BOOK REVIEW – “Brain Brilliance: The Key to Genius. Learn the Untold Secrets to Unlocking the True Power of Your Memory” by Walter E. Samuelson

Brain Brilliance: The Key to Genius. Learn the Untold Secrets to Unlocking the True Power of Your Memory by Walter E. Samuelson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Great read regarding how memory works and how to keep it working well.

I just finished reading “Brain Brilliance: Unlock the True Untapped Potential of Your Brain” book by Walter E. Samuelson this past week. The reason I picked this book up was because I was searching for a good read on memory retention and from the description and overview it seemed like it was worth a look.

I have the ability to handle many different tasks of differing skill requirements simultaneously (the true meaning of the word “multi-tasking”) but what I have been finding as I have gotten older (basically once I hit 40 and over the past six years to date) is remembering things has become harder and harder for me to do. It seemed that no matter how many times I repeated a date or something that I needed to remember I would still forget it. If I set my keys down in an unusual place in the house (rather than their default location) I wouldn’t be able to find them.

The book is a relatively short read at about 50 pages but it reviews information in topical segments like how memory works, how sleep and diet affect both long and short term memory, and it also give insight on lifestyle choices that can help you improve your memory.

Now that I’m done with the reading material from the book I am looking forward to putting some of the content to use.

The book is packed with good information and it will be something I refer back to time and again in reference manner as I put the practices to use.

Amazon Review – http://www.amazon.com/review/RJ2IMVR5HUP32

Goodreads Review – https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1244928601

View all my reviews

My book rating system here on The GUNDERSTONE review

I was so interested in getting the site up and running I realized I never actually identified what my star ratings meant here so with that I wanted to release this post.

* * * * * Five Stars – An excellent, compelling, must read, that I could not put down and could see reading again someday.

* * * * Four Stars – A very solid read, one I would recommend to other readers.

* * * Three Stars – A good read; may have minor issues in continuity or pacing. Something that might detract from a solid story.

* * Two Stars – An “okay” read. Something I would not generally recommend to others. The writing likely has a few minor issues in continuity or pacing or perhaps something major and glaring. Something that definitely detracted from making it at least a good story.

* One Star – Something I just couldn’t finish. A story that had too many issues or problems to overlook.

Generally speaking, I won’t post anything publicly below a three star review. Some three star reviews go public and others don’t. I will follow up privately with the author (if they are willing to engage) and discuss why I feel it warrants a one or two star review in the hopes they might take the time to review the issues with the story, or if nothing else, take it as a learning experience and improve from there.

I wanted to preface that as I get the occasional message of “I never see you give out anything other than four and five star reviews.”

The truth of the matter is I haven’t POSTED them but I have given them.

Some of the counter argument I get of that “policy” is “well then how is a reader supposed to know about a bad read?”

I am not in the market to steer people away from a book with a PUBLIC bashing of it (even if it is justified). If someone asks me specifically about a title that I PRIVATELY “three stared” (or less) I will tell them why I didn’t like it.

If someone says to me “hey, what’s a good [GENRE] that you liked, THEN I point them to something I enjoyed rather than say “stay away from this”. Now if they ask me about [TWO STAR TITLE] I am likely to say “well, I really didn’t care for it and I would recommend [TITLE] instead”.

Just because I found something “two star” why should I publicly dissuade someone else from it? They might find it OK, or even like it.

So that’s just my rhyme and reason of how and why I do what it is I do.