There?s little objectively sexy about math. With its flummoxing sine curves and its formulae written as if in ancient cuneiform, the subject has driven countless people to such frivolous pursuits as writing and journalism. Even the stand-up comedian Louis C.K. recently took to Twitter to rail at the way public schools were dryly meting the subject out: ?My kids used to love math,? he wrote. ?Now it makes them cry.? But Jordan Ellenberg, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, has positioned himself as math?s Malcolm Gladwell with this crystalline, eminently digestible book. (It doesn?t hurt that the drawings therein are charmingly amateurish, as if scribbled on a napkin during animated repartee over cocktails.)
University Communications