The book attempts to explain how homeostasis, feelings, rationality and cultures are all intertwined and the order in which they are related might surprise common knowledge. To do this he shows how homeostasis and natural selection shape our bodies, brains and even cultures.

At first, there were simple organisms without nervous systems who exhibited extraordinary social behaviors such as bacteria. However, they did not feel or think they simply reacted to their environment through the laws of physics and chemistry. Eventually these organisms started to evolve and get more and more complex in their structures and simple versions of the nervous system started to appear. These were peripheral and played a simple role in analyzing the external environment and manage resources within the organism. For example, they could react to external contact and smells but they did not feel or taste things, it was a pure reaction.

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Part I – Cognitive Revolution

This first part shows how the Homo Sapiens went from an irrelevant primate to the top of the food chain in a matter of around 60 000 years. One factor was that we could use tools and fire giving us advantages over other animals but not in the ways we would initially think. Fire for example, gave us two great benefits besides scaring animals away: the first one is that we could now eat cooked food requiring less time to chew and digest, killing worms and bacteria, and eat food that was previously unavailable such as wheat and rice. Secondly, the fact that at the end of a day Homo sapiens could sit in a fire socializing and most likely gossiping about other members contributed to the strengthening of the group, through tighter relationships and social cooperation. Our ability to work in larger groups is what made us set apart from other Homo species and this was one of the foundations.

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This book is a war novel during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930’s. The plot is about an American soldier called Robert Jordan who fights for the Republicans against the ruling fascist party. The protagonist is sent on a mission where he has to blow up a bridge with the help of local guerrilla. We experience the moment he meets them to the conclusion of the mission where he dies from a mortal wound.

It’s a deep and touching story where the reader can almost experience the struggles of war himself. I didn’t know the plot (my only reference being the namesake song from Metallica) but shortly after the beginning I ‘knew’ Robert Jordan was going to die adding a dramatic build-up effect throughout the book. It all ends beautifully in the last pages. It is as much a war story as it is about love, human nature or meaning of life.

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This book is a long one, but the length has a specific purpose as it takes us on a dynamic journey through the mind of Raskolnikov (or Rodya). The plot is simple: a man decides to commit a crime and is forced, or rather forces himself, to bear the punishment for such act. We witness his state of mind before, during and after he murders two women and this is where the brilliance of the author comes to life, because despite the villainy and prejudice the reader cannot help but to understand Raskolnikov or even agree with his actions. This becomes evident when during the narrative one starts to secretly hope he doesn’t get caught by the authorities. This empathy is achieved because despite the apparent indifference and contempt for almost everyone we get to see his flaws, despair and suffering. The swirling of emotions and rationalizations allied to his illness puts oneself in the protagonist shoes. You can’t help but root for him despite the murder. And yet, he still manages to surprise us through bursts of kindness and generosity. The full and complex range of emotions paired with a superior intellect gives rise to certain ideologies that we may or may not agree with, but in the end, we end up suffering with Raskolnikov just like the one’s around him.

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