I wanted to like this book quite a bit more than I did. I usually enjoy experts writing books in their fields for laymen and this one is right in that area, focusing on brain science. It was interesting enough, but Burnett’s prose was a bit awkward. He has a bit of a silly edge that I liked; sometimes his little jokes were only funny in a kind of corny “oh, that’s AWFUL” kind of way, but there were a handful of times when I laughed out loud, which I rarely do when reading. The book was interesting, but something about the prose style and the information actually being conveyed made it feel really slight and not in a good way. I was vaguely entertained, not much more. 2 ½ stars.
tl;dr – expert neuroscientist writes about his science for laymen, but, aside from the occasional great joke, this slight book isn’t particularly compelling. 2 ½ stars.