Sitting in the book store I had four books spread out in front of me.  As I weighed the choices reading back covers and first pages, I changed my mind over and over.  Each seemed really interesting, and I just couldn’t decide which one to take home with me.  Suddenly the realization of my current situation- the inability to make a pretty minor decision- handed me the answer to my dilemma. Therefore, this month’s book to read is The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar.

The book looks at choice thoroughly from all different perspectives.  Iyengar, a “leading expert in choice,” is an extremely intelligent and experienced researcher and professor at Columbia University.  She explains and supports with evidence theories on how experience and cultural background effect outlook on choosing, how outside factors like environment and set-up influence our decisions, and what choice-making means to our self-identity.

Her science is truly fascinating, and I couldn’t put the book down.  It’s a quick read broken up into easily followed sections, and by the end of it, I had gained not only some pretty interesting tidbits for dinner conversation but also insight and empowerment in regard to my own decision-making process.