What: The full title is Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century. That sums it up pretty well --- psychologist Lauren Slater examines ten famous and/or controversial experiments, including B.F. Skinner's work on behaviorism. Slater might remind you of the college professor for that class you took that wasn't in your major, but you enjoyed it so much you thought about changing your major (but didn't).
Comparable to: Oliver Sacks or Janet Malcolm.
Representative quote: "So this, perhaps, is the story. There's a man called Skinner, which is an ugly name by any account, a name with a knife in it, an image of a skinned fish flopping on a dock, its heart barely visible in its mantle of muscle, ka-boom."
You might not like it if: You wish the author were more clinical and dispassionate because science is serious.
How to get it: Readily available. Remember, though: Even though it is creative nonfiction, it is still nonfiction. You will not find it in the fiction section.
[Originally posted 1/27/11.]
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