Out of Your Mind: The Biggest Mysteries of the Human Brain

by Jorge Cham, Dwayne Godwin

From the creator of WE HAVE NO IDEA, an introductory journey into your own mind—if your inner voice had a Ph.D. in brain science, cracked jokes, and drew cartoons. Why do you love? Why do you lie? What makes you happy? Every single thought you have comes from one your brain. But what makes it tick? How much of it have we decoded, and how much of it remains an impenetrable mystery? Join best-selling author and online cartoonist Jorge Cham and neuroscientist Dwayne Godwin on a deep dive into the fascinating world of the human brain, in which they will explore questions such What is consciousness? Where is you in the brain? And do we have free will? All while illuminating everything we know (and DON’T know) about one of the most complex objects in the known universe. Think of it as conversation-ammunition for your next cocktail party, or a quick fascinating read while you’re in the bathroom (don’t worry, the chapters aren’t that long). Centered around questions we all ask ourselves at some point but don’t usually have answers to, Out of Your Mind is an illustrated book about the brain that isn’t too brainy. Playful, accessible, and deeply insightful, it’s the one brain book that’s truly accessible and suitable for all brains.

Genres: Science, Psychology, Nonfiction, Neuroscience, Biology, Audiobook, Philosophy

368 pages, Hardcover

Published January 28, 2025

About the author

Jorge Cham is a Chinese-Panamanian post-doc best known for his popular newspaper and web comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD Comics). He first started drawing PhD Comics as a graduate student at Stanford University, and has since been syndicated in several university newspapers and in three published book collections.

Jorge Cham received his Bachelor's degree from Georgia Tech in 1997, and earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford. He subsequently worked at Caltech as an instructor and as a researcher on neural prosthetics.

In 2005, Cham began an invited speaking tour of over 80 major universities delivering his talk titled "The Power of Procrastination". In this lecture, Cham talks about his experiences creating the comic strip and examines the sources of grad students' anxieties. He also explores the guilt and the myths associated with procrastination and argues that in many cases it is actually a good thing.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thoughtful and easy to read primer on what is actually occurring in the human brain which gives us feelings of consciousness, love, fear, free will, happiness, etc. The pairing of authors (who know each other well) was ideal. Dwayne Godwin has 35 years as a neuroscientist. Jorge Cham is an engineer-turned cartoonist, writer and producer, who writes the web comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD Comics).

I would have liked slightly deeper scientific discussion, with direct citations to the bibliography in the appendix. I like science and nonfiction, so this could have turned off readers. A previous book: We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe by Jorge Cham really dug into the depths of astrophysics. Whereas this Brain book felt a little more light-weight.

Maybe this is because we can't ethically do experiments on the human brain. Researchers need to stumble onto things. e.g. an accident happens and a certain portion gets damaged. How did the person change?

The opening chapter "Where is the Mind" really makes you think (philosophically)! What are we? A collection of our memories which are brain connections? Indeed.

A late chapter about decaying brains/death was a little morbid, but quite real. Makes you want to take better care. People can see their physique in a mirror, but are they taking care of their brain (self)?

I wish Ch 11 (What make us Human) was earlier in the book. It is just the historical evolution of the brain, starting from the first simple cells trying to regulate water flow.

Each chapter has a nice summary at the very end to remind you of the important things just discussed.

I found myself start/stop this book. Nonfiction chapters are easy to break up, but I thought I rip through this book in <1 week. It was not quite on the pedestal that I hyped in my own brain per the incredible all-time-favorite that "We Have No Idea" was for me.

Solid 4.25*

[Kimberly McKenzie-Klemm]

Review of “Out Of Your Mind”

Prepare for the meeting ground of science and theory, where "Out Of Your Mind (The Biggest Mysteries Of The Human Brain)" by Jorge Cham and Dwayne Godwin takes questions of how readers think to a new level. Jorge Cham is an Emmy-nominated and best-selling cartoonist. Dwayne Godwin is a neuroscientist and professor in the Department of Translational Neuroscience at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "Out Of Your Mind" embraces science as “...a means of thinking and using experiments to get as close as you can to the truth.” The prose and the cartoons present scientific explanations of how the brain works in various environmental, social, situational, and personal settings. Then "Out Of Your Mind" probes deeper, looking at the “why” brains perform and “how” humans are a part of humanity. Several talking points of "Out Of Your Mind" include:
Thoughts, actions, and feelings are tied together.
The brain is not a homogeneous mass.
Love is a feeling triggered by the brain’s reward system.
Knowing how the brain is involved in anger, aggression, and hate still does not give us
control.
Fear might only be an association.
Connecting neurons does not make a fake human brain.
Information is stored in the connections between neurons.
These are only some of the topics Jorge Cham and Dwayne Godwin explore. Another valuable subject addressed is addiction. According to "Out Of Your Mind", lowering the brain reward system effort can lead to serious addiction. “...what one person finds addictive may not have that effect on another.” Along the same lines, the authors address the dilemma of money and happiness. “Does this mean that money can buy you happiness? In a way, it can.”
Jorge Cham and Dwayne Godwin dare to take on philosophical questions with existential characteristics, such as the problem of defining consciousness. "Out Of Your Mind" assures the reader that someone is sure they are themselves has consciousness. “It wouldn’t make sense for our brains to develop two or three or more conscious experiences for one body.” Still further, the reader learns we cannot know if we are always in control of our actions. Others can control and influence our decisions.
The authors do not choose conventional wisdom while thoroughly exploring the human condition. "Out Of Your Mind" goes as far as possible in opening the door to applying (carefully) conclusions about what makes us human, without overstepping facts or naming “all-knowing” solutions. Jorge Cham and Dwayne Godwin say it best:
“Perhaps what truly sets us apart from all other species is this: our curiosity, our
Whimsy, and the desire to understand ourselves…Ultimately, what makes us
human may be our ability to decide for ourselves the answer to that question.”

“To be human is to hold in your head what has happened before, what is
happening now, and what we think might happen in the future, all at the same
time.”
Whether the reader is looking for a factual understanding of the inner workings of the human brain or wants to contemplate how humans become aware of their lives, "Out Of Your Mind" provides a provocative and accurate reading experience that the reader will not want to leave incomplete. The cartoons are as interesting and informative as the prose. The balance of artwork with words is attractive and entertaining. In "Out Of Your Mind", Jorge Cham and Dwayne Godwin have created a masterpiece reaching out to embrace a collective readership that spans ages, education levels, and interests. Do not let "Out Of Your Mind" go without a good chair and a few hours, at least.

-Dr. Kimberly A. McKenzie-Klemm, Ph.D., author of “TEAMWORK (Together Everyone Achieves More)”

[J Kromrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

🧠 What happens when a neuroscientist and a cartoonist walk into the labyrinth of the human brain? You get Out of Your Mind—a delightfully illustrated, intellectually nimble exploration of what makes us tick, twitch, and tumble through life’s biggest questions.

Cham and Godwin fuse scientific rigor with comic wit to tackle the brain’s most elusive riddles: What is consciousness? Do we have free will? Why do we love, lie, or scroll endlessly through social media? The book doesn’t pretend to have all the answers—but it revels in the mystery, inviting readers to join the quest with curiosity and laughter.

- Playful Accessibility: The authors distill complex neuroscience into digestible, often hilarious segments. Cham’s illustrations aren’t just decoration—they’re cognitive shortcuts that make abstract ideas feel tangible.

- Narrative Structure: Each chapter builds on the last, moving from identity and emotion to memory and perception. It’s like a guided tour through the brain’s museum, with side quests into philosophical alleyways.

- Balanced Tone: The book is neither dry textbook nor flippantly comic. It strikes a rare balance—respecting the science while embracing the absurdity of human cognition.

🎭 Themes

- The Illusion of Certainty: Cham and Godwin challenge the idea that we fully understand ourselves, highlighting how much of the brain remains uncharted.

- Emotion & Reward: From addiction to affection, they explore how chemical cocktails shape behavior—and how those patterns echo across everything from romance to Reddit.

- Art Meets Science: The book itself is a testament to interdisciplinary collaboration, showing how storytelling and visuals can elevate scientific discourse.

Out of Your Mind is much more than a book—it’s a brainy playground. It invites readers to think about thinking, to laugh at their own mental quirks, and to marvel at the gray matter that makes it all possible. Whether you’re a neuroscience novice or a seasoned psych buff, this book will leave you entertained, enlightened, and just a little more in awe of your own mind.

[Demetri Papadimitropoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve ever caught yourself wondering why you can remember the lyrics of a childhood cartoon but not where you left your keys five minutes ago, this book is for you. And if you’ve ever stared into space, pondering the big questions—why do I love, why do I hate, why do I dream about being chased by anthropomorphic produce—this book is definitely for you.

Jorge Cham and Dwayne Godwin’s Out of Your Mind: The Biggest Mysteries of the Human Brain is a bright, illustrated expedition into the folds of our grey matter. It’s not just science explained—it’s science drawn, joked about, narrated with warmth, and made genuinely fun. Imagine if your own inner voice had a PhD in neuroscience but also a sense of humor and a flair for cartoons. That’s what turning these pages feels like.

The genius of the book lies in its structure. Each chapter starts with a deceptively simple question: Why do we love? Why do we hate? Why do we dream? These aren’t throwaway musings—they’re universal curiosities we’ve all held at some point. By taking this format, the authors give readers immediate entry points. You don’t need to memorize the limbic system to feel invested.

And the answers? They strike that rare balance between depth and clarity. Cham’s illustrations don’t just decorate the text; they are the text. A dopamine molecule looks mischievous. A hippocampus has stage fright. An amygdala is forever on edge. The result is a book where the visuals and explanations work in concert to make complex neuroscience both digestible and sticky.

The chapters on love and hate are highlights. Love is explained as both chemical and cultural, with oxytocin and dopamine painted as co-conspirators in our attachments. It’s science, but it feels like storytelling. Hate, meanwhile, is unpacked not just as an ugly human flaw but as a deeply ingrained survival mechanism gone awry. The brain’s threat-detection circuitry is both fascinating and frightening, and the authors make the case that understanding it is essential for compassion as well as survival.

In both cases, the tone is what makes it work. These chapters don’t reduce emotions to “just chemistry.” Instead, they show how biology and meaning dance together, how evolution shaped us, and how we might shape ourselves in return.

The dream chapter is a delight. Freud’s theories get their respectful nod, but the book quickly moves to modern neuroscience: dreams help consolidate memory, regulate emotions, and even spark creativity. Famous examples—songs dreamt by Paul McCartney, scientific breakthroughs glimpsed in slumber—are presented with cartoonish flair. It’s entertaining, but also genuinely inspiring. You close the chapter half-convinced your next REM cycle might gift you a Nobel-worthy idea.

Forgetting, too, is reframed. Instead of lamenting memory lapses, the book insists: forgetting is essential. Patient H.M.’s story becomes a poignant illustration of how memory works in fragments, and how the hippocampus weaves them together. Cham and Godwin remind us that without forgetting, we’d drown in noise. Forgetting isn’t failure; it’s how the brain makes space for meaning.

The sleep chapter feels almost like a public service announcement disguised as a comic strip. Sleep, we learn, isn’t optional—it’s the nightly repair cycle, the emotional laundromat, the brain’s sanitation system. Skip it, and your neurons suffer. It’s hard to read these pages without wanting to tuck yourself in at a reasonable hour.

Addiction, meanwhile, is treated with compassion and clarity. The reward system is personified as a circuit hijacked by substances and behaviors. Dopamine, once your evolutionary cheerleader, becomes your tyrant. It’s sobering material, but the style keeps it from despair: you come away understanding addiction as a disease of the brain, not a moral failing.

And then, free will. The experiments that suggest unconscious readiness potentials precede conscious decisions might sound disheartening. But Cham and Godwin give us a hopeful twist: even if impulses start beneath awareness, consciousness has veto power. “Free won’t” may be just as important as free will. It’s a neat philosophical lifeline, presented with wit and an honest shrug at life’s mysteries.

The most moving chapters come late. Death, a subject often treated with fear or avoidance, is handled here with candor and compassion. We’re shown how thoughts of mortality light up emotional circuits, how near-death experiences might be explained neurologically, and how awareness of death drives us to create meaning. The authors don’t offer platitudes; they offer perspective. Mortality becomes less an end and more a lens.

Finally, the question: what makes us human? Not just tool use, not just intelligence—other species can claim those. What sets us apart is curiosity, adaptability, and whimsy. Cham and Godwin argue persuasively that it is our drive to ask these very questions that defines us. We don’t just survive—we wonder, we imagine, we draw silly cartoons about neurons. That, in itself, is humanity distilled.

It’s not just the science—it’s how it’s told. The voice of this book is playful, warm, and unpretentious. Cham’s illustrations aren’t afterthoughts; they’re integral. Godwin’s expertise ensures rigor, but Cham’s humor ensures accessibility. Together, they’ve built a book that feels like a conversation, not a lecture. You don’t feel like a student; you feel like a co-conspirator in curiosity.

The secret sauce of Out of Your Mind is that it respects both science and wonder. It doesn’t strip away the awe of consciousness, love, or mortality—it magnifies it. By showing how the brain produces our strangest experiences, it makes those experiences feel richer, not poorer. You come away with the sense that science doesn’t reduce life; it illuminates it.

Strengths? Almost too many to list: clarity, humor, engaging visuals, a well-structured journey through big questions, and a knack for turning mysteries into marvels. Each chapter can be read quickly but lingers for days.

Caveats? If pressed, one might say the breezy tone occasionally leaves experts wanting more depth. But that critique misses the point. This is not a graduate seminar; it’s a gateway. For most readers, the balance is exactly right.

The broader consensus—from critics, bloggers, and readers alike—is clear: this book succeeds. It entertains, educates, and makes you laugh even as it makes you think. It belongs on the shelf next to Randall Munroe, Lisa Feldman Barrett, and Oliver Sacks—not because it’s identical, but because it’s part of the same mission: bringing science to everyone without losing its soul.

My own reception? I’d place it at 91 out of 100.

Reading Out of Your Mind feels like giving your brain a guided tour of itself, led by a team of a neuroscientist and a cartoonist who both know how to tell a story. It’s whimsical without being shallow, rigorous without being intimidating, and compassionate without being sentimental.

You don’t just finish the book knowing more about neurons, neurotransmitters, and networks. You finish it with a deeper appreciation for what it means to be alive, to love, to dream, to fear, and to wonder.

And that, perhaps, is the greatest achievement: it doesn’t just explain the brain. It makes you glad you have one.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

THANK YOU SO MUCH PANTHEON FOR THE ADVANCED READER COPY!

As an avid fan of neuroscience, I adore this book wholeheartedly!

Easily my favorite read of 2025, “Out of Your Mind” is a charming book that distills hard neuroscience and psychology into a palpable liquor that the reader will surely be buzzing from!

The book is filled with humorous comics to augment the lessons being taught throughout the book. Topic ranges from why we love or hate to what is consciousness? Will AI take my jobs? What makes us happy? Do we have free will? What Happens when we Die? I deeply appreciated the author’s ability to make neuroscience and psychology so exciting. The art was also tasteful and there were pages that were designed completely like a comic book. For example, after the chapter on addiction, there was a comic interlude of “The Case of the Addicted Detective” that gave a case study on Sherlock Holmes having a possible drug problem—reinforcing the learning from the chapter about the myriad of drugs and their effects on humans’ neurochemistry.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone to read, as even seasoned neuroscientists will find this quirky book a delight and learn something new!

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Pantheon for the free book. My thoughts are my own.

Our brain is a big piece of who we are and what defines us. But have you ever stopped to think about how it does what it does (or how humans are figuring out what it does)? Who you are, what you think, what you do, and what you feel happens within and is defined by your brain. This book makes accessible heaps and heaps of information dedicated to what we know, the beginnings of what we don’t know, and who figured it out and how. Through narrative and illustration (with a fair sprinkling of comics), the lay reader is walked through masses of complex and abstract material provided in an easy-to-understand way. And it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's like sitting down with a genius friend who also has a good sense of humor and who is great at putting into words the complex realities that they manage on the daily. I wish I'd had this book in high school or college, but I'm so happy that I have it now--it's never too late to learn!

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introduction in this book starts with the comment " a neuroscientist and a cartoonist
walk into a ----". The 2 met and talked about how they could explain the most complex object in nature - the brain - using some of storytelling's simplest tools- cartoons and comics. Don't expect the collaboration? to dumb down the topic; on the contrary, readable text and explanations accompanied by simple cartoons make the complex almost easy to understand. There is so much that has been learned about the brain but so much remains to be discovered. Our brain is our central operating system - we know that it controls everything that makes- and keeps us alive. What we are learning is how does the brain affect our "self". How do we love or hate? Our memory? Our happiness? Our consciousness? If our brain is damaged, can it be fixed?

Brainy book for all brains!!!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, engaging, and I learned stuff so this book definitely delivered in that department. I like the way the books the book was written and the authors really had a good style. Obviously a lot of information I did know but it really helped connect the docs out information that I didn’t. After all, nobody can know everything right… I think it was written at the level that pretty much any decently educated person would understand. They didn’t talk down to you and didn’t expect you to know everything either so I like the way that it hit the sweet spot in the middle.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought back so many memories from the general and physiological psychology classes I took in undergrad. And so many advances have been made since then. Very engaging and entertaining format that is at the same time very informational and leads to thinking and wanting to learn more. Humor was used successfully.

[Newton Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Understanding a the brain-a mystery1

Incredibly well written material on a complex subject made interesting with the clever and extremely well designed illustrations. Bravo and thanks for taking this on!

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun, educational, with a tinge of existential dread. what else could one need??

[Doreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

subtitled The Biggest Mysteries of the Human Brain. And who better to tackle the subject and bring it to audiences in a highly accessible manner than Jorge Cham, creator of the comic strip PHDComics (based on his own adventures in academia while studying robotics) and co-creator of the highly-rated PBS cartoon Elinor Wonders Why, and Dwayne Godwin, a practicing neuroscientist, professor and former graduate dean?

For centuries, philosophers and biologists have pondered the role of the mind in human functioning, eventually adopting multidisciplinary efforts to better understand how the brain works and the correlation between mind, feeling and identity. Misters Cham and Godwin do a frankly amazing job of distilling what we've learned on this subject into one elegantly written and amusingly illustrated volume.

Each chapter title is a question that most people have asked themselves at least once in their lives. Whether it's asking why we feel the way we feel, what our brains are capable of or the nature of consciousness, the chapters all delve into common aspects of how we think and interact with the world around us. Short interlude comics break up the longer chapters, which are themselves speckled with cartoons that humorously underscore the text. As a big fan of the exercise theory of continuing neuroplasticity, I loved the multiple ways in which the book encouraged the on-going growth of neural connections via both serious (if uncomplicated) text and light-hearted illustrations that work together to engage multiple parts of the brain.

So yeah, as a bit of a brain nerd -- some of my favorite parts of my undergraduate degree in Information Technology/Computer Science were the bits mapping programming to human intelligence. Multithreading for life, baybeeee! -- this pop sci book was definitely up my alley. But even if you don't have a science background, this book makes for a wonderful introduction to the brain, what it can do and how it affects our everyday lives.

It's also surprisingly timely. Tho written well before the current stages of sociopolitical nightmare, this one bit in particular felt like a necessary rebuke to people who would argue that empathy, of all things, is a sin:

[E]mpathy is critical to love. Putting ourselves in other people's shoes and caring for others are integral parts of what it means to love.

This, ofc, comes in the chapter "Why Do We Love?" which is followed by "Why Do We Hate?", an equally important topic that speaks of the perils of hatred as an addiction and how we can overcome it (and yes, addiction gets its own chapter here, too!) So this isn't just a textbook about brain parts: this is a book that meaningfully engages with who we are as people and how we can better understand both ourselves and others. That it does all this with humor and grace is a testament to the authors' ability to communicate complicated concepts in ways that are not only easy but fun to read. Recommended.

Out Of Your Mind by Jorge Cham & Dwayne Godwin was published January 28 2025 by Pantheon and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!

This review originally appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.

[Thomm Quackenbush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, the cartoons didn't contribute much to the text. Unlike with What If? (to which this book is compared), these were never funny, just reiterating what was said in the text before it in a fashion very like a textbook. The longer form comics were an exception, and the book would have been stronger without the interruption of the interstitial doodles.

The book should not have brought up xkcd, as that comparison rang through my head through my reading. It is not like xkcd. It lacks absurdity and depth.

The book wanders away from the supposed point on occasion but that was perhaps unavoidable. It is strongest when it gets into the unabashed science, backed up by strange anecdotes. When it meanders and philosophizes as though the reader isn't following along, I fought the urge to skim.

Overall, a readable and mildly entertaining book that scratches a little deeper into the topic--though not enough. I would have liked it to use more humor (which the text states makes learning more compelling) as it often doesn't rise much beyond a first year psychology textbook into pop science.

NetGalley provided me a free copy for my review.

[M. K. French · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author and online cartoonist Jorge Cham and neuroscientist Dwayne Godwin dive into complex questions about consciousness, personality, memory, emotion, and perception. The chapters here highlight what we do and don't know about the human brain.

This book is really fun and inventive in how it explains the brain. It synthesizes information from imaging studies, historical data, psychological research, and experiments. Starting with the question of identity, the chapters build on that to process the difficult questions about love, hate, consciousness, memory, and perception.

The cartoons are scattered to highlight points and give a little levity, but it's a very easy-to-read and digest book. In fact, I was so engrossed that I was reading for hours longer than I expected to!

The writing is well done and clarifies a lot of thorny questions that we have about ourselves and humanity. I really enjoyed the book and learned more about the brain and its functions. I wouldn't be surprised if this helps start people down the path of researching neuroscience and psychology.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an avid psychological thriller reader, but I love to read about different topics as well as a way to cleanse my reading palate. When I got my copy of Out of Your Mind I was interested to what I could learn from it, and it is packed with a lot of information that is so easy to digest! My favorite part of the book was the chapter on why do we hate, I think that for me was the most interesting to read about because it isn't just simple not liking something or someone it is a slew of many emotions and multidimensional. There are a lot of interesting topics about the brain in this book from love, hate, happiness, and free will just to name a few. I think the illustrations were a great touch to give the reading some break ups in between, and it gave me some nostalgia to when I was a kid reading the comic strips out of the Saturday paper. Thank you Goodreads Giveaways and Pantheon Books for a review copy.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, a neuroscientist and a cartoonist walk into a bar ... or rather into a book -- and this is the result; a journey into the innerworkings of our mind told in a surprisingly cutesy way.
I suppose a nicer way to describe cutesy would be " easily accessible." Which this book definitely is. It appears to be targeting most ages and education/intelligence levels. Therefore, at time, it can come across as a bit ... simplistic.
Personally, I prefer nonfiction to punch up and have a humorous tone to it, so this didn't quite fit the bill. But my main goal for reading it was edification, and sure enough, it proved to be a nice revisit of the things I already knew and a pretty good way to learn more. Therefore, I'm going to round up my rating.
So aside from a bit of pandering to the genpop, this was worth a read. Thanks Netgalley.

[Darcia Helle · Rating 4 out of 5]

OUT OF YOUR MIND appealed to my inner neuroscience nerd. I’m fascinated by human behavior, why we do certain things, and the ultimate question as to whether we truly have free will.

This was a fun read. The language and writing style are engaging and accessible to anyone with even a casual interest.

The book includes cartoon images throughout, adding to the playfulness of the writing.

My one complaint is the constant use of “In other words…” It’s a pet peeve of mine. Reframing a concept once or twice in a book is fine, but the excess was annoying the crap out of me. Please trust readers to understand the first time. Or if you doubt the first way was clear, then delete that and go with whatever you wrote following “In other words…”

*Thanks to Pantheon Books for the free copy!*

[Russell Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This exploration of our brains by two scientists turned out to be more entertaining than I expected. I expected it to be informative, but not as much fun. The chapter titles tell you the gist of the contents: "Where is the Mind?"; "Why Do We Love?"; "Will AI Take My Job?"; "What Is Addiction?" etc. One of the scientists is also a cartoonist and the book is illustrated with his cartoons throughout. At first I almost rolled my eyes at that, but I came to enjoy the cartoons. They always made the point in the text well and usually with a touch of humor. The book is clearly intended for a lay audience, but there is some interesting science in every chapter. The book is a quick read.

[Andrea Wenger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This illustrated guide explores the wonders and mysteries of the human brain. It tackles big questions like consciousness and free will in a playful way.

This informative book offers some insights I hadn’t heard before. The comics probably work well in a print book, but are difficult to read on a phone. They aren’t accessible using text-to-speech. If they were just illustrations, that wouldn’t be so bad. But they’re not; the content in the cartoons isn’t replicated in the text.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Yaasmiyn Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, so this is not the typical book that I would read, but once I started I couldn't stop. Literally nine times out of ten I joke around that I have no brain, but the insight that this book gives you into your brain is really nice. Reading about why I feel certain emotions and want to hang on to them because of the hormones that they produce is nice. I really enjoyed reading this and even the quirky comic strips were nice and kept the book interesting enough.

[Arathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

i had a lot of fun reading this book- sort of like a look-at-the-forest-not-the-trees approach. i think it's very accessible to basically anyone with a passing interest in psychology/human behavior/neuroscience. i've also been a huge fan of jorge cham's comics for the longest time, so this was such a treat!
what i didn't like though was that the comics/drawings were SO pixelated, i felt like i needed an eye exam. the other text was okay and so i know it's the editing of the book that's the problem.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun deep dive into psychology and neuroscience. This is a book I probably would probably not have picked up but since I got an arc of it, I oddly found myself loss in the book. I love the little comic strips, they added such a fun take to what I was reading, because I am probably one of the furthest people who actually understands neuroscience. It actually makes me want to try to read more like this.

[Edmond · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had very interesting parts, the thing I liked about it is the authors thought about this and presented it with not just verbiage but cartoons. At the end it got a bit complex, but it was absorbing to read. I wish I had more time devoted to this book. I debated the rating, I would have given higher, because the book does require a bit of time to read and understand. The text part is not easy to understand, especially when it comes to the experimentation and the neurology discussions.

[Julia Nilsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a good job of keeping things simple but still explaining concepts in-depth.

Definitely would be appropriate for a child to read, too. Especially considering the cartoons.

There's not much here you wouldn't learn in an intro Psych class, though. I had heard most of the stories and examples before.

If you're not familiar with Psychology, this book would be a super accessible way to get into it.

[Sandra Cruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a science person, but I find neuroscience interesting. This illustrated book makes learning about the topic fun. The language is easy and the material thought provoking.

Check it out if you want to learn some science.

My Review

[Tina Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun accessible read about the amazing ways in which our brains and minds work. I loved how the information was presented and most of the topics presented. I will admit I found the section on AI annoying and unnecessary, and I almost DNF'ed the book at that point because not every book needs to talk about AI. I would rather learn about real, human and animal brains.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly explained. Tons of information regarding the brain and the experiments backing up the science, explained in an easy to read and entertaining way.

The book is organised in chapters that deals with some of the most important questions human ask themselves, such as "What makes us happy?", "What is Consciousness?", " Why do we love?", "Why do we hate?", and "Do we have free will?"

[Hind · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely read and a fun easygoing introduction to different big questions in psychology and neuroscience. The intended audience seems to be high school kid, for which this would be a nice gift!

[AK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good intro to neuroscience. I especially loved the comic interludes. It made space for a little fun in between some heavy scientific stuff. The book gave me the introductory dosage into neuro I was looking for and I’m excited to continue learning more about the brain 🧠

[Christa Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informational and accessible for those of us who don't study neuroscience for a living.