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Brain Candy – Recommended Reads List
By Kimberly Burton
A pop-culture blend of informative, offbeat science reads to feed your head.
The grapes of math: how life reflects numbers and numbers reflect life
By Alex Bellos
From triangles, rotations and power laws, to cones, curves and the dreaded calculus,
Alex takes you on a journey of mathematical discovery with his signature wit and
limitless enthusiasm.
Gulp: adventures on the alimentary canal
By Mary Roach
The humor scientist behind Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook:
Science Tackles the Afterlife takes a tour of the human digestive system, explaining
why the stomach doesn't digest itself and whether constipation can kill you.
How I killed Pluto and why it had it coming
By Mike Brown
The astronomer who inadvertently triggered the "demotion" of Pluto in his effort to
officially recognize the solar system's tenth planet describes the ensuing debates and
public outcry while revealing the behind-the-scenes story of his discovery.
The inheritor's powder: a tale of arsenic, murder, and the new forensic science
By Sandra Hempel
Describes the 1833 case that helped change the way murderers who used poison
were prosecuted, when an unknown chemist created a test that could determine the
presence of arsenic in the body.
Just babies: the origins of good and evil
By Paul Bloom
A leading cognitive scientist argues that a human sense of morality is genetically
innate, drawing on years of original research at Yale to challenge psychological
beliefs and explain how morality is a limited behavior that is subject to a natural
hatred of different groups and a species-unique capacity for reason.
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Riveted: the science of why jokes make us laugh, movies make us cry, and religion
makes us feel one with the universe
By Jim Davies
A sweeping look at what grabs our attentions that pulls back the curtain on the
psychological and evolutionary reasons that everyone is drawn to religion, conspiracy
theories, and the news.
Shocked: adventures in bringing back the recently dead
By David J. Casarett
A physician, researcher and professor describes the recent developments on the
cutting edge of cryonics, hibernation and suspended animation, discussing real
laboratories and other facilities that are investing in and investigating extending life
and keeping death at bay.
Suspicious minds: how culture shapes madness
By Joel Gold
Combining extraordinary true stories with the latest research, Joel and Ian Gold take
us on a wild journey through the delusional brain to explore the intersection of
neuroscience, biology, and culture.
We are our brains: a neurobiography of the brain, from the womb to Alzheimer's
By D. F. Swaab
A U.S. release of an internationally best-selling distillation of the author's lifetime
work on the role of the human brain is comprised of short, engaging chapters that
reveal what is happening inside the brain under various circumstances, from
pregnancy and adolescence to falling in love and in the presence of mental illness.
Welcome to Mars: politics, pop culture, and weird science in 1950s America
By Ken Hollings
Drawing on newspaper articles, ad campaigns, declassified government archives, and
old movies, Ken Hollings shows the culture of postwar America and its dream of
limitless technological and human development.
Kimberly Burton specializes in Readers' Advisory Content for Adult readers. Drawing upon over 20
years' of experience as a genre fiction specialist and library professional, Kim oversees NoveList's
Adult Recommended Reads Lists, Book Discussion Guides, and creates other innovative readers'
advisory content throughout the NoveList databases.
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www.ebscohost.com/novelist