In a world that already has its fair share of freaky explanations for life’s quirks, and where celebrity is built in a day by some of the cleverer writers in that genre, do we really need this?  Hard to say with just a couple of reviews seen so far (click the image to the left to see the Kirkus review or click here to see the New York Times review of the book), but it sounds as though you are more likely to enjoy this if you are of the libertarian persuasion (as the author is touted to be) or a liberal (not the political variety but the curious, open-minded variety).

This snippet from the Kirkus review sums up why and for whom it may be worth the read:

Cowen stops short of formulas and equations, but there’s plenty of hard, old-fashioned economic thinking in these pages—e.g., the power of immigration to improve cuisine and the bewildering array of food choices we have today as one of the blessings of free-market capitalism. Cowen is also prepared to go into the fray as a mild-mannered version of Anthony Bourdain. He writes that one shouldn’t Google “Best restaurants Washington” but instead “Washington best cauliflower dish” if one wants to escape the awfully ordinary, and he counsels that the best barbecue is to be found in small towns in joints that open and close early.

The narrative gets a touch repetitive at points, but if you’re a foodie with a calculator, this is your book.