stephen Baker

The Secret History of the South Sea Bubble: The World's First Great Financial Scandal - Malcolm Balen

The Cartoon Introduction to Economics: Volume One: Microeconomics - Yoram Bauman and Grady Klein 

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them: Lessons from the Life-Changing Science of Behavioral Economics - Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk - Peter L. Bernstein

Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street - Peter L. Bernstein 

The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio - William Bernstein

The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk - William J. Bernstein

The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between - William J. Bernstein

A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation - Richard M. Bookstaber

The Poker Face of Wall Street - Aaron Brown

Frozen Desire: Meaning of Money - James Buchan

Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food Taming Our Primal Instincts - Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan

Mean Markets and Lizard Brains: How to Profit from the New Science of Irrationality - Terry Burnham

The Whiz Kids: The Founding Fathers of American Business and the Legacy They Left Us - John A. Byrne

How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities - John Cassidy

25 Myths You've Got to Avoid If You Want to Manage Your Money Right: The New Rules for Financial Success - Jonathan Clements

You've Lost It, Now What? How to Beat the Bear Market and Still Retire on Time - Jonathan Clements

The Perfect Store: Inside eBay - Adam Cohen

Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk - Satyajit Das

Inventing Money: The Story of Long-Term Capital Management and the Legends Behind It - Nicholas Dunbar   

The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing: A Book for Procrastinators, the Financially Challenged, and Everyone Who Worries About Dealing with Their Money - Paul B. Farrell

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World - Niall Ferguson

The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street - Justin Fox

One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy - Thomas Frank

Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went - John Kenneth Galbraith

The Age of Uncertainty - John Kenneth Galbraith

The Great Mutual Fund Trap: An Investment Recovery Plan - Gregory Baer and Gary Gensler

The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream - Jacob S. Hacker

The Reckoning - David Halberstam  

Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line - Ben Hamper

The Undercover Economist - Tim Harford

The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers - Robert L. Heilbroner

The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency - Robert Kanigel

Code Name Ginger: The Story Behind Segway and Dean Kamen's Quest to Invent a New World - Steve Kemper

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis

Moneyball - Michael Lewis

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine - Michael Lewis

The Blind Side - Michael Lewis

Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing - Roger Lowenstein

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management - Roger Lowenstein

Bull: A History of the Boom and Bust, 1982-2004 - Maggie Mahar

No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller - Harry Markopolos

More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places - Michael J. Mauboussin 

The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash - Charles R. Morris

Die Broke: A Radical Four-Part Financial Plan - Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine

The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It - Scott Patterson

Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism - Kevin P. Phillips

Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street - William Poundstone

Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) - William Poundstone

Winning the Cash Flow War: Your Ultimate Survival Guide to Making Money and Keeping It - Fred Rewey

The Madoff Chronicles: Inside the Secret World of Bernie and Ruth - Brian Ross

Company Man: The Rise and Fall of Corporate Life - Anthony Sampson

The Mind of the Market - Michael Shermer

Irrational Exuberance - Robert J. Shiller

Crashproof Your Life : A Comprehensive, Three-Part Plan for Protecting Yourself from Financial Disasters - Thomas A. Schweich

Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods -- and How Companies Create Them - Michael J. Silverstein, Neil Fiske and John Butman

The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read: Maximize Your Retirement Savings...the Smart Way! - Daniel R. Solin

The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read: Maximize Your Retirement Savings...the Smart Way! - Daniel R. Solin

The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Read - Daniel R. Solin

The Wisdom of Crowds - James Surowiecki

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness - Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

The Winner's Curse: Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life - Richard H. Thaler

The History of Money - Jack Weatherford

What Goes Up: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as Told by the Bankers, Brokers, CEOs, and Scoundrels Who Made It Happen - Eric J. Weiner

Wall Street Versus America: A Muckraking Look at the Thieves, Fakers, and Charlatans Who Are Ripping You Off - Gary Weiss

Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science - Charles Wheelan and Burton G. Malkiel

The Judas Economy: The Triumph of Capital and the Betrayal of Work - William Wolman and Anne Colamosca

The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power - Daniel Yergin  

Diet/Health/Medicine/Neuroscience /Psychology/Self-Help

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness - Daniel G. Amen

Healing Anxiety and Depression - Daniel G. Amen and Lisa C. Routh

10 Simple Solutions to Panic: How to Overcome Panic Attacks, Calm Physical Symptoms, and Reclaim Your Life (The New Harbinger Ten Simple Solutions Series) - Martin M. Antony and Randi E. McCabe

Prozac and the New Antidepressants: What You Need Know About Prozac Zoloft Paxil Luvox Wellbutrin Effexor Serzone Vestra Celexa St. John's Wart and Others - William S. Appleton M. D.

Art and Visual Perception - Rudolf Arnheim

NeanderThin: Eat Like a Caveman to Achieve a Lean, Strong, Healthy Body - Ray Audette

The Imp of the Mind: Exploring the Silent Epidemic of Obsessive Bad Thoughts - Lee Baer  

Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial - Alison Bass

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves - Sharon Begley

When in Doubt, Make Belief: An OCD-Inspired Approach to Living with Uncertainty - Jeff Bell

Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment - Tal Ben-Shahar

Coping with Anxiety: 10 Simple Ways to Relieve Anxiety, Fear and Worry - Edmund J. Bourne and Lorna Garanao

The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook - Edmund J. Bourne

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior - Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman

Getting Past OK: The Self-Help Book for People Who Dont Need Help - Richard Brodie

Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme - Richard Brodie

Feeling Good - The New Mood Therapy - David D. Burns

When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life - David D. Burns

Syndrome X: The Complete Nutritional Program to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance - Jack Challem, Burton Berkson and Melissa Diane Smith

On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not - Robert Burton

Overcoming Obsessive Thoughts: How to Gain Control of Your OCD - David A. Clark and Christine Purdon  

Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool - Taylor Clark

The Paleo Diet: Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Foods You Were Designed to Eat - Loren Cordain

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain - Antonio R. Damasio

IBS For Dummies - Carolyn Dean and L. Christine Wheeler

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science - Norman Doidge

Coping with OCD: Practical Strategies for Living Well with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - Troy DuFrene and Bruce Hyman

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder For Dummies - Charles H. Elliott Ph.D. and Laura L. Smith Ph.D.

Overcoming Anxiety For Dummies - Charles H. Elliott Ph.D. and Laura L. Smith Ph.D.

Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life - Paul Ekman

Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage - Paul Ekman

Thanks: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier - Robert Emmons

Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside - Katrina Firlik

Stop Obsessing!: How to Overcome Your Obsessions and Compulsions - Edna B. Foa and Reid Wilson 

The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety: A Guide to Breaking Free from Anxiety, Phobias, and Worry Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy - John P. Forsyth and Georg H. Eifert

Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the 3 to 1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life - Barbara Fredrickson

Stumbling on Happiness - Daniel Todd Gilbert

The Sense of Order: A Study in the Psychology of Decorative Art (The Wrightsman Lectures, V. 9) - E. H. Gombrich

Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Personalized Recovery Program for Living with Uncertainty - Jonathan Grayson

Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease - Gary Greenberg

Insomniac – Gayle Greene

The Intelligent Eye - Richard L. Gregory

Mirrors in Mind - Richard L. Gregory

Odd Perceptions – Richard L. Gregory

Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average - Joseph T. Hallinan

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - Chip Heath and Dan Heath

On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hard-Wired Habits - Wray Herbert

Sleep Disorders For Dummies - Max Hirshkowitz, Patricia B. Smith and William C. Dement

Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life - Steven Johnson

Sleep Apnea - The Phantom of the Night: Overcome Sleep Apnea Syndrome and Snoring - T. Scott Johnson, William A. Broughton, Jerry Halberstadt and B. Gail Demko

Man and His Symbols - Carl Gustav Jung

Apprentice to Genius: The Making of a Scientific Dynasty (neuroscience and neuropharmacology)  - Robert Kanigel

Who Switched Off My Brain? Revised: Controlling Toxic Thoughts and Emotions - Caroline Leaf Ph.D.

The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life - Joseph LeDoux

Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are - Joseph LeDoux

How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer 

Proust Was a Neuroscientist - Jonah Lehrer

The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God - David J. Linden

The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good - David J. Linden

Of Two Minds: The Growing Disorder in American Psychiatry - T. M. Luhrmann

The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want - Sonja Lyubomirsky

101 Theory Drive: A Neuroscientist's Quest for Memory (Gary Lynch) - Terry McDermott

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

The Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky

Psychology Today: Taming Bipolar Disorder (Psychology Today Here to Help) - Lori Oliwenstein

The Cult of Personality Testing: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves - Annie Murphy Paul

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders: A Complete Guide to Getting Well and Staying Well - Fred Penzel

Learned Helplessness: A Theory for the Age of Personal Control - Christopher Peterson, Steven F. Maier and Martin E. P. Seligman

The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing: The Experience and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - Judith L. Rapoport

Shadow Syndromes: The Mild Forms of Major Mental Disorders That Sabotage Us - John J. Ratey M. D. and Catherine Johnson Ph.D.

Be Different: My Adventures with Asperger's and My Advice for Fellow Aspergians, Misfits, Families, and Teachers - John Elder Robison

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's - John Elder Robison

Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment - Martin E. P. Seligman

Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being - Martin E. P. Seligman   

Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life - Martin E. P. Seligman

What You Can Change and What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement - Martin E. P. Seligman

Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior - Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Beverly Beyette

The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force - Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley

Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are - Sebastian Seung

Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life - Allen Shawn 

The Other Side of Normal: How Biology Is Providing the Clues to Unlock the Secrets of Normal and Abnormal Behavior - Jordan W. Smoller

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things - Gail Steketee 

The Impulse Factor: An Innovative Approach to Better Decision Making - Nick Tasler

Overcoming Health Anxiety - David Veale

Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America - Robert Whitaker   

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies - Rob Willson and Rhena Branch

Don't Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks - Reid Wilson

Math:

A Tour of the Calculus - David Berlinski

Newton's Gift: How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of the World - David Berlinski 

The Advent of the Algorithm: The Idea that Rules the World - David Berlinski

First You Build a Cloud: And Other Reflections on Physics as a Way of Life – K. C. Cole

Mind Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmos – K. C. Cole

The Universe and the Tea Cup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty – K. C. Cole

Archimedes' Revenge: The Joys and Perils of Mathematics - Paul Hoffman

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth - Paul Hoffman

The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan - Robert Kanigel

The Fractal Geometry of Nature - Benoit Mandelbrot

A Beautiful Mind (John Nash) - Sylvia Nasar

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper - John Allen Paulos

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences - John Allen Paulos

Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem - Simon Singh and John Lynch

Science:

Bursts: The Hidden Patterns Behind Everything We Do, from Your E-mail to Bloody Crusades - Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means - Albert-László Barabási

Forward Through the Rearview Mirror: Reflections on and by Marshall McLuhan - Paul Benedetti and Nancy DeHart 

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer - Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin 

Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of Wholeness - John Briggs  

Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen - Mark Buchanan

The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

The Meaning of it All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist - Richard P Feynman

What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character - Richard P. Feynman 

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell

Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - Malcolm Gladwell

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures - Malcolm Gladwell

Chaos: Making a New Science - James Gleick

Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything - James Gleick

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman – James Gleick

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood - James Gleick

What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Information Frontier - James Gleick

Alan Turing: The Enigma - Andrew Hodges and Douglas Hofstadter

Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software - Steven Johnson

Chances Are . . .: Adventures in Probability - Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World - Kevin Kelly

Naked To The Bone: Medical Imaging In The Twentieth Century - Bettyann Kevles

John Von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence, and Much More - Norman Macrae

The Gutenberg Galaxy - Marshall McLuhan 

The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan, Quentin Fiore and Shepard Fairey

Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life - Leonard Mlodinow 

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives - Leonard Mlodinow 

What the Numbers Say: A Field Guide to Mastering Our Numerical World - Derrick Niederman and David Boyum

Universal Foam: Exploring the Science of Nature's Most Mysterious Substance - Sidney Perkowitz

Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge - William Poundstone

The Prisoner's Dilemma - William Poundstone

The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century - David Salsburg

Fringes of Reason (Whole Earth) - Ted Schultz

Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences – Edward Tenner

Philosophy/ Sociology

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream - Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich

The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements - Eric Hoffer

The Age of Alienation - Bernard Murchland

Proust Was a Neuroscientist

Here's a fun, Gladwellian-type read by Jonah Lehrer. The chapter on the French chef Ecoffier and the discovery of the taste sensation of "umami" is especially well done.

Proust Was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer

In this technology-driven age, it’s tempting to believe that science can solve every mystery. After all, science has cured countless diseases and even sent humans into space. But as Jonah Lehrer argues in this sparkling debut, science is not the only path to knowledge. In fact, when it comes to understanding the brain, art got there first.
Taking a group of artists — a painter, a poet, a chef, a composer, and a handful of novelists — Lehrer shows how each one discovered an essential truth about the mind that science is only now rediscovering. We learn, for example, how Proust first revealed the fallibility of memory; how George Eliot discovered the brain’s malleability; how the French chef Escoffier discovered umami (the fifth taste); how Cézanne worked out the subtleties of vision; and how Gertrude Stein exposed the deep structure of language — a full half-century before the work of Noam Chomsky and other linguists. It’s the ultimate tale of art trumping science.
More broadly, Lehrer shows that there’s a cost to reducing everything to atoms and acronyms and genes. Measurement is not the same as understanding, and art knows this better than science does. An ingenious blend of biography, criticism, and first-rate science writing, Proust Was a Neuroscientist urges science and art to listen more closely to each other, for willing minds can combine the best of both, to brilliant effect.