MUST READS | Daily Mail Online

THE GENDERED BRAIN

by Gina Rippon (Vintage £9.99, 448 pp)

There is a colourful scientific term for a mistaken idea that keeps reappearing, even though it has been comprehensively discredited. 

They are known as ‘Whac-a-Mole’ myths, after the arcade game where mechanical moles keep popping up, long after you think they have been whacked into oblivion.

Here, neuroscientist Professor Gina Rippon suggests ‘one of the oldest and apparently hardiest of moles is the myth of female and male brains’.

She argues that the so-called ‘female’ brain has ‘suffered centuries of being described as undersized, underdeveloped, evolutionarily inferior, poorly organised and generally defective’.

But modern neuroscience challenges the idea that babies are born with a biological template for a ‘male’ or ‘female’ brain.

The message of this fascinating book is that our brains are shaped by our environment: a gendered world will produce a gendered brain.

THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT

by Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton (Black Swan £8.99, 304 pp)

What does a typical firefighter look like? ‘Whatever comes to mind when you think of a firefighter, I very much doubt you’re envisaging someone who looks like me.’ 

Sabrina Cohen-Hatton has a PhD in neuroscience and likes a manicure.

She became a firefighter at 18 and is now a deputy assistant commissioner. As she points out, this makes her an anomaly: ‘At present, there are more people named Chris in chief fire officer roles than there are women chief fire officers.’

More remarkably, as a teen she was homeless, living on the streets in a state of constant watchfulness — an instinct that would later prove essential when making life-or-death decisions.

This is an inspiring, vivid account of the dangerous world of firefighting.

THE SNAKES

by Sadie Jones (Vintage £8.99, 448 pp)

Family secrets haunt the latest novel by award-winning author, Sadie Jones. Newlyweds Bea and Dan are blissfully happy, although money is a worry. 

Bea is a therapist, Dan an artist who works as an estate agent to make ends meet. 

When they take a break from their jobs and go travelling, the difference in their backgrounds comes sharply into focus.

Dan was raised by his single mother in Peckham; Bea is estranged from her dysfunctional family, and Dan has only a vague idea they are hugely wealthy.

When they decide to visit Bea’s troubled brother, in rural France, they’re blissfully unaware Bea’s parents are about to arrive. 

Tragedy is succeeded by horror in this terrifyingly atmospheric story of the monstrous consequences of greed and power.