I just finished the second book on the brain by Dick Swaab. I do not think the English translation has come out yet but if you read Dutch, here you have a reference about it.
This time Swaab focuses, as the Dutch title indicates, on creativity on a general scale: how it is generated, how it is shaped by our genes, by the way children develop in their mother’s wombs, by every single thing that happens to them, to us, until our deaths.

The book is written with the usual dry Dutch humour. It has lots of references to the ailments and quirks of artists, scientists and other people.

The book can become very technical but for someone really interested in the brain, it is a trove of information. It has very good references and a really complete index.

The only thing I wish could have been done better is the images on the different brain parts – there are several small pictures mostly at the start and at the end of the book. Thinking about this I thought it could be good to have something like an online search where you can enter terms about the brain and a 3-D-like visualization rotates, gets zoomed in o or out. That would be the perfect addition for this book. But perhaps I am asking too much. It would be a nice application, though, for people like me, a layman, who want to understand a bit more about our brains.