I've read many popular books about mathematics. The same stories often recur: How the two spirals made by the spots on a pineapple are numbers in the Fibonacci series. Hogwash. If these writers would look at a pineapple instead of copying each other, they'd realize that the spirals seem to always hit one or two ambiguous points where there is a choice of directions to go, so you can just as easily say they always produce numbers that are NOT in the Fibonnaci series. Or they always produce a multiple of three. Or if you line up six pineapples and count the spirals, you can spell "Mother Teresa."<br><br>Jordan Ellenberg is original. And smart. And a good writer. Again and again, he explored topics that were new to me, and with original lines of reasoning. Some are his subjects come from the abstract world of mathematics: I've never seen such a clear and interesting description of non-Euclidean geometry. Most, as the title implies, are directly relevant to daily life. Here's why, when Wisconsin Republicans declared that "over 50 percent of U.S. job growth in June came from our state," that was hogwash too.<br><br>He deals with some complex topics and I had to pay close attention. As someone without a formal math background, a couple of times I had to go back a few pages and re-apply myself to following his argument. It was always worth the effort, and I'll look forward to whatever he writes next.