It's a golden age for popular math books and as new books are published, we'll list the ones written by Five Books interviewees and frequently recommended authors, here. Please email us (editor@fivebooks.com) with any books that should appear on this list.
I Can't Do Maths: Why Children Say It and How to Make A Difference
by Alf Coles & Nathalie Sinclair
In I Can't Do Maths two professors of maths education, Alf Coles and Nathalie Sinclair, look at why it is that some kids are put off learning maths and whether there's a way around this. In particular, they analyze five 'dogmas' that they challenge, including 'Maths is always right or wrong' and 'Maths is for some people not others.'
The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics
by Tim Harford
***One of the best books on critical thinking, recommended by Nigel Warburton***
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics," said Benjamin Disraeli (according to Mark Twain, anyway), in what has become one of the most well-known quotations in the English language, and certainly the only one most of us know about statistics. And yet...in practice many of us continue to be misled by them on a daily basis. In The Data Detective (called How to Make the World Add Up in the UK), British economist Tim Harford tries to equip us with tools to take on the latest misinformation.
We've also interviewed Tim, a Financial Times columnist and BBC Radio and TV presenter, about books on two topics: Unexpected Economics (including a comic book) and the best Introductions to Economics.
The Wonder Book of Geometry: A Mathematical Story
by David Acheson
From Thales's theorem to the Banach-Tarski paradox, Oxford mathematician David Acheson's book, The Wonder Book of Geometry, is a lively attempt to bring to life geometry—literally, 'earth measurement'—and make it accessible to the general public. It has a lot of illustrations, not just of triangles, but portraits of mathematicians (like Euclid of Alexandria), maps, early editions of books, news clippings, a Ming dynasty copy of an ancient Chinese text, even postage stamps. According to Acheson, he wrote the book “because I believe that geometry can offer the quickest route to the whole nature and spirit of mathematics at its best, at almost any age, provided the subject is presented with sufficient imagination.”
The Math of Life and Death
by Kit Yates
The Math of Life and Death, by Kit Yates, a senior lecturer in mathematical biology at the University of Bath, is an excellent popular math book, demonstrating the many times math plays a critical role in our daily lives—often without us even knowing it.
Kit Yates chose the Best Math Books of 2019 for us. Is math really a matter of life or death? He spoke to us about his book in a Q&A.
“The Art of Statistics is a really accessible and comprehensive introduction to statistics. It’s not only about the tools of statistics, but it also goes through lots of interesting and relevant areas where statistics can help us make important decisions.” Read more...
Kit Yates, Mathematician
Infinite Powers: The Story of Calculus
by Steven Strogatz
"I yield freely to the sacred frenzy"—Johannes Kepler, 1619. Infinite Powers: the Story of Calculus is a popular math book, written for a general audience. In it, mathematician Steven Strogatz not only takes us through the history of calculus, from Archimedes to the present day—pointing out its extraordinary contribution to modern life along the way—but also conveys some of the excitement of doing math.
