Smarter by Dan Hurley

This book's full title is Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power. This is the journey of Dan Hurley trying to get smarter. The results were interesting and he seemed to have some fun at the same time. This is a story of a journey of discovery and it is a great and easy and enjoyable read. He has his own website.

I generally look at the Good Reads site because it usually has some very good reviews. I was not disappointed. Annie Murphy Paulmarch in the New York Times does a good review of this book. There is also a short but good review by Ben East in the Guardian.

There is a short interview of Dan Hurley by Penquin on YouTube. In this longer video (about 1 hour), Dan Hurley speaks at The RSA. There is an interesting interview of Dan Hurley by Elisheva Schwartz on YouTube.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

Mindware by Richard E. Nisbett

This book's full title is Mindware: Tools for Smart Thinking. This is a lively book on we think and how we can think more effectively. It is interesting that he talks about letting your subconscious help. You can do this by sleeping before making a big decision or do cost/benefit analysis of a problem and then throw it away.

As usual, there are some good reviews at Good Reads. Not everyone liked this book, but I certainly did. Nick Romeo in the Boston Globe does an excellent review. E. James Lieberman does a Q & A with Richard Nisbett in the Library Journal.

Richard E. Nisbett speaks at The Rockefeller University . This video is just over one hour and he speaks on a topic of "Intelligence and How to Get it: Why Schools and Cultures Count". Q & A Panel starts just over 39 minutes. This video is called "Know Thyself Uncut conversation with Richard Nisbett" is on YouTube.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

Superpower by Ian Bremmer

This book's full title is Superpower: Three Choices for American's Role in the World. Ian Bremmer has his own Website for this book. He thinks that the US has three choices. First is put their head into the sand (and ignore the rest of the world), the second his to look after their own interests and the third choice was to try to solve other people's problems. I think that the problem with the last one is that you cannot solve other people's problems. I agree that Foreign Policy in the US is in a muddle and only reactive at the moment, but I do not see that improving in the near future.

As usual, there are some great reviews at Good Reads. There is an interesting review by Elena Holodny at Business Insider followed by Q and A. The review of this book by y Greg Waldmann at Open Letter Monthly is the best one I saw and read.

Ian Bremmer is interviewed on Foreign Affairs. There is a short interview by WSJ by Rebecca Blumenstein.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

The Making of Asian America by Erika Lee

This book's full title is The Making of Asian America: A History. I was attracted to this book as there are lots of Asians in my country of Canada, but I know little of their history in North America. Did you know that the first Asians to America started with Acapulco in 1580? Did you know that the first Chinese to go to the American colonies arrived in 1829? Did you know that the US had Angel Island in the west (like Eilis Island in the east)? However this island was used to exclude people, especially Chinese people.

Erika Lee is a teacher, author and historian. She had her own website . She has also won awards for this book. She is the Director of the Immigration History Research Center and has the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair in Immigration History at the University of Minnesota. She is on the University of Minnesota website.

There is an excellent review of this book by Oliver Wang in theNew York Times. There is another really good review by Viet Thanh Nguyen in the Los Angeles Times. This interesting article by Karan Mahajan called The Two Asian Americas in the New Yorker talks about this book.

In this video, Erika Lee speaks about her. This video starts at around 3:55 and Lee comes in around 6:12. This video is almost 1 hour long.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

The Golden Age Shtetl by Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern

This book's full title is The Golden Age Shtetl; A new History of Jewish Life in East Europe. I had long heard about the Jewish Pale in East Europe, but I did not know that much about the area and history. So, when I saw this book, I just had to read it.

There are a few good reviews on this book at the bottom of the page on Amazon. Jonathan Rosenjuly of the New York Times posted a good review in 2014. There is some interesting and some critical reviews at Good Reads. Personally, I feel that all history is interesting and important. How would you understand the world today, without the history of yesterday?

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern talks at Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. He starts over 3 minutes in the video and it is also some 6 minutes in before he speaks English. He starts talking about this book about 7 minutes into this video. Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern speaks at Cambridge.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

Doomed to Repeat by Bill Fawcett

This book's full title is Doomed to Repeat: The Lessons of History We've Failed to Learn. It deals quite a bit with terrorism, but this is certainly a current issue especially for us in the West. The author suggests that the historical lesson from the assassins is that the use of terror for political and religious purposes is a major factor throughout Islamic history.

There are some good and some negative reviews here on Good Reads. I must admit that I very much enjoyed this book. Maybe it is a bit American centric. This review on Kukus is certainly negative. However, I have never read a history book that did not get some fact wrong. A brief, but interesting review is at True Review Online by Andrew Andrews.

Bill Fawcett writes in the Huffington Post about 9 history lessons we have failed to learn. This is an easy way to get to the essence of this book. There is an interesting YouTube video juxtaposition this book with other books. Video is short at just over 2 minutes.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.

The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

This book's full title is The Happiness Advantage, The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at work. Shawn Achor has his own web site here which he shares with Michelle Gielan.

One thing that I liked about Shawn Achor approach to happiness is that he says that doing acts of kindness will add to your happiness and give you a better more positive viewpoint.

There are some good reviews on Good Reads. Note that you have to scroll half way down the page to find them. On the Good Reads site there is also a list of quotes from this book. They are listed by the number of likes each quote got. Ivo Dias de Sousa on Intelligent HQ does a good review of this book.

Shawn Achor is on TED.com. In an article on Psychology Today, Shawn Achor talks a bit about his philosophy on Happiness. Shawn Achor talks about 6 exercises for happiness in this CBC broadcast (after two annoying ads). His exercises are also listed on the site. There is an article by Shawn Achor at the Huffington Post.

Also, an index of the books I have reviewed are on my website at Books. Follow me on Twitter.