The Code Book by Simon Singh

Simon Singh received his Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge University. A former BBC producer, he directed and co-produced an award-winning documentary film on Fermat's Last Theorem that aired on PBS's Nova series and formed the basis of his bestselling book, Fermat's Enigma. He lives in London.

It's known as the science of secrecy: cryptography, the encoding and decoding of private information. Singh follows the evolution of secret writing with a clarity that lets the reader enjoy the captivating story while easily absorbing the details of cryptography.