I finished reading Sharon Begley's book, but I could have put off buying the book all together because Washington Post put out a story GET SMART(ER): You're No Genius? Don't Worry. You Can Still Beef Up Your Brain With a Little Effort. It is a breezing feature article that skims off the cream of neuroscience, types of intelligence, nutrition, health science, meditation and curiosity (and lots of name-dropping of scholars and researchers at big name universities) to let you know that you can improve your mental powers:

The idea that there are multiple intelligences -- that people can be intelligent visually, musically, mathematically, athletically, interpersonally and intrapersonally -- was introduced by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner. (He later added naturalistic intelligence.) Still, whatever the type of intelligence, most people judge brainpower on practical factors, including how much you know, how well you can access what you know and what you do with it.