This one was a birthday gift from my wife, and when I squint at the title, it's hard not to see a little tweak there, but so be it.... This book aspires to be what the blurb says, the freakanomics of math, though it's not quite as perverse (in a good way) as Freakanomics. It does a good job of outlining some basic principles of numeracy and how they might function as basic yardsticks for decision making and the limits of those-- or at least the limits of those when misapplied.

It's entertaining enough as a read-- gossipy enough to be funny, and full of examples both new and old. It's a little strait-laced, like you'd probably guess-- mathematicians want to smooth out the rough, I think, and aren't happy till they've done it. But that's not where I'm primarily interested, in a predictable world. Ask yourself which you want, and that'll help you determine if this is a book for you.