From lotteries, opinion polls and insurance to worries about murder rates, natural disasters and terrorism, probability plays a major part in our everyday lives-a part that is frequently and needlessly misunderstood. Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, a math professor and improvisational comedian, comes to the rescue with this irreverent, bestselling exploration of the odds and oddities of randomness. Looking at such familiar topics as poker hands, e-mail spam, political elections and game shows, Struck by Lightning puts probability into perspective and has fun along the way.

JEFFREY S. ROSENTHAL is a professor of statistics at the University of Toronto. He received his BSc in mathematics, physics and computer science from U of T at the age of 20; his PhD in mathematics from Harvard University at the age of 24; and tenure at the age of 29. He has won the CRM-SSC Prize, the SSC Gold Medal and the COPSS Presidents' Award (often referred to as the Nobel Prize of Statistics), and has received teaching awards from U of T and Harvard. Rosenthal is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. His first book, Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities, was a national bestseller in Canada and was published in fourteen countries and ten languages. Visit Jeffrey S. Rosenthal online at probability.ca and on Twitter @ProbabilityProf. Despite being born on Friday the thirteenth, Rosenthal has led a very fortunate life.