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sjstuart 's review for:

3.0

I was a pretty big fan of [b:the first two Freakonomics books|20655234|Freakonomics + Superfreakonomics|Steven D. Levitt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1401313742s/20655234.jpg|39951293], but this one is not in the same league.

It is written in the authors’ usual style, which remains pretty much the same, and just as entertaining: breezy, light, and conversational, meandering from one cute anecdote to another in an amusingly roundabout pursuit of some larger theme. But the anecdotes themselves were less off-the-wall, amusing, or clever. There were still a few that I couldn't help recounting to other people, like the real reason Van Halen didn’t want brown M&Ms backstage, or why [b:SuperFreakonomics|6402364|SuperFreakonomics Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes And Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance|Steven D. Levitt|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1308117804s/6402364.jpg|6591160] came right out and told terrorists to buy life insurance if they wanted to outsmart the screening algorithms. But on the whole, the stories seemed a little less original, considerably less thoroughly analyzed, and the connections between them more forced.

It’s still a pleasant read, but fell considerably short of the high bar set by the earlier two books.