Smell is such an integral part of being human, yet it’s probably our least thought-about sense. We take it for granted, often focusing instead on what we can see, hear, taste and touch. But what if we had a guidebook on how to approach life through smell and take advantage of the aromas that confront our noses throughout the day?

This is essentially what author Jude Stewart (Patternalia) provides in her new book, Revelations in Air: A Guidebook to Smell, a comprehensive handbook chock-full of guidance, advice and new ways to experience a sense that is barely understood. Stewart writes that smell’s “liveness,” its dynamic and embodied nature, is what drew her to it and led her on a journey to sniff with more intention. Along the way she realized that “smelling is a kind of meditation turned inside out.

Starting with the science of smell, Stewart discusses the nose’s function and purpose, outlining the chemistry required for smell “to reach us,” the anatomical role of the body’s olfactory bulbs and smell’s emotional connection to the brain and memory. She then breaks various smells into categories such as sweet, savory, earthy and funky. The usual suspects are featured, such as rose, vanilla and bacon, as well as some surprising scents many of us will never get a chance to experience, including cannon fire, melting permafrost and extinct flowers.

Stewart effortlessly combines the fascinating science behind smell with historical examples, musical comparisons and cultural differences in how smells are viewed and experienced. Revelations in Air gives a fresh perspective on and appreciation for this often-ignored sense.

You might guess that Helen Thomson, a journalist who studies neuroscience, would be a fan of the late Oliver Sacks. And you’d be right. Like Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Thomson’s Unthinkable features case studies of people who inhabit unimaginable realities, among them a man who believes he is a tiger, a woman who is continually lost and a man who feels the bodily sensations of others as he observes them.

Thomson brings to the project an eye for detail and narrative prowess, and unlike a scientific investigator such as Sacks, she does not seek to study these astonishing minds in clinical settings, but instead in more natural ones. Based in England, Thomson travels thousands of miles to meet her contacts and visit their homes. She asks the kinds of personal questions scientists might avoid. For instance, she queries one subject, who strongly associates people with colors, what color he associates with his mother—and even with Thomson herself.

Yet Thomson’s aim, ultimately, is to shed light on what each case can tell us about our own life experiences, particularly as they are mediated by the three-pound lump of flesh in our heads. How do we find our way around, perceive our bodies and record our memories?

Neuroscience has exploded in the last two decades as imaging technology and a renewed exploration of human cognition have illuminated the inner workings of our minds like never before. Thomson traces the roots of this enterprise and shows how these extraordinary cases relate to ongoing investigations into the nature of perception. Fans of Sacks will enjoy and quickly devour this insightful and very readable book.

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

We live in a time of great change, driven by the exponentially increasing power of computers. In order to thrive in this whirlwind of change, we need to rely on what Leonard Mlodinow calls elastic thinking. But there’s a problem. In his new book, Elastic, Mlodinow writes, “The technological advancement that makes elastic thinking ever more essential also makes it less likely that we’ll engage in it.”

Mlodinow shows us the components of elastic thinking, like embracing eccentricity and novelty, letting go of cognitive filters, practicing mindfulness and even mindlessness. Along the way, Mlodinow provides a primer on the brain’s structures and brain research, showing us how we think and what, exactly, thought even is.

Does this book sound heavy? It’s not. Mlodinow is a lively guide, and his writing on this complicated subject is clear and easy to follow. (He’s also a theoretical physicist who’s written several bestselling science books, collaborated with Stephen Hawking and written for “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”) To illustrate his points, Mlodinow offers a wide range of anecdotes made possible by elastic thinking, such as the illuminating moment that led Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein and the reasons behind the Allies’ success in the World War II Battle of Midway. He also interviews an array of people—not just scientists but also those who, in his view, exemplify some aspect of elastic thinking, people like Judy Blume and Seth MacFarlane.

Elastic thinking is what makes humans human, Mlodinow asserts, and it’s something we’re far better at than computers and artificial intelligence, which is reassuring for us. While Elastic isn’t exactly a self-help book, it does offer quizzes to help readers determine their levels of elastic thought, and each chapter offers exercises and suggestions for building elastic thinking skills.

This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The Deepest Well begins at a terrifying moment in the life of a healthy 43-year-old father the author calls Evan. As he wakes up one morning, he realizes his arm has gone numb—and then his leg, and then his face. Why is Evan, a man with no apparent risk factors, having a stroke?

As pioneering pediatrician and public health advocate Dr. Nadine Burke Harris reveals, millions of adults like Evan are at risk from a silent, invisible threat: the long-term impact of ACE, adverse childhood experiences.

Harris’ exploration of childhood adversity was launched when she met a little boy named Diego in her practice at Bayview Child Health Center in a low-income area of San Francisco. Although he was 7 years old, he was only as tall as a 4 year old. His mother indicated that Diego had experienced sexual abuse at age 4, leading Harris to begin questioning the connections between trauma and illness later in life. She notes that, “with every Diego that I saw, the gnawing in my stomach got worse.”

Harris is a compelling storyteller as she recounts her search for strategies to help patients like Diego. But The Deepest Well is not only a medical narrative but also a very personal one. The stroke victim that opens this book is her brother, who, thankfully, recovered. But like Harris, he spent a childhood living with a mother with mental illness. Harris notes, “My experience dealing with both sides of the ACEs coin is in part what drives my work.”

Childhood adversity takes many forms, and its impact can last a lifetime. Readers curious to learn more about how they may have been affected can find an ACE questionnaire in the appendix. The Deepest Well is more than a riveting medical story—it’s a must-read guide for recognizing, understanding and treating a condition that many will find in our own homes.

The “hacking” Dr. Lustig refers to in The Hacking of the American Mind has nothing to do with sinister forces invading and taking over our computers. Rather, he believes that the processed food and pharmaceutical industries and their lackeys in government are doing the hacking of our bodies and minds. He also casts a wary eye on the addictive properties of technology, which, he says, is more likely to amuse than fulfill us.

A professor of pediatrics, Lustig fired his first salvo at sugar, the most pernicious ingredient in processed foods, in his 2012 bestseller, Fat Chance. He persists in his battle here against sugar here. However, Lustig’s overarching goal in The Hacking of the American Mind is to delineate the differences between mere pleasure, which is episodic and a doorway to addiction, and the more enduring state of happiness. In doing so, he begins with a discussion of the brain—its designs, functions and defenses against injury. Despite his breezy, conversational style, this early part of the book is fairly slow going.

But the remainder of his text is plainspoken observation, analysis and advice. America is suffering from a health crisis, Lustig says, principally because corporations have taken over virtually every aspect of our lives—from offering mindless entertainment, to feeding us bad food, to selling us medical insurance and supposedly life-enhancing drugs—always for private profit, never for public good. Lustig explains how Lewis Powell Jr., first as a pro-business lawyer, then as a Supreme Court justice, was instrumental in helping destroy government checks against corporate abuses, and subsequent Court decisions have continued to erode these safeguards.

The upshot, Lustig concludes, is that we are basically on our own when it comes to constructing sane and safe lives. To that end, he suggests we hold technology at arm’s length, get more sleep, do more home cooking, be more altruistic and find comfort in mindfulness and in the congenial company of others. And always avoid sugar.