Brain Books

When a reader asks for the list of brain books I have read, how can I say no? This is not a complete list because I only started to keep a list of what I read in 2016. It was at that point I grew tired of forgetting titles or rereading a book because I had forgotten I had read it. I have added some pre-2016 books on at the end that I know I have read, but I started reading on this topic around 2012, so that's four years' worth of books that I don't have titles for.

This is a long list. If I remember a book and found it particularly interesting, I'll put an '*' next to it. If a book needs some sort of comment, I'll add that. It was also difficult to look at my list and decide what kind of book it was. You'll notice that there are books that venture a bit outside of the strict 'brain' category, but I think still fit.

1. The Body Knows its Mind: The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel - Sian Beilock *

2. The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World that Values Sameness - Todd Rose

3. Neurologic: The Brain's Hidden Rationale Behind our Irrational Behavior - Eliezer J. Sternberg

4. The Interpersonal Biology of Play: Brain-Building Interventions for Emotional Well-Being - Theresa A. Kestly *

5. Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain - Antonio R. Damasio [This book appears on nearly every neuroscience bibliography I've ever read through. It is interesting and it is slow going.]

6. Executive Function and Child Development - Marcie Yeager and Danial Yeager

7. A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play - Vivian Gussin Paley

8. Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul - Stuart Brown

9. The Well Balanced Child: Movement and Early Learning - Sally Goddard Blythe

10. When Listening Comes Alive: A Guide to Effective Learning and Communication - Paul Madaule

11. A Life in Balance: Discovery of a Learning Breakthrough - Frank Belgau as told to Eric Belgau

12. The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in life and business - Charles Duhigg

13. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in Healing Trauma - Bessel van der Kolk *

14. Traumatic Experience and the Brain: A Handbook for Understanding and Treating those Traumatized as Children - Dave Zigler

15. The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits and Working Memory - Torkel Klingberg

16. The Learning Brain: Memory and Brain-Development in Children - Torkel Klingberg

17. Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind - Scott Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire

18. Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikzentimihaly *

19. Smart Moves: why learning is not all in your head - Carla Hannaford

20. My Plastic Brain: One Woman's Yearlong Journey to Discover if Science can Improve her Mind - Caroline Williams

21. Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More - Morten T. Hansen

22. Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains - Helen Thomson

23. Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement - Rich Karlgaard

24. The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity - Norman Doidge *

25. The Learning Tree: Overcoming Learning Disabilities from the Ground Up - Stanley I. Greenspan

26. Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections Between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices that Can Transform Your Life - Curt Thompson

27. The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature - Sue Stuart-Smith

28. Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science can Help Adults Learn a Foreign Language - Richard Roberts and Roger Kreuz

29. Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory with the Most Powerful Methods in History - Lynne Kelly [This is just a super fun and interesting book.]

30. Play = Learning: How Play Motivates and Enhances Children's Cognitive and Social-Emotional Health - Singer, Golinkoff, and Hirsch-Paskek, ed.

31. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - David Epstein

32. Horse Brain Human Brain: The Neuroscience of Horsemanship - Janet L. Jones

33. Integrative Parenting: Strategies for Raising Children Affected by Attachment Trauma - Wesselman, Schweitzer, and Armstrong

34. Teaching Tolerance: Raising Open-minded, Empathetic Children - Sara Bullard

35. You're a Miracle (and a pain in the ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery that Make You You - Mike McHargue

36. Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures: A guide - Lorna Myers

37. Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life - Susan David

38. Social: Why Our Brains are Wired to Connect - Matthew D. Lieberman

39. Switch on Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health - Caroline Leaf [I read it, but the author and style of writing drove me up a wall.]

40. Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman

41. The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, Self-Regulation - Stephen W. Porges * [This is an important book, but it makes Damasio's book up at the top of the list feel like reading a Danielle Steele book in comparison.]

42. Molecules of Emotion: Why you feel the way you feel - Candace B. Pert

43. Your Body is Your Brain - Amanda Blake

44. Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation - Daniel J. Seigel *

45. Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma - Peter Levine

46. I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't): Telling the Truth about Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power - Brene Brown *

47. The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain - Annie Murphy Paul

48. Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life - Michael Merzenich

49. The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life - Shawn Achor

50. Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life - Nir Eyal

51. Insight: The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think - Tasha Eurich

52. Brain On Fire: My Month of Madness - Susannah Cahalan

53. Grounded: Discovering the Missing Piece in the Puzzle of Children's Behavior - Claire Wilson

54. Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing - David A. Treleaven

55. The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection Through Embodied Living - Hillary L. McBride

56. The Power of Mindful Learning - Ellen J. Langer

57. The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being - Daniel J. Siegel *

58. Cured: The Life-Changing Science of Spontaneous Healing - Jeffry Rediger *

59. Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise - Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

60. The Telomere Effect - Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel *

And books on my shelves that I know I have read, but are not on my list.

61. Atlas of the Heart - Brene Brown

62. The Explosive Child - Ross Greene *

63. The House of Make-Believe: Children's Play and the Developing Imagination - Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer

64. Theraplay: Helping Parents and Children Build Better Relationships Through Attachment-Based Play - Ann M. Jernberg and Phyllis B. Booth

65. Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It - Jane M. Healy *

66. Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Starts, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes - Alfief Kohn *

67. Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control: A Love Based Approach to Helping Children with Severe Behaviors - Heather T. Forbes and B. Bryan Post

68. Brain-Based Parenting: The Neuroscience of Caregiving for Healthy Attachment - Daniel A. Hughes and Jonathan Baylin

69. The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind - Daniel J. Seigel *

What I'm currently reading (slowly).

70. Behave: The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst - Robert M. Sapolsky

71. The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotions in the Making of Consciousness - Antonio Damasio

72. Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions - Jaak Panksepp