Mlodinow (The Upright Thinkers, 2015) continues his exploration into the workings of the human mind with this deeply researched and well-sourced treatise on how ideas come to form in undercurrent thinking. His specific phrase of bottom up thinking belies the common belief that all ideas are consciously structured and put into motion with similar awareness. Mlodinow bases his findings on how the brain's reward center reacts to new conditions and options. By understanding this nimbleness of the brain, we can better maneuver through life and expand our thought processes. With the excess of change the modern world has to offer, this volume makes for fascinating reading. However, it is like a transcript of an extended TED talk, including all the anecdotes and asides meant to amuse the audience. Alas, the playful analogies often fall flat on the page to distracting effect. Still, historical insights abound, including the revelations of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the origins of the EEG and PET scans, and an answer to thinking outside the box. Mlodinow fans will enjoy another journey into how we think.--Ruzicka, Michael Copyright 2018 Booklist

With the world changing so rapidly, our thinking must change as well. This ingenious account by bestselling science writer Mlodinow (Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, 2012, etc.) describes how we think and how we might do it better.Business writers often argue that humans hate change. What they actually hate, the author insists, are the painful consequences often associated with changee.g., getting fired. In their absence, we love change and actively seek it. According to one expert in evolutionary anthropology, "we [humans] jump borders. We push into new territory even when we have resources where we are. Other animals don't do this." This "neophilia" confronts us with new problems, but humans are superb problem-solvers. Mostly, we solve them through analytical thinking, a top-down, step-by-step approach based on facts or reason. This works fine in most cases, and it is also how higher animals and computers work, but true creativity requires what Mlodinow calls elastic thinking. Nonlinear, operating largely in the unconscious, and more emotion driven, it's a bottom-up process that considers unusual and even bizarre ideas, resulting in genuine creativity essential in art and business and, increasingly, in our personal lives. Mixing a century of psychology and brain research with descriptions of fascinating cutting-edge technology and anecdotes from his own life, the author delivers the latest findings on how the brain takes in, processes, filters, andif we apply a few techniquesimproves on the perceptions that pour in. As he writes, "the world today is a moving target," and we must be better prepared as a result.Readers looking for advice on business success or personal growth will find pearls of wisdom, but this is not Mlodinow's focus. He sticks firmly to a few ideas already showing their age (that computers will never be truly intelligent), but mostly this is top-quality popular neuroscience. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In theoretical physicist Mlodinow's (Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior) latest work, he describes how our minds work and how we can approach our thought process to meet the needs of an ever-changing world. We learn the different roles of analytical or rote thought compared to elastic thinking, how they work together in our minds, and how we can take advantage of that information. Mlodinow makes the science of thought easily accessible and entertaining. This audiobook, read by the author, is hard to set aside. The examples are entertaining but also highly relevant to the point at hand. Illustrations are available in an accompanying PDF. VERDICT Recommended for any listeners curious about how their minds work. ["With elements of self-help and business writing and including entertaining anecdotes and turns of phrase, this fantastically accessible science writing about the brain can be enjoyed by anyone. Of particular interest to those wishing to understand how to cope with the pace of change in the modern world": LJ 2/1/18 starred review of the Pantheon hc.]-Eric D. Albright, Tufts Univ. Lib., Boston © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

THE GREAT BELIEVERS, by Rebecca Makkai. (Viking, $27.) A novel that ricochets between Chicago in the mid-1980s, an era when AIDS was a death sentence, and present-day Paris, where the shadow of its contagion still looms over a mother in search of her errant daughter. THE PERFECT WEAPON: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age, by David E. Sanger. (Crown, $28.) This encyclopedic account by a Times correspondent traces the rapid rise of cyberwarfare capabilities and warns that ideas about how to control them are only beginning to emerge. SLAVE OLD MAN, by Patrick Chamoiseau. Translated by Linda Coverdale. (New Press, $19.99.) Set in plantation-era Martinique, this novel is a kind of action pastoral, tracing a slave's desperate escape from a savage master and his monstrous mastiff. His exhilarating flight evokes the shock of freedom with tactile immediacy. AMERICAN EDEN: David Hosack, Botany and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, by Victoria Johnson. (Liveright, $29.95.) The doctor to the infamous Hamilton-Burr duel also created a legendary botanical garden for early America, now buried far beneath Rockefeller Center. Johnson tells his story. DAMNATION ISLAND: Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th-Century New York, by Stacy Horn. (Algonquin, $27.95.) A detailed consideration of the appalling history of the East River penitentiaries and asylums where the city once held its undesirables in forcible exile. ELASTIC: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change, by Leonard Mlodinow. (Pantheon, $28.95.) "Elastic thinking" is the ability to stretch beyond the bounds of our preconceptions and other deeply held beliefs. Mlodinow tries to understand how this happens in the brain, what it takes to arrive at human creativity, innovation and independent thought. SEARCHING FOR STARS ON AN ISLAND IN MAINE, by Alan Lightman. (Pantheon, $24.95.) In tightly composed essays, a noted astrophysicist and novelist argues that science need not be in conflict with spirituality. An elegant and moving paean to our quest for meaning in an age of reason. THIS LITTLE ART, by Kate Briggs. (Fitzcarraldo, paper, $20.) Briggs, a translator of Roland Barthes, here offers a philosophical meditation on the perils and pleasures of her vocation, one she compares to Robinson Crusoe's efforts to fashion a table - an act of "laboriously remaking an existing thing." FOX & CHICK: The Party and Other Stories, by Sergio Ruzzier. (Chronicle, $14.99; ages 5 to 8.) Friendship can be challenging as well as comforting. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books