This week's bookcase includes reviews of Digital vs Human: How We'll Live, Love, And Think In The future by Richard Watson, When She Was Bad by Tammy Cohen and Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All by Jonas Jonasson
Digital vs Human: How We'll Live, Love, And Think In The Future
Richard Watson
It's fitting futurist Richard Watson kicks off this tome with a quote from former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, as he certainly comes out fighting. An expert in predicting global trends, the author's advice is sought by Coca-Cola, IBM, Shell, McDonald's and the Ministry of Defence. Here, he warns most of us live in a digital bubble as part of a world that is becoming machine-centric and technology-driven. Four-year-olds have therapy for smartphone addiction and coffee shops are full of people physically there, yet mentally elsewhere. More worryingly, love and compassion can't be programmed into a machine, so, in a future of driverless cars and software which writes its own code, will we remember to cater for these most basic of human needs? He poses the question: It might be progress, but progress towards what?
When She Was Bad
Tammy Cohen
How well do you know your colleagues? You may have forged good friendships in the workplace, but this psychological thriller from Tammy Cohen will have you questioning everyone you know. What are they hiding? Who are they really? When She Was Bad takes place in the UK and America. It is told from the perspectives of the main characters and initially it's hard to tell how the two storylines will come together. The UK side focuses on life in a recruitment agency, while the American side describes an investigation into a House of Horror. Cohen will keep you guessing right to the end, and just when you think you've worked out what is going on, you'll change your mind again. A must-read for fans of psychological crime thrillers.
Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All
Jonas Jonasson
Take a disillusioned hotel receptionist, an embittered former priest and a recently released hitman and what do you get? Yet another madcap tale from one of Sweden's most popular literary exports, Jonas Jonasson, the author of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of The Window And Disappeared. Per Persson has a relatively uneventful life as receptionist at the Sea Point Hotel and he plans to keep it that way when the notorious Hitman Anders takes board at his hotel. However, lapsed priest Johanna Kjellander has other ideas, spotting a gap in the market for hitman services for hire. It all goes swimmingly for the new business trio until Hitman Anders turns his back on violence. Although irreverent and fun, unfortunately the plot does become a bit long-winded and the novel suffers as a result.
Not Working
Lisa Owens
In Lisa Owens' debut novel Not Working, we enter the world of Claire Flannery. Claire is a dreamer. She has plans to read Ulysses and Moby Dick. Claire dreams of all the things she would do if she had all the time in the world. Then Claire quits her job. Instead of finding a life-defining career, her life starts to take a downward spiral, as she picks spats with all those close to her, especially boyfriend Luke, and a fall-out with her mother mars her searching strategies. However, after a short spell of temping, things start to look up for the jobseeker. The story flits from idea to opportunity to disappointment and back again, never really reaching a conclusion. Owens has managed to capture the malaise of the millennial generation, and ponders who are we without a job title to define us in society?
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