Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life by Len Fisher. The focus of this book is on the basics of game theory (a branch of mathematics) and its applications to 'everyday life'. The book emphasize the importance of cooperation and how to obtain cooperation in situations where it may not be obvious. Fisher is an excellent writer and the book is fairly easy to read. So easy to read, that I would have actually preferred a little more mathematics along the way. I would suggest this book to anyone interested in learning about the types of problems game theory can address. Grade: B
The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World by Tim Harford. This book is basically a collection of summaries of behavioral economic studies that yielded interesting results. Harford tends to focus on studies that show mathematically (and often using game theory) that the decisions we make are rational. The book is similar to Freakonomics or Predictably Irrational except those books were written by the researchers that did the studies while Harford mostly describes the work of others. The book is well written and had a few especially interesting sections, but, overall, it felt a little recycled. Grade: C+
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