The Best in Books: Tinkers

At the time Paul Harding’s Tinkers won the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 it had only sold about 1,120 copies, according to Publisher's Weekly

. Since then, more than 360,000 trade paperback copies have been purchased.

"The weekly spike is also astounding: in the week before the announcement, Tinkers sold only 40 copies. The next week, immediately following its Pulitzer victory, it sold 1,042 copies, doubling its total sales in a seven-day span. The following week, sales continued to climb, reaching 6,131 copies, and weekly sales remained steady around 5,000 until January 2011, 10 months after it won the Pulitzer," the trade magazine reports.

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Now Reading: The Nature Principle

Now reading with the Outrider Reading Group ~
The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age by Richard Louv

In this new book, Richard Louv presents a compelling case that the time has come to re-envision a future that taps into the restorative powers of the natural world.

Dubbed "The New Nature Movement," this future-oriented emphasis on environmentalism and sustainability challenges all of us to make changes to the way we live.

Louv presents evidence that exposure to and cooperation with nature can boost mental acuity and creativity, promote health and wellness, build smarter and more sustainable businesses, and strengthen human bonds.

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Review: Neurogastronomy

Why do we like or even crave certain foods and avoid others?

Named and defined by the author, a Yale neurobiologist studying how the brain creates images of smells, "neurogastronomy" is a new science of eating that focuses on food favors.

Drawing on brain studies and food studies, this book explains the new field of investigation and how it holds "the promise of putting healthy eating on a new scientific basis."

A key premise of this book is that "humans have a much more highly developed sense of flavor because of the complex processing that occurs in the large human brain." Gordon Shepherd dismisses the idea that foods hold flavor as a common misconception and asserts that while foods contain molecules, the flavor of those molecules is actually created in our brains.

Neurogastronomy 

How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters

by Gordon M. Shepherd

Columbia University Press, 2011

Continued in The Book Stall

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