100 books like The Seven Sins of Memory

This bestselling book is not so much about your memory as how to implant lasting memories in others.

How is it that some events and pieces of information are amazingly memorable, whereas others are lost as soon as our mental backs are turned? In a series of entertaining real-life examples, the authors propose and illustrate ways in which information can be “made to stick.” These include some obvious ones like getting people’s attention and building on their existing knowledge – stuff they are interested in.

Other factors are less obvious; set up an intriguing puzzle, provide some really unexpected information, especially of an emotional kind, embed the new information in an attention-grabbing story. Of course knowing how to teach effectively also reveals much about how memory works!

This classic book, unlike others in the list, is not so much about memory, as a collection of the author’s memories of his childhood and early years.

Nabokov was born into a wealthy family in pre-Revolutionary Russia in 1899. His childhood in St. Petersburg and at the family’s country estate are described in loving detail, as are aspects of later years in England, Germany, and France. Nabokov was one of the great writers of the 20th Century, and the memories are recounted in his glowing and evocative prose.

His writing is nostalgic, but also wryly humorous, aware that many aspects of his early life are gone forever. Many of the chapters first appeared as articles in The New Yorker; all are eminently readable. 

Despite its title, this engaging book is actually about memory, especially “autobiographical memory” – memories of our own personal experiences.

The chapters describe some classical cases of memory excellence and memory failure, and provide thoughtful discussions of many topics that puzzle readers.

These include the power of smell to evoke past experiences, the astonishing memories of chess and draughts grandmasters, the downside of remembering everything, the highly specific memories of some people with savant syndrome, and indeed why life seems to speed up as we get older – the relationship between memory and time.

If you are really serious about reading up on current research on human memory, then you can do no better than to dive into this excellent textbook written by three prominent British researchers.

The material probably takes more effort to master than the facts and ideas presented in other books on this list, but the reward is an up-to-date understanding of theories and findings in this fast-moving research field, including many studies of how memories are represented in the brain.

The book is lavishly illustrated, and contains many references to real-life situations, thereby relating the theoretical ideas to everyday life. The book is authoritative yet very accessible and entertaining. Highly recommended!

Army Special Operations Direct Action Sniper Nick Irving hunts for “The Chechnian” in Afghanistan in this action-packed memoir of war, comradery, and sacrifice. The reader endures sniper training before deploying to Afghanistan. Irving’s numerous insights into sniping at night in mountainous terrain blend smoothly with his priceless memoir. On each hit, we feel him push aside his excitement and fear to take that next critical killing shot…

The research on the gut-brain axis connection and how what we are eating and drinking contributes to our anxiety is beyond fascinating.

A cookbook and a breakdown of the foods to eat and avoid depending on the mental health concern, this book is one for the ages. When you consider how our foods are contributing to inflammation in the body, and thus an increased stress response, it’s no wonder we feel more anxious. Thankfully, Dr. Naidoo makes astute recommendations on how we can shift the course of our anxiety but changing what we put in our mouths.

Henry Molaison is surely the most famous patient in the history of neurology, widely known in the scientific literature and to psychology and medical students throughout the world as H.M. In 1953, he underwent brain surgery for the relief of epilepsy, which left him mentally stuck in the present, unable to remember past events or imagine future ones. Although the case is a tragic one, it led to significant advances in the scientific understanding of how the brain works. But the book is more than that; it is as fascinating for the backstory as for the case of Henry himself. Luke Dittrich is the grandson of H.M.’s surgeon, a maverick figure in the history of psychosurgery. It is an often uncomfortable but always fascinating tale of intrigue, ambition, secrecy, and surgical recklessness.

While Star Wars was never the biggest franchise I was into growing up, the Knights of the Old Republic games served as my first proper foray into RPGs that have come to influence my books as a whole. Revan follows up on the titular character, set after the end of the first two Knights of the Old Republic games. Worries over his lost memories returning, Revan must seek out answers as to what drove him to go down the path of a Sith Lord in the first place, along the way meeting with Meetra Surik, the protagonist of the second game, following up on a rarely touched-upon point in the Star Wars universe of what happens when someone learns how to wield both the Light Side and Dark Side of the Force at the same time.

Dr. Annie Fenn is a board-certified ob-gyn and chef who focused her work on degenerative brain disease after her mother’s dementia diagnosis.

I worked as part of the food styling team on this book in Idaho and Wyoming cooking and eating from Annie’s garden and local farmer’s markets. Her Italian-American heritage shines throughout her book, organized by foods with neuroprotective properties, most of them plants. Each of the 100 recipes are brain healthy, flavorful, and deeply satiating.

The book is educational and hopeful: she sites study after study that found the number one dementia-reducing behavior is a brain-healthy dietary pattern. As an herbalist and someone who recently lost a loved one to Alzheimer’s, I know compliance is key.

We are all more likely to eat a brain health diet if it’s flavorful, satiating, and adaptable to our social lives and familial traditions. Annie is… show more.

I’ve always been deeply fascinated with any amnesia-related plot. A teenager who survives a near-death experience and cannot remember the last several years of her life? And, despite this being YA novel, as an older reader, I could not put this book down. It kept me guessing, constantly deducing as everything unfolded, and though the main characters are young, their emotional processes are so raw and beautiful. I’ve reread this one many a time. For any Nancy Drew gamers out there, The Secret History of Us is like a ND game/Nicholas Sparks’ novel hybrid.