Recommended Brain Books for Panicked Boomers

Are you a boomer worried about losing your cognitive edge as your grow older?  I am.  

If so, AARP has a nifty list of recommended books about brain fitness which includes:

• The Dana Guide to Brain Health, by Floyd E. Bloom, M. Flint Beal, and David J. Kupfer (Dana Press, 2006).
• The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: 18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews, to Keep Your Brain Sharp, by Alvaro Fernandez and Elkhonon
• Goldberg. (SharpBrains Inc., 2009).
• Save Your Brain: The 5 Things You Must Do To Keep Your Mind Young and Sharp, by Paul Nussbaum. (McGraw-Hill, 2010)
• The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind, by Barbara Strauch (Viking, 2010).
• The Memory Bible: An Innovative Strategy for Keeping Your Brain Young, by Gary Small (Hyperion, 2003).

I’ve read the Strauch book and the SharpBrains guide.  I like both of them for different reasons. The Ms. Strauch does a deep dive on the “grown-up” brain, which is a kind way of saying the boomer brain. As I’ve previously written, the book is choke-full of research made readable.

The SharpBrains guide is just that, a review of lots of research studies with a Cliff-Notes-like summary of each.  It’s both practical and readable.

AARP goes on to “also recommend” the following books which I haven’t read.

• The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain, by Gene Cohen (Basic Books, 2006).
• The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge (Penguin, 2007).
• Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, by John Ratey and Eric Hagerman (Little, Brown and Co., 2008).
• Think Smart: A Neuroscientist's Prescription for Improving Your Brain's Performance, by Richard Restak (Riverhead, 2010).

If you’ve read the books I haven’t, and have an opinion, please shoot me a note.