Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

With more than five million copies sold, Flowers for Algernon is the beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In poignant diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that... (more)

The Dragons of Eden

Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

by Carl Sagan

Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great reading adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends--and their amazing links to recent discoveries. "A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday...It's a delight." THE NEW YORK TIMES

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

by tim weiner

For the last sixty years, the CIA has managed to maintain a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, burying its blunders in top-secret archives. Its mission was to know the world. When it did not succeed, it set out to change the world. Its failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower, “a legacy of ashes.” Now Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tim Weiner offers the first definitive... (more)

On Intelligence

by Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee

From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the PalmPilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he stands ready to revolutionize both neuroscience and computing in one stroke, with a new understanding of intelligence itself. ... (more)

Everything Bad is Good for You

by Steven Johnson

Forget everything you've read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture. In this provocative, intelligent, and convincing endorsement of today's mass entertainment, national bestselling author Steven Johnson argues that the pop culture we soak in every day-from The Lord of the Rings to Grand Theft Auto to The Simpsons -has been growing more and more sophisticated and, far from rotting our... (more)

Ghost Wars

The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

by Steve Coll

To what extent did America’s best intelligence analysts grasp the rising threat of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did they fail? Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Steve Coll recounts the history of the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks. Based on scrupulous research and... (more)

How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day

How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day

by Michael Gelb

Genius is made, not born. And human beings are gifted with an almost unlimited potential for learning and creativity. Now you can uncover your own hidden abilities, sharpen your senses, and liberate your unique intelligence--by following the example of the greatest genius of all time, Leonardo da Vinci. Acclaimed author Michael J. Gelb, who has helped thousands of people expand their minds to accomplish more than... (more)

The One Percent Doctrine

by Ron Suskind

Relying on unique access to former and current government officials, this book will reveal for the first time how the U.S. government - from President Bush on down - is frantically improvising to fight a new kind of war. Where is the enemy? What have been the real victories and defeats since September 11? How are we actually fighting this war and how can it possibly be won? Little, in fact, has been revealed... (more)

Intelligence in War

Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda

by John Keegan

In fiction, the spy is a glamorous figure whose secrets make or break peace, but, historically, has intelligence really been a vital step to military victories? In this breakthrough study, the preeminent war historian John Keegan goes to the heart of a series of important conflicts to develop a powerful argument about military intelligence. In his characteristically wry and perceptive prose, Keegan offers us... (more)

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror

by Stephen Kinzer

This is the first full-length account of the CIA's coup d'etat in Iran in 1953—a covert operation whose consequences are still with us today. Written by a noted New York Times journalist, this book is based on documents about the coup (including some lengthy internal CIA reports) that have now been declassified. Stephen Kinzer's compelling narrative is at once a vital piece of history, a cautionary tale, and a... (more)

The Wisdom of Crowds

by James Surowiecki

In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant–better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future. With boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture,... (more)

The Bourne SupremacyRobert Ludlum

Bourne Trilogy: Book 2

The Bourne Supremacy

by Robert Ludlum

A KILLER WITH NO FACE, NO IDENTITY, AND A NAME THE WORLD WANTED TO FORGET: JASON BOURNE Reenter the shadowy world of Jason Bourne, an expert assassin still plagued by the splintered nightmares of his former life. This time the stakes are higher than ever. For someone else has taken on the Bourne identity—a ruthless killer who must be stopped or the world will pay a devastating price. To succeed, the real Jason... (more)

Inside the CIA

by Ronald Kessler

Employs material taken from extensive research and hundreds of interviews to trace the CIA's evolution over the last fifteen years, describing its failures and successes. Reprint. AB.

A Man Called Intrepid

by William Stevenson

A true story of espionage.

Agent Zigzag : a true story of Nazi espionage, love, and betrayal

Agent Zigzag : a true story of Nazi espionage, love, and betrayal

by Ben Macintyre

Eddie Chapman was a charming criminal, a con man, and a philanderer. He was also one of the most remarkable double agents Britain has ever produced. Inside the traitor was a man of loyalty; inside the villain was a hero. The problem for Chapman, his spymasters, and his lovers was to know where one persona ended and the other began. In 1941, after training as a German spy in occupied France, Chapman was parachuted... (more)

The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen

The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen

by Eric Berlin

When puzzle addict Winston Breen and his best friends head to an all-day puzzle hunt with a $50,000 grand prize, they’re pumped. But the day is not all fun and games: not only do they have a highstrung and highly competitive teacher along for the ride, but the puzzles are hard even for Winston, the other schools’ teams are no joke, and someone in the contest is playing dirty in order to win. Trying to stop this... (more)

A Leader Becomes a Leader: Inspirational Stories of Leadership for a New Generation

A Leader Becomes a Leader: Inspirational Stories of Leadership for a New Generation

by J. Kevin Sheehan

A Leader Becomes a Leader opens with a window on history: Henry David Thoreau riding a borrowed horse and wagon into the woods around Concord, Massachusetts to Walden Pond in 1845. There, he writes a classic work that has a powerful effect on the lives and philosophies of seminal leaders in the next century as diverse as Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela. Thoreau believed that a... (more)

Marcelo in the Real World

by Francisco X. Stork

Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear--part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify--and he's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world." There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising... (more)

Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count

Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count

by Richard E. Nisbett

A bold refutation of the belief that genes determine intelligence. Who are smarter, Asians or Westerners? Are there genetic explanations for racial differences in test scores? What makes some nationalities excel in engineering and others in music? Will math and science remain a largely male preserve. From the damning research of ... (more)

Intelligence in war : the value--and limitations--of what the military can learn about the enemy

Intelligence in war : the value--and limitations--of what the military can learn about the enemy

by John Keegan

John Keegan, whose many books, including classic histories of the two world wars, have confirmed him as the premier miltary historian of our time, here presents a masterly look at the value and limitations of intelligence in the conduct of war. Intelligence gathering is an immensely complicated and vulnerable endeavor. And it often fails. Until the invention of the telegraph and radio, information often traveled... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: intelligence

by Daniel Keyes

Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

by Carl Sagan

by tim weiner

by Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee

by Steven Johnson

The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

by Steve Coll

by Michael Gelb

by Ron Suskind

Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda

by John Keegan

by Stephen Kinzer

by James Surowiecki

by Robert Ludlum

by Ronald Kessler

by William Stevenson

by Ben Macintyre

by Eric Berlin

by J. Kevin Sheehan

by Francisco X. Stork

by Richard E. Nisbett

by John Keegan