Get Ur Freak On with Apologies to Missy Elliot

Freakonomics - A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
William Morrow

It would seem that this blog pulls out all my guilty secrets. Yes, I read non-fiction (big gasp from the studio audience.) Even worse? I've occasionally been known to browse and then make a pick from the business section. Shocking, but really, it's all part of my much larger ploy to infiltrate corporate America. Didn't someone once say "know thy enemy?"

Anyway, Freakonomics is a book about nothing -- or at least, as its authors painstakingly point out, it is a book with no unifying theme. In reality, Freakon debunks what John Kenneth Galbraith refers to as "conventional wisdom" and asks readers to consider interesting questions such as "what do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?" (Cheating, in case you are wondering.) Levitt blurs the distinction between economist and social scientist and does it with flair. At no point did I find myself skimming the text -- I was engaged throughout the work and that is a testament to both the fascinating subject matter and the wry wit and approachability of Dubner and Levitt's writing style.

Rating? Gosh, that's a tough question since I know that I have different standards for fiction vs. non-fiction. For a business book, I'd give it five out of five Trumps. Compared to something life transforming like The Reader, it would probably get a three.