Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language

I bought this for my fifteen-year-old son, who loves Ben Orlin's work. He isn't an English major, but he enjoyed Orlin's take on math as a universal language.

I really like this book. It’s filled with pleasurable “aha moments” where something you know (or knew) in math suddenly becomes clear and interesting. This book will be enjoyed and valued by a wide range of readers with a wide range of math backgrounds. But I’ll single out a very specific group. If you are a parent and want to help your elementary school child with math homework, this book will be will be enormously helpful to you, while also being a pleasure to read. It will provide you with mathematical insights and connections that will make it much easier for you to understand precisely what your child is learning (or should be learning) math. The book will make doing math with your child much more rewarding and pleasurable experience. And even if you are not the parent of an elementary school child, you will find the book to be a joy to read. Ben is a great writer, and he is also a great son.

O livro, como os anteriores, é maravilhoso. O autor consegue explicar de maneira didática o que são os componentes com os quais a Matemática opera. O único porém é que é destinado ao público dos Estados Unidos (só ver a parte das casas decimais, não é explicado a diferença entre ponto, e vírgula, no Brasil).

As a math major with major dyscalculia (basically dyslexia for number and math) this is the book I wish I’d had in high school. The combination of his awesome drawings and simple explanations was revolutionary for me! I wish he’d write a workbook so we could have a hands on way to explore concepts further.

The insights from Ben are outstanding. He helped me understand what non-majors find so daunting about my beautiful discipline.