Tuna has become the crown jewel of a sushi-crazed public. Only decades ago, tuna was used in cat food and carted off to town dumps after trophy-fishing competitions. But as demand rose from discerning palates in Japan, a few schemers blew the market for the fish wide open. Thanks to improvements in freezers and a network of fish-carting planes, tuna caught in the Atlantic shows up in Japan as a $40 piece of toro in a matter of days. As Sasha Issenberg writes it, it's a textbook case study of globalization.

Today, you can spot sushi joints in any landlocked Midwestern town, and with the global demand for the fresh red stuff so high, the industry has gotten creative. Tuna ranching, in which young fish are corralled in large nets and fattened up before being harvested, has exploded. These fish farms (both legal and illegal) are so large, they can be spotted by Google Maps.

Disappointingly, Issenberg's book treats tuna like any other highly traded good, glossing over the fact that, with natural resources, after boom comes bust. He predicts that the Chinese appetite for sushi will only increase, but barely mentions that bluefin tuna populations are already hurting and facing pressures from fishermen everywhere.

Still, Issenberg's examination serves up enough tasty morsels to stand on its own (did you know that the spicy tuna was invented in the US as a way to get rid of less-than-fresh tuna scraps?). If anything, it's a stern reminder to take a second look at what comes next to your wasabi and ginger.

-Lauren Sommer