I did not rank this book higher because Russell at times does get a little preachy on some of the fact and stats she is presenting. She does provide some pretty good analysis of the numbers she presents, but in the few instances where she decides to interject with her morality or biases, it does get a little annoying. However, if the reader can put that little issue aside, then the reader will find this book to be pretty interesting. Russell takes a figure or a statistic (from various sources), and then she writes a short essay on it that explains it as well as places in a larger social context. So not only do you get the significance of a particular number, but you get an answer to why the number is significant, or as my old professor used to say to me, it answers the "so what" question. Russell covers a broad range of issues from work to sex to leisure to economics. If you are interested in trivia, this is a book for you. If you want a book you can pick up, drop, then pick up again, this is for you. If you want a book to browse, this is for you. And if you like reading about factoids and statistics, this is for you as well. Overall, if you want to get a pretty good picture of what life is like in the U.S., this is a good book. This book is also excellent in dispelling some common myths. For example, gun control seems to be a big issue, but in reality the majority of Americans actually favor some form of gun control. Read the book and find out why then politicians do not act on this. And also find out why it is that fundamentalist Christians tend to be the ones who get pregnant before marriage the most (in spite of their self-righteousness). It's all in there if you are willing to read it. This is definitely one I recommend, and it could be a book some people might consult over and over.
