This book does an adequate job of explaining the troubles inherent in musical tuning to a layperson. However, why does a book about frequencies and the relationships between them avoid the word "hertz"? I would have appreciated knowing HOW far off a modern keyboard's fifth is from a true one, and how big Pythagoras' comma really is. The author seems to be avoiding this kind of exposition in favor of fractions and many, many adjectives, which didn't work for me. At the same time, some concepts pop up in the book unexplained (a fourth is mentioned in passing for the first time on page 143, after we've been dragged through the ratios of octaves, fifths and thirds several times). The book seems to be aimed at people who already know some music theory but can't tolerate math, an audience that probably doesn't exist.While the accompanying history tried hard to entertain, there were too many diversions away from the main topic. Less flavor, please, and more numbers.