Also of interest...in getting to the bottom of things

Soul Dust

by Nicholas Humphrey

(Princeton, $25)

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The mystery of consciousness has puzzled thinkers for centuries, said Alison Gopnik in The New York Times. Psychologist Nicholas Humphrey’s “seductive” new idea is that we each experience life as the journey of a unique consciousness because the very feeling that it’s “good to be alive” makes us always hungry for new knowledge and experiences. Testing Humphrey’s idea might be impossible. “Still, you would do well” to give his “crystalline” argument an evening or two.

A Billion Wicked Thoughts

by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam

(Dutton, $27)

It’s high time that somebody produced an “expansive” new study of human sexuality, said Jesse Singal in The Boston Globe. Like a pair of modern-day Alfred Kinseys, neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam have analyzed a billion Web searches and a mountain of other digital data in order to eradicate various myths about sex. Their intriguing, though provisional, findings should “herald a new, more informed conversation on an endlessly complicated subject.”

Craving Earth

by Sera L. Young

(Columbia, $30)

Though there have been taboos against eating dirt throughout human history, this “quirkily informative” book might be the first to explain why the practice persists, said Adam Kirsch in Salon.com. The best chapter covers the lengths to which some cultures have gone to stigmatize dirt consumption. But the author also conducts enough research to determine that it’s not the nutrients in dirt that explain the craving. Instead, some people may instinctively value dirt for its ability to filter out bacteria and toxins.

The Watery Part of the World

by Michael Parker

(Algonquin, $24)

In a “lush feat of historical speculation,” Michael Parker’s new novel provides a potential solution to a 200-year-old mystery, said Ron Charles in The Washington Post. Spinning a tale out of the real-life disappearance at sea of Aaron Burr’s adult daughter, Parker has this formidable woman survive a pirate attack and live out her days on an island of runaways. The novel shouldn’t work, but he makes it a “vivid tale” about “the odd relationships that form in very small, difficult places.”