From the moment we’re born our minds are constantly learning. Over time, our brains fall into a routine when it comes to making connections, judgments and decisions. These processes are invisible to us, but the more we try to understand them the better we can control them. Once you harness the power of your mind, what could you accomplish?

Here are a few thought-provoking titles from the JMRL catalog:

Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt – Presents a decision-making handbook that analyzes one’s decisions, plans, and morals, showing how insights can be applied to daily life to make smarter, harder, and better decisions.

Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin – Presents information about habit formation, along with strategies for breaking habits that are counterproductive and for forming good habits that enhance the quality of life and help in the attainment of life goals.

You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself by David McRaney – The popular blogger and author of the best-selling You Are Not So Smart shares more discoveries about self-delusion and irrational thinking, analyzing 15 additional ways people routinely fool themselves in areas ranging from attraction and time wasted to best intentions and the true price of happiness.

This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking by David Brooks – Featuring responses from Steven Pinker, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Brian Eno and 150 of the world’s brightest and most influential minds, this groundbreaking resource poses the question “What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive toolkit?”

Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence by Daniel Goleman – Drawing on cutting-edge research along with practical findings, this landmark book on the science of attention reveals what distinguishes experts from amateurs and stars from average performers, and urges readers to pay attention to what matters to them most.

Brainworks: The Mind-Bending Science of How You See, What You Think, and Who You Are by Michael S. Sweeney – A companion book to the National Geographic TV series uses brain teasers and optical illusions to shed light on the workings of the amazing human brain.

Everything is Obvious: Once You Know the Answer by Duncan J. Watts – Discusses how the concept of common sense is inadequate in an increasingly complex world and draws on multiple disciplines to offer insight into the sources of such topics as popularity, economics, and self-deception.

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman – A leading neuroscientist reveals the functions of the unconscious regions of the brain, drawing on up-to-the-minute research to identify the significance of brain areas outside of our awareness and their roles in such areas as mate selection, the perception of beauty and the future of criminal law.