The Social Animal - by David Brooks

David Brooks writes a pretty fascinating book about how a person's culture affects his life. He alternates chapters about human development and psychology with chapters that use characters that embody these characteristics. One of his major points is that people develop in relation to others and in relation to the experiences they encounter in life. The events that help shape an individual (family life, friends during childhood, tragic events, etc) influence how a person lives their lives. This point may seem obvious but along the way Brooks feeds the reader a steady diet of psychological studies that shed light on why people behave as they do. An interesting read.