A Review of a Review: An NYT Review of a Very Reviewable Freakonomics

The New York Times takes on the two Ste(v/ph)ens. Jim Holt's review of Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner's Freakonomics delves into the intricacies of the book and reveals all the things that could have been done wrong. He highlights the fact that the economist of the two (Levitt) "strayed far from the customary paddock of the dismal science in search of interesting problems" which is something I touched on in my own review. It is true that Levitt did this, but he walks right back onto the path by connecting it to daily encounters and real-life situations. To so many, science has become boring and confusing. It's the kind of work Levitt and Dubner have shared that makes it interesting so much so that you wouldn't even call it science anymore--just freakonomics. Described as "an odd book" by Holt, I would never not not not agree to that statement. However, Holt implies that it's a bad thing. I checked the thesaurus and "bad" is not a synonym of "odd"..."freaky" is though. Holt does redeem himself, though, by crediting the great trivia and lengths that both authors (and others) went through in order to make this book possible--two of the things I most admire about this book. Holt ends his slight criticism and praise with a little paragraph about how economists are, for the most part, arrogant. (I can neither refute nor support that claim.) He gives Levitt and Dubner where credit is due and says that they are the odd ones out of his economist claim. Like Holt, I believed that this was a truly awesome book.

It's Been a While...Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

So...it's been a while. This time around I have a really good book to share: the very popular Angels & Demons by Dan Brown. It's definitely a change from my usual (sorry Sarah Dessen, Steven D. Levitt & Steven J. Dubner!). I'm glad I did start to read this because I had tried to read it before, but stopped because I didn't think I would like it...six pages in. I had heard a lot of good reviews (not on the movie though) from my brother and my friends, but never really got a chance to interrupt my reading roll of easier realistic fiction and entertaining economics books.

In short, Angels & Demons is the story of a well-known Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon, who gets a mysterious call in the middle of night. Little did he know, that mysterious call would alter his perspective on life and put it in danger as well. That call came from a Maximilian Kohler, director of CERN--the European Organization for Nuclear Research as well as the inventors of the internet. Awaken and frankly annoyed by the call, Langdon gets up to find a picture printing in his fax machine: a disfigured man with a perfectly symmetrical brand on him that stated the group that Langdon had researched, pondered and questioned for so long. It was the Illuminati brand and he couldn't believe it. He travels to Switzerland then to the Vatican to try to save the world--yeah, it sounds cheesy, but read it to find out what happens!

So far (I'm 265 out of 569 pages in), it is an amazing book filled with suspense, an inevitable romance, facts that would blow your mind and writing that is equally amazing. Dan Brown captivates and makes a lot of small cliffhangers and creates the illusion that there is a dead end. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a great read.