cover image The Real Story of Risk: Adventures in a Hazardous World

The Real Story of Risk: Adventures in a Hazardous World

Glenn Croston. Prometheus, $19 trade paper (280p) ISBN 978-1-61614-660-3

For those who are not well versed in biology but appreciate engaging popularized science, this book offers promise. Croston, a biologist and green entrepreneur (75 Green Businesses), draws on both the sciences and social sciences to answer complex questions about our experiences of and reactions to risk. The result of Croston's extensive research is an intelligent, often fascinating, and never pedantic patchwork of studies. Readers will appreciate Croston's attempt to cover a broad range of seemingly disparate topics%E2%80%94such as our response to stories rather than statistics, or our failure to follow warnings even in light of past disasters%E2%80%94under the banner of risk. Part of this book's appeal is its author's amusing, and occasionally distracting, willingness to lump himself in among readers, as he refers to his own experiences, addresses his audience directly, and makes sometimes geeky pop culture references. This book compels its reader to turn the page not through suspense, but through identification with the material. Anyone could find his or her own vices and peculiarities regarding risk here and discover they are shared among much of humanity. (Oct)