Assassination Classroom, v. 18 by Yusei Matsui

Assassination Classroom, v. 18 by Yusei Matsui - 200 pages

Karma and Nagisa have traveled to outer space to get the research on how to destroy Koro Sensei.  But what will the class decide to do once they get that information.
Then it's time for entrance exams for high school and for Valentine's Day.

This was a great entry in the series.  I enjoyed the relationships between the characters and how they are growing and changing. 

Masters of Sex by Thomas Maier

Masters of Sex by Thomas Maier- 415 pgs

Bill Masters and Virginia Johnson were pioneers in the area of sex research and conducted this research at Washington University in St. Louis.  By observing thousands of couples in the throes of passion, Masters and Johnson were able to disprove long held beliefs about sex.  Later, they expanded their work to include counseling couples who were having problems in the bedroom.  The pair moved from a research team to a married couple.  The book goes through the work and private life of the couple who brought sex out of the bedroom and into the mainstream.

The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

The Power of Habit: why we do what we do in life and in business by Charles Duhigg - 400 pages

Duhigg, an investigative reporter for the New York Times, turns his research skills on the question of "why do we do the things we do?"  Scientists have discovered that a lot of routine brain function is handled by habit loops where the brain essentially goes on autopilot through a series of actions based on a given cue.  This is why you can drive home successfully but not remember the last few miles of the drive when you are tired.  Duhigg argues that when you recognize your behaviors that are truly habits, then you can set about changing them by altering your reaction to the cues and leading your actions to a different reward.
 
The self-help part of the book is minimal.  The majority focuses on fascinating case studies from how people with brain injuries adapt to the world and create new habits to how habit research has influenced product marketing.  Duhigg also raises intriguing ethical questions in where we as a society draw the line in saying a person has a choice about their actions and can be held accountable for the results.