The author went to a great length to convince me and readers that our brains are plastic (changeable, not local/non-changeable) and are capable of changes if we push ourselves to use the under-/un-developed areas of our brains. Neurons that fire together stay together in the same area of the brain and neurons that stay apart in the brain if not used together. This is the reason why the sensors for our arms got mapped to our chins/lips, where the phantom pains/itches often got mapped into for those who got their arms/hands amputated.

The author also covered topics on sexual plasticity (addiction to porn) and presented evidences that autism may be affected by noisy environment that cause many unrelated neurons to be firing, resulted in the malfunction of our neuron filter that screens out unimportant/unrelated signals. Very interesting theory. Of course, one cannot rule out the gene defects as the possible causes.

There are examples of masochism/sadism that can be related to the brain development, which requires its re-wiring to be cured. The effect of Oxytocin is mentioned. Evidences of the brains’ being re-wired after a stroke are presented. The last example described is about a half-brain woman who didn’t have a left hemisphere at birth and how she was able to have the normally left-brain functions remapped to the right brain – a solid evidence that the brain is capable of rewiring.

Overall, this is a good read. A bit technical but full of supporting examples and evidences. It further encourages me to explore new areas of learning like a new language at my age to extend the brain health or suffer the atrophy of the brain. As the author repeated throughout the book, “if you don’t use it, you lose it.” And if you use it or learn new skills to nurture the unused areas of the brain, you’d see your renaissance at your old age.

The author went to a great pain to elaborate why we get fat, not from eating too many calories and/or exercising too little – calories in and calories out theory – but from eat carbohydrates causing a spike in insulin which in turn shut down the burning of fat. The science was explained and it was convincing.

The bottom line is to avoid carbohydrates or reduce its consumption down to 20 grams a day or less and eat fat the rest the way until you feel full. That’s it. Simple as that. The strange thing is that this method has been known since the 1950’s and yet the health organizations continue to debunk what has proven to work – probably due to the pressure from the food and health industries.

This is a good easy read and well worth the time if controlling/reducing the weight is your goal.

This is an hilarious account of Tiny Fey’s rise to fame from an unknown Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” writer/actor leading to the producer of the 30 Rock show. Of course, the imitation of Sarah Palin was the opportunity that brought her the fame in the national TV. The sketch scripts for the imitation of Sarah Palin was extremely funny and brilliant.

In the book, there were funny stories about her honeymoon cruise that ended in an evacuation from the ship due to an engine fire, climbing the old rag mountain with no preparation to accompany/please a “potential” boyfriend who ended up bruised in a slip, male comedy writers who pee in jars, her experiment starting the 30 Rock with Alec Baldwin, and her Greek upbringing and growing up with a scar.

The audiobooks is narrated by Tiny Fey herself – very funny. Well worth listening to.

Tony Blair really poured out his guts in this book about his political life. There were interesting stories about Lady Diana, the facing down of terrorists after 911, the Kosvo war, the Iraq war. There were more mundane descriptions of the political life and his “New Labor” initiatives. He sounded very genuine and enthusiastic about

He didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, who succeeded him or forced him out. I thought he wined too much about Gordon. Tony should’ve got rid of him despite of all, in my opinion. Surprisingly, he had a lot of nice things (like integrity) to say about George Bush.

Many people including myself thought that Tony Blair was an US puppet, claiming to be shoulder-to-shoulder with US. But I sensed that he really believed that the it’s in UK’s best interest to be aligned with the US interest.

I got to learn a lot about Britain’s political systems, the parties (Tory vs. Labor), the precarious relationship between the prime minister and the Royal family. I thought the role of the Chancellor is a bit strange and counter-productive. In addition, the PMQ (Prime Minister Questions) with the House of Commons is interesting; it’s like a weekly session of putting the prime minister’s butt against fire.

Tony Blair held the office for a good 10 years – an awful long time in today’s democracy system. I think at the end people just got sick of having him in power, not because his policies were wrong and detrimental to the Brits.

This is an interesting book for someone who wants to learn about being a good leader, the politics, and Britain’s political system – all for the price of one book. I listened to the audiobook recorded by Tony Blair himself – very personal and believable.

Listened to the audiobook a while back. I was impressed with Greg Mortenson’s tenacity to fulfill a promise he made during his failed conquest to reach the 2nd peak of the Himalaya. In that trip, he had gotten lost and was rescued by his porter and taken care by a group of village people during his recovery. He made a promise to the carefree poor village people that he would come back to build a school to return a favor. It took him over a year to collect enough money from one of the earlier pioneers of the Silicon Valley. But his first trip wasn’t successful because he didn’t account for the need for a bridge to bring the building materials in. He had to return to the states to get more money and finally risked his life to build his first school. Later he was appointed the New Asian Institute to oversee the money to build more school on behalf of this rich donor.

Later he met his wife and took on the challenging work of building more schools for the regions, at times risking his life (got kidnapped) during the Talaban uprising in Afghanistan.

Sometimes, you just have to sit down and enjoy 3 cups of the tea (symbolic of the 3 stages) with people to get to understand people especially of the people you don’t share a lot commonalities.

I admire Mortonson’s tenacity and his passion to help the poor in the remote corner of the world. Somehow, I have a feeling that he’s making a bigger difference to the people more than some of the politicians are doing. Wish he has planted and continue to plant the seeds for the future generations of people there to enjoy the prosperous and fulfilled lives.