Rating: 
Summary: Very reassuring
Review: Schacter's descriptions of the seven "sins" of memory are reassuring to all of us who have experienced any (or all) of them and wondered if it's our own memories that are starting to malfunction. He includes terrific examples (personal, historical, scientific, and anecdotal) of each that help to make the complex constructs of memory understandable to all. I wish there could have been some more effective editing of this volume, however...a few of Schacter's examples are, unfortunately, laughable: -----Schacter seems to think that Al Capone (not Al Capp) was the creator of the Li'l Abner comic strip (funny mistake for a book on memory lapses).
-----Schacter also believes that when high school students neglect to do their homework, it is because of some memory issue; he describes a study where a mandatory parental signature system is put into place to help students "remember" to do their work. While the new system may have successfully gotten more students to do their assignments, he's pretty gullible to believe students when they say they "forgot". (Gee, do you think the students just had other things they'd rather be doing than their homework?).
-----He attributes to a "sin" of memory the fact that before important playoff games, Red Sox fans have a number of reasons why they think their team will win, while after the team loses, the same fans "forget" that they expected a victory and now have an equal number of reasons why they think the team lost. Come on now, Dr. Schacter, you know that's not a memory issue, that's simply a "hope springs eternal" issue. Otherwise, don't forget to read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This is an excellent book, the author does not bore us with endless details picked out from journals. The writing is crisp and you can easily understand the matter presented. Best part is that it also adds to your knowledge while being an easy read.
Rating: 
Summary: A Huge Disappointment
Review: Unless you are seeking a general reminder about how forgetfulness is normal, I would not recommend reading this book. Schacter's title and format of the book, based on seven "sins", surely must have come from his publisher. In Schacter's introduction, he talks about the "adaptive strengths of memory" and "why memory is a mainly reliable guide to our pasts and futures." Thus, why does he call these adaptive strengths "sins"? This kind of contradiction is persistent throughout the work.
Schacter references many older studies on memory that have long been surpassed by much newer, stronger, and more enlightening ones. He frequently uses examples from characters in works of fiction, when most reliable books on memory are based on interviews and studies with real human beings. I found this book very misleading with much outdated information.
Better to read the seven actual case studies presented by Lenore Terr in "Unchained Memories: True Stories of Traumatic Memories" with her well-researched, well-documented, and very engaging book. Terr's book is particularly helpful to people trying to understand the effects traumatic childhood events can have on adults. Terr is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.
"Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body and Society" by Bessel Van der Kolk and colleagues provides a much clearer and more accurate picture of how the mind works. This very readable book provides the results of rigorous scientific studies with much more up-to-date information essential to an understanding of memory, particularly to anyone who is trying to understand memory of a traumatic event.
"Normal" events are processed very differently in the brain than "traumatic" events. The book "Traumatic Stress" in particular is essential reading for anyone trying to understand the effects traumatic memory can have on soldiers or veterans; police, fire and EMT personnel; refugees from war; victims of traumatic events such as car accidents and abuse.
Although Van der Kolk does not have a more recent book, his work on memory is at the cutting-edge of progress being made today in better understanding how the mind functions and how it processes and stores memory. Van der Kolk was co-principal investigator of the DSM IV Field Trials for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is currently a professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Medical School, and is the Medical Director of the Trauma Center at HRI Hospital in Brookline, Massachusetts.
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