A conversational and highly accessible look into how the workings of our brains effect the very basis of what makes us human- morals, choices, self-control, compassion, aggression, gender identity and learning. If you are interested in neuroscience but do not want to be overwhelmed with technical details, this book is perfect.

I read through this book in a rush in two days. A combination of addictive plot and very short chapters made it almost impossible to set down. It centers about the lives of three black women- Thais, a prostitute living in Alexandria around the year 300 BCE; Mer, a slave on a Haiti sugar plantation in the late 1700s and Jeanne, a dance hall girl living in Paris in the 1850s. Their lives, loves, and tragedies are woven together by the occasional influence of a Ginen goddess, who goes by many names. She moves through an ethereal river of space time, the salt roads. Under her domain are blood, sweat, tears, semen and all salt water seas. Thais, Mer and Jeanne live in worlds that cannot ignore bodily functions. They all hunger, thirst, wept, work, ache, revel in sex and try to wring as much out of life as they can.

This was a hard book, but a very relevant book, to be reading right now. It was written in 1993 and depictions a near-future California (mid 2020s) ravaged by economic hardship, mass chaos, a destabilized government, years of drought and a citizenship driven to murder and arson by dangerous new drugs. In the center of this peril Lauren Olamina grew up in a walled community, the daughter of a teacher and a minister. Her neighbors grow large gardens for food, breed rabbits, pound acorns for flour. Water and electricity are viciously expensive and must be rationed. There are no jobs to be had anywhere, and the young people of this community look forward to bleak futures. Lauren draws strength from Earthseed, a set of religious beliefs that come suddenly into her mind, like gifts. Earthseed teaches that God is change, which cannot be stopped or bargained with, but can be prepared for and shaped. This belief helps Lauren survive when her tiny safe world is broken open and fire and ruin rain down on her friends and family. The message of the book has some hope, but it's scary to realize that Octavia Butler's dystopian vision feels closer now, in 2017, than it was when she wrote this book almost 25 years ago.

Butler's predictions of the future are both incredibly grim and eerily parallel to our own current reality. Reading about the growth and destruction of the fledgling Earthseed community, founded in the previous book Parable of the Sower was heartbreaking. Overall I found this book a little less tightly plotted than the first but still a vital read. Those of you who are reaching for 1984 and Animal Farm, add this series to your list.

This is an excellent introduction to the personality and work of physicist Richard Feynman, or a reminder of his gregarious character to those who mainly know of his Nobel Prize and other achievements. The text is drawn from numerous interviews, letters, his own books and other's anecdotes, giving this book a conversational and informal air. Very enjoyable.

Nicole Georges had a very unstructured and at times dysfunctional childhood- half raised by her two sisters (10 and 12 years her senior), alternately indulged and neglected by her flighty mother. One constant was the belief that her biological father died of colon cancer when she was less than two years old. When she was 23, a palm reader told Georges that her biological father was very much alive. For some reason, this struck her as a statement that could not be laughed away. This book recounts Georges attempts to alternately ignore and interrogate the fact that she may have been lied to during her entire youth. Filling these pages are the other facets of George's life- caring for a rotating menagerie of dogs and rescued chickens; the beginning and end of a band and a relationship and an ongoing search for a fulfilling creative life.

It's been awhile since I've had such undiluted delight in a YA fantasy book (a genre I read widely in the past, but have been somewhat avoiding in recent years). Agnieszka was born in a small valley on the edge of a dark and terrible Wood. The trees here are alive, and have malicious intent; humans from the valley are kidnapped, sometimes turned to murderous madness, sometimes feed into the forest itself. The only one keeping back the Wood is The Dragon, one of Polnya's most powerful wizards. His fellow sorcerers (The Falcon, The Willow, The Sword, The Owl and The Splendid) mainly keep to the capital city, forging weapons for the ongoing war against Rosya. Agnieszka is chosen by The Dragon as a combination of servant and deeply reluctant apprentice; until, that is, her best friend is taken by the Wood. Suddenly, Agnieszka understands the need to develop her own growing magical powers. But it may already be too late; the Wood is playing a deep game and Agnieska's hesitations may have already lost her everything- her best friend, her family, her valley home, and the survival of her very nation. This book lives up to the hype in the best way.

Cassie Maddox, former Murder detective now working in Domestic Violence, is blindsided when a corpse is found that could practically be her twin. Not only that, the dead girl's ID says she was Lexie Madison- an ID which Cassie created for an undercover case early on in her career. That case ended when Cassie was stabbed by a drug dealer she had been tailing for weeks. Lexie was killed by a stab wound in almost exactly the same place. When Frank Mackey, head of undercover, suggests that Cassie slid into the space left by Lexie's death to investigate her murder from the inside, Cassie is unable to say no. So begins her time at Whitethorn House, playing the role of a Trinity College post-grad student, living in a dilapidated manor house with four friends as close as siblings. It is highly likely that one of these charming, intelligent people killed Lexie, and Cassie is supposed to be figuring out which one. But the longer she lives in Lexie's life, the more she wants to stay in it forever. This book sucked me in, hard. I spent a week doing almost nothing by reading. It's been almost four years since I read In the Woods, Tana French's first book and the first in the Dublin Murder Squad series, so my memories of that book's ending are hazy. No matter. This book is darkly, seductively compelling, a bittersweet delight of a story.

The stress and weirdness of University is starting to wear down our heroes. Susan takes on an extra-curricular project running the campaign of a prospective student body president during which she stops sleeping and accidentally slips into the Night. Esther goes in after her, but comes back caring even less about Uni than she did before. Daisy takes her friends on an inspirational camping trip, but it might not be enough to keep them all in school. Allison's witty writing continues to spark in this third volume.

This book falls somewhere between horror and suspense, two genres I generally find too upsetting to enjoy. It opens in an underground prison. Melanie is one of 24 children kept at all times either locked in cells, or strapped into wheelchairs for the school day. Melanie knows that she was brought to this complex from somewhere else, but her early memories are vague. She only learned to speak in this school and it is difficult to remember things that she has no words for. However, her days aren't entirely unhappy. One of the five teachers who come into the classroom smelling of harsh chemicals is Miss Justineau, who reads the students Greek myths, plays games, sings songs, and brings in arm loads of flowering branches (the first Melanie has ever seen) in springtime. But something is weighing Miss Justineau down with sadness, and it might have something to do with the two children who were taken away- Liam and Marcia- and never returned. Melanie wants to ask about them, but she is worried that if she does she too will be taken away, and the thought of never seeing Miss Justineau again is more terrible than anything else she can think of. Until the day she is taken.

The fact this book was too creepy for me to read before bed (and at times too gross to read during breakfast) is the only thing stopping me from giving it five stars.