R. Schwarzlose. Brainscapes.

The book on important subject written by a competent expert: what can be better? But the laudatory preface by Harvard/Bloomberg's Cass Sunstein known for his penchant for much younger women, praising Schwarzlose for its writing made me apprehensive. Indeed, the book is so chaotic and is written in the style of an automotive manual so that the most information I got about the subject matter was from the drawings. If you want to follow her meandering train of thought, fine. But her book tells about the subjects, which other neurophysiologists miss, either because they consider them trivial, or too arcane for a common reader. 

Adrian Goldsworthy. Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors.

Horrific. I previously expressed opinion on the degradation of the British humanities and on Andy/Adie  Goldsworthy in particular. Has the depth of analysis deserving only six-to-eight grader school project. I checked it out in a vain hope that in a more than a pound book there is some information about 1) the structure of Macedonian society (very little), 2) Macedonian culture--if not an oxymoron--and its place in contemporaneous Greece, 3) contemporary geopolitics, 4) mutual penetration of the Greek and Indian cultures, and 5) some explanations why a tiny state on the border of Thracia and  Peloponnesus conquered much of Western Eurasia and Egypt and installed its generals as the heads of the local dynasties --almost none. All the book contains is a sophomoric description of battles, elephants and Alexander's drunken binges. The author can object that there is scarce information about most of these subject. But if you know next to nothing about the subject of your principal expertise--is not it the time to begin selling used cars?