Apprentices of Wonder (William Allman)

I really enjoyed this exploration of the connectionist/neural network approach to cognitive psychology, showing how the field was getting started. It does a great job of explaining how the connectionist view differs from the traditional computer analogy for mental processing, and describes the excitement and the wariness practitioners felt. The only problem is that the book is more than 20 years old (published in 1990), so it can't describe how the promises and perils have played out as the viewpoint matured. Otherwise, it's a good way for someone just exploring the field to get a picture of what these ideas are all about.

Show Me the Funny (Peter Desberg & Jeffrey Davis)

This book is a collection of interviews with dozens of individuals and teams who write humor for TV and movies. They were all given the same premise, about a young woman whose father dies, leaving her mother unexpectedly without funds, so the mother moves in with the daughter and hilarity ensues. Each interview maps out a different path this premise might take, showing the varieties of creative processes, and goes into the different styles and systems different people use. I found it entertaining, but can't say I got any great insights from it.

I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith)

This charming book features a delightful young narrator, telling her story through journals she writes to "capture" her world in a fresh, engaging voice. The story begins with a family living in genteel poverty, patching clothes and struggling to find enough to eat, in the ruins of an old castle in the English countryside. The story evokes Jane Austin in its focus on people falling in love with appropriate and inappropriate people as the family's situation changes in unpredictable ways. Written in 1948, the story echoes the absolute thinking of love at the time: either you are in love or you aren't and there is nothing you can do about it. This way of thinking rubs me the wrong way, but I loved the writing so much it didn't bother me as much as it usually does. Recommended.

Whistling Vivaldi (Claude Steele)

A in-depth exploration of the concept of stereotype threat - how being in a situation where we are in a minority creates stress that can reduce our performance on the things most important to us, including academic performance in school. The research is thorough and convincing. I have to say that I found the book less than enthralling, since it goes step by step over the same ground in many different ways. This is the right and proper way to do research of this kind, but it doesn't make for a page-turner. It has a big and important idea to express, but there is no second act. Highly recommended if you are interested in this idea; otherwise, not so much.