Exercise Your Brain By tcmom on Dec 31, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

I received this book as a gift. I was given this book because I like to do crossword puzzles occasionally. Well, after giving the book a second glance, I realized that it is about improving your brain power by heightening the memory, reasoning, and creative thinking. The author is a clinical professor of neurology at New York School of Medicine and has numerous other creditials, he must know what he is talking about. Dr. Goldberg created the Manhattan-based Cognitive Enhancement Program, a fitness center for the brain, and is the author of internationally best-selling books The Wisdom Paradox, How Your Mind Can Grow as Your Brain Grows Older and The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind. Hmm! Must know therefore of what he speaks!

It is a fun way to improve all these things by doing the many puzzles that are in it. For example, on page 23 there is a Trivia on the Brain that explains how the mind works. Who would of thought that our brain is a "seven-pound ball of malleable flesh"? Also, on this page, above the trivia is an exercise that one has to find a group of animals in each line from 1-10. This one was fun to do as you have to list the animals in their proper order. There are five levels of exercises labeled 'Get Fired Up' to 'Feel The Burn'. Each level explains what the exercise is suppose to do for your brain, from charging it for the mental workout ahead and pushing your brain to its' limit.

I found the Sudoku puzzle to be the most the most challenging, I never could conquer this type of puzzle and perhaps one day I will. I have been doing the puzzles sporadically, instead of in sequence. I guess I will attempt to do the exercises/puzzles in order of levels given. All in all this is a book you will enjoy, if you like doing crosswords, anagrams, and math puzzels. Also you will enhance your cognitive skills, spatial reasoning, etc., while having fun.