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Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable read and introduction to logic and fallacies
Review: After a basic introduction to some logical fallacies such as the statistical implications of some drug tests, this book moves to the now famous Monty Hall problem. This seemed like a simple problem on the surface. On a game show you are given the choice of three doors behind one of which is a fabulous prize. You pick one and afterwards the host turns around one of the wrong door. Then he offers you to keep the door you originally chose or to change doors. Do you stay or change? This simple problem caused a great deal of controversy and numerous letters after Marilyn Vos Savant stated that it would be better to switch. Her explanation is here as well and letters from various scholars as to why she was wrong. Turns out, she was right.
With that background to catch your interest (and it does so very well) she then moves on to other topics and how statistics can be used to support just about any position. Of particular fascination are the ways in which our intuition leads us to one conclusion but logic and mathematics prove that conclusion to be wrong. As a good example, she covers politics and how the political engine uses our intuitional errors and statistics to prove both sides right!
I will have to say that she does a good job of explaining the problems and conclusions in a style that even someone who does not understand mathematics very well can still comprehend. There are several other books that cover similar topics and if you like this one then you might also try them. I loved Innumeracy and found it fascinating to read through.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable read and introduction to logic and fallacies
Review: After a basic introduction to some logical fallacies such as the statistical implications of some drug tests, this book moves to the now famous Monty Hall problem. This seemed like a simple problem on the surface. On a game show you are given the choice of three doors behind one of which is a fabulous prize. You pick one and afterwards the host turns around one of the wrong door. Then he offers you to keep the door you originally chose or to change doors. Do you stay or change? This simple problem caused a great deal of controversy and numerous letters after Marilyn Vos Savant stated that it would be better to switch. Her explanation is here as well and letters from various scholars as to why she was wrong. Turns out, she was right.
With that background to catch your interest (and it does so very well) she then moves on to other topics and how statistics can be used to support just about any position. Of particular fascination are the ways in which our intuition leads us to one conclusion but logic and mathematics prove that conclusion to be wrong. As a good example, she covers politics and how the political engine uses our intuitional errors and statistics to prove both sides right!
I will have to say that she does a good job of explaining the problems and conclusions in a style that even someone who does not understand mathematics very well can still comprehend. There are several other books that cover similar topics and if you like this one then you might also try them. I loved Innumeracy and found it fascinating to read through.
Rating:
Summary: FUN BOOK!
Review: Marilyn is rich, beautiful, talented, happily married, comfortably famous, and BRILLIANT! A lot of nasty, hateful people resent her because they're jealous and mean. I wish they'd quit resenting her success and just go work on their own fetid lives, instead of bashing this book. THIS BOOK IS GREAT! It is also fun. Marilyn knows a teacher can't be boring if she wants to keep her students. This book has all sorts of fun things that teach us how to build our brains. In one section, she has us look at a series of pretty paintings to detect differences in them -- enjoyable detective work that helps us learn how to pay attention to details. Another section urges us to eat an orange in a special way -- a sensory delight that helps us to expand awareness. Don't assume this is a boring math book, because it isn't. It is a lot of fun.
Rating: 
Summary: if you like her column you'll like this book
Review: Marilyn Vos Savant is known for her provocative articles in Parade Magazine and also gets publicity for her high IQ (a little too much publicity). But what really made her world famous was the reaction to her solution to a reader's question about a probability problem. Her answer was simple and direct but received the wrath and scorn of many mathematicians that thought she had blundered. This problem is now called the Monty Hall problem and discussion of it can be found in statistical journals and introductory textbooks. I use it in my elementary statistics classes to arouse the interest of my students.This book is about the way that most people make decisions in their daily lives without logical thinking. Counterintuitive problems like the Monty Hall problem bring this home. Marilyn had confidence in her answer and stuck to her guns when many argued against her using only their degree credentials as support of their position. Personally, I participated in the debate. When I read her article and saw my fellow mathematicians and statisticians condemning her, I wrote to her with an argument in her defense. Alas, she got so many letters that mine did not appear in her column. She seemed to delight in publishing more of the nasty critical letters than the ones in her defense. I guess she felt capable of defending herself inspite of her lack of an advanced degree in mathematics or statistics. At this point I think she is milking it a bit as the same problem or a slight variation of it continues to show up in her column from time to time. This book has a wonderful theme and it is played out in three parts, 1. how our mind plays tricks on us, 2. how numbers and statistics can mislead and 3. how politicians exploit our innocence. Many of the examples are not original and this terrritory, especially topic number 2., has been well covered by Huff and others dating back to 1954. But the coverage of US Presidential campaign of 1992 with all its distortions of economic data is new , interesting and thought provoking. That section alone is worth the price of the book. Personally I bought it more for the detailed account of the history of the Monty Hall problem in her column and the even more interesting appendix "The Monty Hall Dilemma: To Switch or not Switch" by Donald Granberg. In addition to providing a rigorous account of the mathematical assumptions that lead to Marilyn's solution as teh correct one, Granberg did survey research to try to understand how people solve such problems and why they stick to erroneous solutions inspite of the excellent counter-arguments.
Rating:
Summary: if you like her column you'll like this book
Review: Marilyn Vos Savant is known for her provocative articles in Parade Magazine and also gets publicity for her high IQ (a little too much publicity). But what really made her world famous was the reaction to her solution to a reader's question about a probability problem. Her answer was simple and direct but received the wrath and scorn of many mathematicians that thought she had blundered. This problem is now called the Monty Hall problem and discussion of it can be found in statistical journals and introductory textbooks. I use it in my elementary statistics classes to arouse the interest of my students. This book is about the way that most people make decisions in their daily lives without logical thinking. Counterintuitive problems like the Monty Hall problem bring this home. Marilyn had confidence in her answer and stuck to her guns when many argued against her using only their degree credentials as support of their position. Personally, I participated in the debate. When I read her article and saw my fellow mathematicians and statisticians condemning her, I wrote to her with an argument in her defense. Alas, she got so many letters that mine did not appear in her column. She seemed to delight in publishing more of the nasty critical letters than the ones in her defense. I guess she felt capable of defending herself inspite of her lack of an advanced degree in mathematics or statistics. At this point I think she is milking it a bit as the same problem or a slight variation of it continues to show up in her column from time to time. This book has a wonderful theme and it is played out in three parts, 1. how our mind plays tricks on us, 2. how numbers and statistics can mislead and 3. how politicians exploit our innocence. Many of the examples are not original and this terrritory, especially topic number 2., has been well covered by Huff and others dating back to 1954. But the coverage of US Presidential campaign of 1992 with all its distortions of economic data is new , interesting and thought provoking. That section alone is worth the price of the book. Personally I bought it more for the detailed account of the history of the Monty Hall problem in her column and the even more interesting appendix "The Monty Hall Dilemma: To Switch or not Switch" by Donald Granberg. In addition to providing a rigorous account of the mathematical assumptions that lead to Marilyn's solution as teh correct one, Granberg did survey research to try to understand how people solve such problems and why they stick to erroneous solutions inspite of the excellent counter-arguments.
Rating: 
Summary: If she's so smart, how come she ain't rich?
Review: She may have the highest measured IQ, but so what? What has she done with her life except write a brain-teaser newspaper column? What has she created that has changed the way the world thinks or feels? What work of hers will endure? Not a thing. If this is genius, I'm happy being normal.
Rating:
Summary: FUN BOOK!
Review: This is really two books, one about the "Monty Hall" problem, and another one all about politics, campaign promises, and other ways the popular press gets it wrong. Is there a tie between the two? Yes. This could have been an excellent tome on how our emotions and our "wants" and our intuition often leads us astray, and how advertising, entertainment, and politics capitalizes on that. But somehow there is little connection between the two. I didn't find Vos Savant's ego to be the main theme of this book, in fact, she downplays herself many times. But other books, by authors like Sagan, Randi, Shick, Dawkins, and Shermer, cover this ground better.
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