READING a book of mathematical games and puzzles can be like wading through treacle: it looks inviting but it鈥檚 all too easy to become bogged down. Not so with Ian Stewart鈥檚 menagerie of mathematical jokes, puzzles and treats. has a genius for explanation that allows details of the Poincar茅 conjecture and Riemann hypothesis to sit happily alongside a quip about a chicken crossing a M枚bius strip. Find a comfortable chair for some holiday puzzling: mathematics doesn鈥檛 come more entertaining than this.
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Profile Books (USA: Basic Books)