The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero by Robert M. KaplanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Quick take: interesting and worth reading if you find the topic of "The History of Zero" intriguing.
Less briefly: I mostly liked this book. The author is a very good writer, with deep thoughts and a style to match, and parts of this were, for me, very entertaining and informative. In fact, the more informative, the more entertaining. The history of zero as a concept and its evolution in mathematics is nicely explained here, and I learned a lot and enjoyed it in the bargain.
Where I cared somewhat less was when he followed the history or math with philosophical meditation, making leaps of intuition that I did not buy or could not follow. It was nicely done--he is also a philosophy teacher, apparently--but it felt fanciful rather than factual and didn't inform my understanding enough to bring me along.
For the math and the history, if not so much for the philosophy, I give this my recommendation.
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