Is it safer to fly or take the train? How dangerous is skydiving? And is eating that extra sausage going to kill you? We've all heard the statistics for risky activities, but what do they mean in the real world? In The Norm Chronicles, journalist Michael Blastland and risk expert David Spiegelhalter explore these questions through the stories of average Norm and an ingenious measurement called the MicroMort-a one in a million chance of dying. They reveal why general anesthesia is as dangerous as a parachute jump, giving birth in the US is nearly twice as risky as in the UK, and that the radiation from eating a banana shaves 3 seconds off your life. An entertaining guide to the statistics of personal risk, The Norm Chronicles will enlighten anyone who has ever worried about the dangers we encounter in our daily lives.

Norm Chronicles

Business & Money

Blastland, Michael

Education & Reference

Basic Books

The Only Boy in the World: A Father Explores the Mysteries of Autism

The Only Boy in the World is a memoir, an investigation into what makes us human, a study of aberration, and a love story. It's about all the odd ways journalist Michael Blastland's autistic son, Joe, has of seeing the world and understanding others, and what that tells the rest of us about how we also tick. Through the strange stories of Joe's scrapes and confusions, he makes luminous the routine skills by which the rest of us mostly avoid the disasters that befall him. The book strives to this understanding by combining Technicolor scenes from Joe's bizarre life, from the long catalog of his social accidents, with scientific and psychological understanding of how we normally relate to other people. Illuminating the emotional core of the book are the ways that Joe and his father relate through all the turbulence to one other.

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

MARLOWE & COMPANY *

The team from BBC Radio's More or Less demonstrates how to better understand the world and make more responsible consumer choices using accessible mathematical principles, in a lighthearted guide that redefines the concepts of averages, risks, and statistics. 30,000 first printing.

The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and in Life

Dilnot, Andrew

Reference

Gotham

The Strunk and White of statistics team up to help the average person navigate the numbers in the news Drawing on their hugely popular BBC Radio 4 show More or Less, journalist Michael Blastland and internationally known economist Andrew Dilnot delight, amuse, and convert American mathphobes by showing how our everyday experiences make sense of numbers. The radical premise of The Numbers Game is to show how much we already know and give practical ways to use our knowledge to become cannier consumers of the media. If you've ever wondered what "average" really means, whether the scare stories about cancer risk should convince you to change your behavior, or whether a story you read in the paper is biased (and how), you need this book. Blastland and Dilnot show how to survive and thrive on the torrent of numbers that pours through everyday life.

The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News,in Politics, and in L ife

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Penguin Publishing Group

The Only Boy in the World is a memoir, an investigation into what makes us human, a study of aberration, and a love story. It's about all the odd ways journalist Michael Blastland's autistic son, Joe, has of seeing the world and understanding others, and what that tells the rest of us about how we also tick. Through the strange stories of Joe's scrapes and confusions, he makes luminous the routine skills by which the rest of us mostly avoid the disasters that befall him. The book strives to this understanding by combining Technicolor scenes from Joe's bizarre life, from the long catalog of his social accidents, with scientific and psychological understanding of how we normally relate to other people. Illuminating the emotional core of the book are the ways that Joe and his father relate through all the turbulence to one other.

Da Capo Press

A revolutionary new book revealing why we should doubt experts - and question ourselves.

The Hidden Half: The Unseen Forces that Influence Everything

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

ATLANTIC BOOKS *

A revolutionary and utterly original book revealing why we should doubt experts - and question ourselves

Philosophy

Why does one smoker die of lung cancer but another live to 100? The answer is 'The Hidden Half' - those random, unknowable variables that mess up our attempts to comprehend the world.
We humans are very clever creatures - but we're idiots about how clever we really are. In this entertaining and ingenious book, Blastland reveals how in our quest to make the world more understandable, we lose sight of how unexplainable it often is. The result - from GDP figures to medicine - is that experts know a lot less than they think. 
Filled with compelling stories from economics, genetics, business, and science, The Hidden Half is a warning that an explanation which works in one arena may not work in another. Entertaining and provocative, it will change how you view the world.

The Hidden Half: How the World Conceals its Secrets

Book by 'MICHAEL BLASTLAND, ANDREW DILNOT'

The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers

Science & Math

Mathematics

Profile Books

An exceptionally haunting memoir that also shows us what it is to be really human. In a hardware store, Joe sits on a display toilet amidst the throng of customers and wees, smiling serenely. He thumps crying babies. He is amazed when the car he runs in front of actually hits him.  Joe is ten and mentally disabled. He's funny, fascinating and maddening, and this memoir tells his moving story, but also argues that until we know Joe's life, we can't understand our own. Through philosophy, psychology and medical research, the author explains how we are mind-readers, how we make sense of other people and how we understand guilt and innocence, and shows that Joe sets our humanity in sharp relief. But in that case, is Joe part of it? The author who asks that outrageous question is Joe's father.

Joe: The Only Boy in the World

Profile Books(GB)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Blastland, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Blastland, Michael

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Blastland, Michael. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Norm Chronicles

The Only Boy in the World: A Father Explores the Mysteries of Autism

The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and in Life

The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News,in Politics, and in L ife

The Only Boy in the World: A Father Explores the Mysteries of Autism

The Hidden Half: The Unseen Forces that Influence Everything

The Hidden Half: The Unseen Forces that Influence Everything

The Hidden Half: How the World Conceals its Secrets

The Tiger That Isn't: Seeing Through a World of Numbers

Joe: The Only Boy in the World