Behave, The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

 Behave, The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst by Robert. M. Sapolsky is the most impressive nonfiction book that I’ve read this year. It was published in 2017. Sapolsky is a Stanford professor who refers to himself as a primatologist and neuroscientist. He has spent his life studying and living with primates, and he is well educated in the neurosciences. I sometimes read the book, but I listened to most of it since he is a most entertaining speaker. Despite what would seem to be a deeply serious subject, he writes with great humor. The author’s intent was for this to be a book of interest to non-scientists. However, the language about neuroanatomy does get complex. It would be helpful to have some prior knowledge about neuroanatomy although he does patiently educate people who are coming to such topics for the first time. 

Minus the pages for acknowledgments, appendices, glossary and the index, the book is about a 700-page tome, so be prepared to take that on. However, the content is rich and exciting. Sapolsky discusses the complexity of reaching an understanding of our human behavior. The subject matter is far too complex for me to summarize it in a meaningful way. My advice would be to read his short epilogue to help you make a decision about reading this masterful work. After admitting the complexity of the topic he undertook, I loved his closing comment, “Finally, you don’t have to choose between being scientific and being compassionate.” I thoroughly enjoyed this work and it was certainly worth the nearly 27 hours required to listen to the audiobook.