Sara Manning Peskin

This is a short book but full of revelations — to me anyway — about the historic search for the molecular causes of many common mental illnesses.

We all look to science with great anticipation to new breakthroughs on Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, dementia, Huntington’s disease, and many others.

Sara Manning Peskin gives us a historical perspective — and hope — that our brightest minds are looking in the right corner of human biology for the answers.

This is good, but it is a brief survey of the topic. Left me wanting another 100 pages or so, but worth reading and well written. Would have been 3.5 if that was possible.

Stories about various diseases or types of malnutrition that dramatically affect the mind, and in some cases describes how the cause (or cure) was discovered. Didn’t get very deep into the science and didn’t explore any of the philosophical implications. I didn’t love the writing but it was ok.

I’d consider this a good introduction to books about the brain. The stories in this book are bite-sized and patient-focused, and the medical terminology is explained well. This might actually be the first brain/DNA book I’ve read where it actually explained what deoxyribonucleic acid means from a chemistry standpoint.