Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

I first encountered Freakonomics in a Wall Street Journal book review. It sounded quite enticing, and I was overjoyed when I discovered my roommate at camp had a copy of it. The book completely held up to my expectations, and I learned so much. If only every book were like that.

Basically, Freakonomics is a slightly random compilation of socioeconomic studies conducted by the two authors. They run the gamut from real estate to abortions, from cheating teachers to trends in baby names. I'm a bit nomenclatural, in that I love to name things, and so given names have always fascinated me. The study detailed in the book explained how names for new babies start at the top of the socioeconomic ladder and work their way down, until even the poorest parents discard them as too low-sounding. The authors presented a list of the names mothers with the most years of schooling gave their children recently- Linden, Finnegan, Emma, Maeve, Marie-Claire, Sophie, Aidan, Bennett, and Harper, to name a few. They postulated that these will be rampant amongst all income brackets and educational levels by 2015.

It is encouraging to see skills taught in school actually put to practical use. The authors have been described as being what every kid majoring in economics aspires to be. I hope a few more pop up. I can't get enough of this sort of information. All math should be like this- practical, and entertaining.