Rating: 3.5* of fiveThe Book Report: The authors are both sound guys. They have written a book together that unifies the research each has done over the years into the role that sound plays in the brain's processing of information and also the role that sound's brain effects play in the good physical and mental health of each one of us.Campbell's 1997 book The Mozart Effect was an early overview of the then-emerging science of the brain's response to sound. Doman founded a company called Advanced Brain Technologies to apply the science Campbell discussed to everyday issues and problems.This is the perfect book to read on a NooKindlEreader, because the text is loaded with free sound downloads and links to various resources that us tree-book readers must tediously and laboriously type into our home computing devices to share, not simply tappy-tappy-tap to appreciate in real time.My Review: So, well, ummm. Not a prose stylist's exercise book, this one, though by no means is it incompetently executed. It's an informative book, the information is presented clearly and concisely, and there is nothing at all that's not footnoted, linked (seventy-six of them!), or backed up.But oh my goddesses how desperately I longed for a well-turned sentence, or a metaphorical flourish that was even slightly surprising, or just a laugh. The authors, worthy and serious men, are short on humor in this book. Earnest is, I believe, the mot juste for their presentation, and while that's not at all inappropriate, it wore on me. I dreaded coming back to the book, not because I wasn't interested in their subject...quite the contrary!...but because it was like sitting down with a guy who looks like Brad Pitt and talks like Stephen Hawking.Recommended? Sort of? But to those who are in need of its mother lode of information about the brain's sound universe, and how manipulating that can create much-desired changes in a person's daily life. Casually curious readers are best off skimming a bit in the bookstore and then deciding how much they want to pursue the topic. Perhaps a visit to the book's website would be a better choice for those readers.
