High Price is the harrowing and inspiring memoir of neuroscientist Carl Hart, a man who grew up in one of Miami's toughest neighborhoods and, determined to make a difference as an adult, tirelessly applies his scientific training to help save real lives.

Young Carl didn't see the value of school, studying just enough to keep him on the basketball team. Today, he is a cutting-edge neuroscientist--Columbia University's first tenured African American professor in the sciences--whose landmark, controversial research is redefining our understanding of addiction.

AND THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS . . .

I saw a Korean woman walking along the road carrying a bundle of sticks on her back. I thought to myself, "Life is like that." We all carry around bundles of stories starting from our childhoods and going through the rest of our lives. Some of the stories we have forgotten and others we will never forget. Some of these stories have influenced our lives. Others have had little effect on us.

In this book I have pulled from my bundle of stories to share fifty-two of them with an added moral for each one. I have heard many people who would...