Review of "This Is Your Brain On Music" by Dr. Daniel J. Levitin

This is a book that had sat on my "to be read" shelf for too long.  I finally pulled it down, and I am so glad that I did.  Daniel J. Levitin comes at his examination of how music impacts the brain from two perspectives.  He trained as a musician at Berklee College of Music, a few blocks from where I sit writing this review.  He then went on to receive a Ph. D. in neuroscience, and is a leading expert in the field of Human Cognition.

"This Is Your Brain On Music - The Science of a Human Obsession" provides answers and clues to our very human propensity to make music and to listen to music - since before recorded history.  What comes through very clearly in his writing are his twin passions for music and for scientific inquiry to solve mysteries of how we think and feel in response to specialized stimuli such as music. There is enough detail in this book to keep the scientist engaged and the musician intrigued.  Yet the concepts are also explained in such a way that they are accessible to non-scientists and non-musicians.

I have long been a music lover, and reading this book has given me a deeper appreciation of what is happening within my brain and spirit as I listen to such diverse works as Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Handel's "Messiah," or Don MacLean's "Starry, Starry Night."

Enjoy!

Al

Review of Bill Bryson's "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" - A Memoir of Growing Up in the 1950s

I have long been a fan of Bill Bryson's work.  He has a knack for presenting the familiar in refreshingly unfamiliar ways. In this memoir of growing up in the 1950s, "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid," he shares simple stories of what life was like for him and his friends and neighbors in Middle America - Des Moines, Iowa.  There were too many spots for me to keep count when I burst out laughing at the image he had created in my mind as he related memorable characters and indelibly vibrant pranks and pratfalls.

This book is a loving portrait of a simple and satisfying time in which to grow up.  It is one man's story of his boyhood, but it is also a slice of American cultural history as well.  I can't wait to share it with my sister and brother, who will recognize many of the same dynamics of life as a kid when Ike was in the White House.

Enjoy.

Al