My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor
A very interesting book written by a neuroscientist that had a stroke. The first part of the book is a discussion of or neuroanatomy and the differences between the two hemisphere. The middle section describes her stroke and recovery -- very interesting stuff here. The final section discuss what the author learned about life from her experience -- she gets pretty metaphysical at times. I enjoyed the book. Grade: B
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
I really enjoyed the first two books I read by Atul Gawande, and this book was of the same high quality. We live in a world were the total amount of human knowledge is increasing rapidly. Since our brains can only hold so much, the fraction of human knowledge in any individual brain is shrinking. One strategy to help compensate for this is to use checklist. These are lists to help us remember details -- think checklists used by airline pilots. In this book, Atul argues for the use of checklists by surgeons, and he discusses the improved results when they are used. Of course, the basic premise of checklists helping people do things better could probably be extended to many, many fields. Excellent book. Grade: B+
