Book Notices | The Joy of Hate by Greg Gutfeld / The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura / Shipwrecked by Mishka Shubaly / Luther: The Calling by Neill Cross

Greg Gutfeld, The Joy of Hate: How to Triumph over Whiners in the Age of Phony Outrage

Amazon   Red Eye's Greg Gutfeld is very smart and very funny, and what he has to say in The Joy of Hate about the abuses of the modern culture of tolerance will make most readers angry--or should. I don't think his humor comes across as well in print as it does on TV. If you're a regular watcher you won't have problems reading the book in his voice, but people new to him may find references to transgendered unicorns and the like rather strange.

Fuminori Nakamura, The Thief

Amazon   The Thief is the bleak story about the bleak life of a skillful Japanese pickpocket. The point of the whole thing seems to be that, at least for some--maybe everybody--life is hopeless because it's impossible to climb out of one's circumstances, particularly if one is the puppet of a cruel god.

Mishka Shubaly, Shipwrecked

Amazon   Shipwrecked is a very well-written adventure story about a yacht trip that ended badly in 2001. Actually, stepping back from it, the adventure wasn't all that exciting (well, I'm sure it was for the participants, but it's not necessarily exciting enough to warrant a book). But Shubaly's writing makes it worth the read. My only problem was that the whole arc of the story was undone in the very last section of the book--Shubaly, having gone through this ordeal, learned nothing from it, and immediately fell back into his previous, self-destructive ways. I get that that's the truth, but maybe omitting those few sentences from the Single would have made it a stronger piece.

Neill Cross, Luther: The Calling

Amazon   Luther: The Calling is a prequel to the BBC television series Luther, and it tells the story of what happened immediately before the first episode. If you saw the series, you'll know that it begins with Luther in a bit of a crisis. This book fills in the gaps in our knowledge, and it fits seamlessly into the story as we know it. The author, Neil Cross, also writes the series, and he captures the characters on paper very well. Very exciting, fast-paced read. I hope Cross writes more of these.