I love neuropsychology. I studied it both in my undergraduate and my master's degree. While I never went on to pursue it for a career it has remained an interest of mine. For fun, I enjoy reading neuropsychology books that take the research and combine it into a more narrative format. Some authors do not have adequate background in the science, and while the work is excellent journalism it does not go deep enough. Other authors are used to more academic writing and do not quite capture the narrative style in an engaging manner.

Then there is how to present the depth of knowledge. Some books are very introductory and I am left feeling board and unsatisfied. Yet, the book also has to be able to explain complex neurological tasks, that even the most researched neuropsychologist does not have answers to. It is tough to reach such a broad audience.

Writing a good pop psychology book is hard. David Eagleman is one of the best I have read. I was blown away by how he explained complex brain functions in easy to understand terms that did not leave me board. Even better was his applied usage of neuropsychology to change the entire dynamics of our society.

I tore through this book in audio, and plan on buying it in paper as well. I had long discussions with my children on the different ideas that Eagleman presented. The concepts of incarceration, punishment, and free will were fascinating. I can not wait to read his other books.

I had added this book to my TBR list due to the adamant admiration of a BookTuber - I can no longer remember who, but thank you!

This book is a fantasy novel set, in part, in Egypt. It focuses on middle eastern mysticism and acknowledges mysticism from other regions (how cool is that?). The main character is unusual from the start of the novel. She is making her way as an independent women in a society where women were as good as livestock.

The book starts strong with diversity, feminism, intriguing magic, and vivid characters. I was hooked right away and was singing the praise of this novel to other readers that I know. Unfortunately, I feel like the novel lost some of its polish later in the novel. It got a little boring, the characters got a little cliche, and I do not think the ending was as strong as it could have been. Even with that this is a strong five star book.

No one cares about crazy people - unless they are your family or friends. Then you care a lot. Then you care not only about crazy people, but about how society is letting them down, and has let them down since the beginning of history. As hard as racial and gender reform is, reform for mental health is harder - because no one cares about crazy people, even other marginalized groups.

There are a lot of books being released about autism, and even some about bipolar and other mood disorders. Yet, talking about Schizophrenia is still too scary for most people. So, thank you Ron Powers for writing the book that need to be written and for doing it in a way that captured the reality of schizophrenia without overwhelming readers who do not live with this disorder everyday. Thank you for showing the history of the treatment of people with mental health issues, and the current problem that our families face in trying to treat this disorder. Thank you also for showing the positive side of schizophrenia, the dynamic people and their creative genius.

I have never known my daughter pre-illness. She was diagnosed when she was just three years old. It has been, and continues to be, a long journey. As a parent there are many fears, and one such fear is that this illness will take my daughter's life. This is a fear that Ron has had to live through. Thank you for taking this and telling others, helping others to understand.

This book is powerful, it is one of only a few books that really go into depth about schizophrenia. It was also evident that Powers is a journalist and not a neuropsychologist. There are a few conclusions that he made that I do not specifically agree with. Specifically, I am not sure if his assessment that schizoaffective disorder is worse then schizophrenia. Research shows that individuals with schizoaffective are able to more integrate into society, although there is not really good resources for this to happen and many end up in jail. You also have the mood disorder symptoms on top of the psychotic symptoms. I am not sure that there is a better illness to have, but I also would not say that schizoaffective is worse than schizophrenia.

As a mother of a 16 year old daughter, thank you for speaking out. Thank you for telling your story, parts of my story, and the story of how we as a society continue to fail people who have mental health issues. It is neurologically impossible to have genius without having deviance from societal norm. It is time that everyone starts to care about crazy people.

It took me about three fourths of the way through the novel to know if I liked it. I finally decided that I did.

Selina Ascends is a different sort of novel. It has an entirely logical and serious narrator set in a world this is completely absurd. It is like an adult, more outrageous, version of Alice in Wonderland. It is all based on the Tower of Babel, and it was my son who pointed out to me that it is following the seven deadly sins - we think. It is not clear cut enough to say for sure. Especially since this is just the first part. However, you can see sloth, greed, and lust pretty easily.

The novel features Selin, a school teacher that decides to take his wife on a honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. What he does not realize is that everything that he has read about the tower is wrong. It is a world all it’s own and travelers are pretty much doomed as soon as they get off the train, or airship.

It is really the world building that drives this novel. The characters are good, but not brilliant. The writing is also well done, but not brilliant. The world is a genius all of it’s own. There is a complex interplay between all of the worlds. Some of the interconnectedness I saw back on the first level. Some I did not even flush out until I talked about this book with my son. We had some interesting conversations about this world. The interactions between the characters are more interesting then the characters themselves. Although it has been interesting seeing them change, depending on the floor that they show up on.

I am interesting to see where Bancroft goes with this in the second book. While I am fairly confident in the final destination, I am fascinated about the journey to get there.

This is one of those books that I think my opinion goes against popular opinion. I am honestly confused about the popularity of this book. It makes me want to search out great Asian literature (that has been translated into English).

I am most commonly drawn to books with strong and detailed characters. This book did not have characters, it had people stuffed into designer clothes. People were described first by the labels that they were wearing. Their personalities and physical characteristics were rarely mentioned. The people were all a mass lump only separated by poor and uber rich. I know nothing about designer labels, so this all went completely over my head and detached me from the book.

If my boyfriend 'forgot' to tell me he was a billionaire before taking me to meet his family, especially if I know that his culture is deeply rooted in tradition, I would be livid. Rachel does not even get upset until the end of the book and by that point it no longer makes sense. Of course it only lasts for a few pages.

This is the only book that I think the movie will turn out better than the book. From what I heard the movie is at least set up like a fairy tale. The book is not. While I am not a big fan of fairy tale romance books, that would at least make sense. How this novel is structured left me wondering, why? If there was an overall message of this book I think it is - if you have money make sure to flaunt it, but only in a humane way.

I wanted to DNF this book so often, the only reason I kept going is because this book is so huge and I wanted to write a review of the entire novel. I actually tried to make myself like this book and then something else ridiculous happened and I could not.

I listened to this book in audio book, which did not help. The accents kept changing, for the same character. They often did not fit the character. I felt like I had to fight past the narrator to get to the book. Except the book itself was also not that great.