Book recommendation for teen who has just devoured Freakonomics, Blink and Outliers?

PerplexedParent · April 30, 2009, 5:43pm

I am looking for a book for my fourteen-year-old niece who is fascinated by these books. Any suggestions?

Consolation · April 30, 2009, 6:00pm

Off the top of my head:

The Wisdom of Crowds by Jamie Surowiecki (SP?)
Any of Oliver Sachs’ books
Stephen Jay Gould’s The Flamingo’s Smile
Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse
Possibly Godel, Escher, Bach

lockn · April 30, 2009, 6:01pm

Predictably Irrational is along the same lines.

michuncle · April 30, 2009, 7:00pm

Malcolm Gladwell also wrote “The Tipping Point”.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written “Fooled by Randomness” and “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” .

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt.

irunoninsulin · April 30, 2009, 7:03pm

If she’s at all interested in medicine (even the tiniest bit), try Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an imperfect science, by Atul Gawande

also The Unthinkable, by Amanda Ripley

Jamiecakes · April 30, 2009, 7:08pm

Crimes Against Logic
Sway
Predictably Irrational

Liz_Lemon · April 30, 2009, 7:10pm

I liked Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan.

bclintonk · April 30, 2009, 7:16pm

The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson. It’s about how the Internet has changed the economy by creating niche markets “at the long tail of the curve.” Very insightful.

Second the suggestion of Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely.

rocket6louise · April 30, 2009, 8:13pm

Okay
i loved all three and i would HIGHLY suggest “The Happiness Hypothesis”
forget the author, but you will love it

menloparkmom · April 30, 2009, 8:55pm

The World is Flat by Thomas Freidman

mathmom · April 30, 2009, 10:54pm

Oliver Sacks - The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales or An Anthropologist On Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales

In Code: A Mathematical Journey by Sarah and David Flannery

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel

Consolation · May 1, 2009, 11:54am

I second the recommendation of Atul Gowande’s writing and Gladwell’s “Tipping Point.”

There’s also a book out by Jerome Groopman called “How Doctors Think” that may be of interest.

emeraldkity4 · May 1, 2009, 12:48pm

Along with the aforementioned Friedman books, the first one of his I read, * From Beirut to Jerualem*.

I would also recommend * Wrinkles in Time* by George Smoot( who recently won a Noble Prize in Physics, but * I * was able to understand this book, so a girl who can get through *Guns, Germs and Steel * shouldn’t have a problem) and Keay Davidson.

Also * From Dawn to Decadence : 500 years of Western Cultural Life* by Jacques Barzun,* The World that Trade Created: society, culture and the world economy*, by Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik and * The Great Human Diasporas* The History of Diversity and Evolution by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Francesco Cavalli-Sforza

emeraldkity4 · May 1, 2009, 12:51pm

loved all three and i would HIGHLY suggest “The Happiness Hypothesis”
forget the author, but you will love it

Havent read that one, but I liked [Stumbling</a> on Happiness](<a href=“http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/gilbert/index.html]Stumbling”>Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert | Home), one reviewer wrote " Daniel Gilbert writes like a combination of Malcom Gladwell and David Sedaris"
;)

siliconvalleymom · May 1, 2009, 12:52pm

“Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else” by Geoff Colvin. It has some overlap with “Outliers”, as both authors use some of the same studies to make their points, but it is still interesting to read.

broetchen · May 1, 2009, 1:32pm

Buyology by Martin Lindstrom

HeliMomNYC · May 2, 2009, 4:43am

It’s great to hear of a 14-year-old fascinated by books. You’ve got some excellent suggestions. I’d add “The World Without Us” by Alan Weisman and “Everything Bad is Good For You” by Steven Johnson. Oh, and “Eats Shoots and Leaves” by Lynne Truss if she hasn’t already read it.

GuiltyBystander · May 2, 2009, 10:12am

Consumed by Benjamin R Barber,
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson (AMAZING BOOK!)
The Armchair Economist of course…
I liked Alan Greenspans book…
Guns, Germs and Steel indeed!
Hot Flat and Crowded by Friedman
George Soros’ book on the crisis
and Margaret Atwood’s new book about the history of debt, ‘payback’ (really relevant now, of course!)

I am sixteen myself (and I love economics), so I think your neice might like these titles!

Good luck!

Inquisitive_Mom · May 2, 2009, 10:44am

Numerati by Stephen Baker
This book examines how computerized data collection is being used in many fields from medicene to politics and what the future holds. Very interesting.

timely · May 8, 2009, 2:17am

I loved Freakonomics and Blink and now I am really enjoying “The Black Swan”.

I started reading “Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers” and found it fascinating. I want to get back to it but it was my H’s copy for a course, and he had to turn it back in. Here is a review:

Richard Neustadt and Ernest May are both professors at Harvard. They teach a course in Decision Making at the John F. Kennedy School of Government there. This book is based on the material they teach in that course. 

Well, if the book is representative of the course, it must be one heck of a course. The subtitle of this book is “The Uses of History for Decision-Makers.” That could actually be broadened a bit to something like “The Uses of Precedents and Analogies for Decision-Makers.” 

This is an excellent book for you if you make decisions in any part of your life. That means it’s an excellent book for you. The authors will introduce you to methods that will help you sort things out in all kinds of different situations. They’ll teach you about separating “facts” into known, unknown, and presumed. They’ll talk about analyzing precedents that you’re about to base a decision on in terms of likes and differences. 

Now, none of this is rocket science. But it is a systematic application of common sense and proven techniques to the process of decision making. In addition to the techniques you’ll get, you’ll also pick up some handy tools along the way. There’s the Goldberg Rule. That’s that you don’t ask, “What’s the problem?” Instead ask, “What’s the story?” I picked up that technique from this book when I first read it years ago and I’ve used it ever since in my consulting work and research. Try it. You’ll like it. 

Than you’ll find Dr. Alexander’s question, which is simply this: “What fresh facts, if at hand, by when, would cause you to change your presumption?” Instead of presumption, you can insert direction, or recommendation. This simple question forces decision-makers in a group to look at underlying assumptions and to look at when those assumptions need to be changed. It, too, is simple and powerful. 

The book is worth reading just for those tools, but it has the benefit of being well written. If you’re a history buff, you’ll enjoy the anecdotes and analysis of historical events, such as The Bay of Pigs. If you make decisions for any kind of organization, you’ll enjoy what you learn and how much your decisions improve.

[Book</a> Review - Thinking in Time - Wally Bock, Author, Keynote Speaker](<a href=“bockinfo.com - bockinfo Resources and Information.”>bockinfo.com - bockinfo Resources and Information.)

Book recommendation for teen who has just devoured Freakonomics, Blink and Outliers?

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