The Scientific American brave new brain

If you haven't already read anything about current advances in the study of the brain, this book is a good overview. It is not so much superficial as just broad rather than deep. It is only two years old, but two years is a long time in this field.

The book is frustratingly devoid of citations and sources. It's even written in a way that makes it very difficult to follow up on interesting statements and references. Example: "One small, innovative community of researchers is making significant progress in copying neuronal organization and function." This is so vague that even if you did Google up a possible candidate, you would have no way of knowing whether you'd actually found the group referred to.

If you have already gained some familiarity with this field, this book will not be much use to you. It's a once-over-lightly of the field; it does not go into depth on anything.