Rob Kuitenbrouwer Bücher

Die moderne Welt wird zunehmend komplex, und konventionelle wissenschaftliche Methoden liefern oft keine praktischen Antworten auf vernünftige Fragen. Steven Levitt, ein junger Professor der Wirtschaftswissenschaften, nutzt ökonomische „Werkzeuge“, um eine Vielzahl gesellschaftlicher Themen zu untersuchen. In Zusammenarbeit mit Journalist Stephen Dubner entsteht ein Werk, das zahlreiche Aha-Effekte bietet, zum Schmunzeln anregt und über eindimensionales Denken hinausführt. Viele scheinbar komplexe Probleme lassen sich mit dem richtigen Ansatz relativ einfach lösen. Es werden Fragen aus verschiedenen Bereichen behandelt, Fehleinschätzungen korrigiert und unerwartete Verbindungen aufgezeigt. Beispielsweise wird untersucht, ob Swimmingpools gefährlicher sind als Revolver, und es wird ein Zusammenhang zwischen Abtreibung und Schwerverbrechen diskutiert, was den Autoren einige Drohbriefe einbrachte. Auch die Qualitäten guter Eltern und die Verlässlichkeit von Erziehungsratgebern werden hinterfragt. Skurrile, aber aufschlussreiche Antworten, wie die über Drogenhändler, die oft bei ihren Müttern wohnen, und die Parallelen zwischen Drogenringen und McDonald's-Franchises, werden präsentiert. Das Buch ist voller spannender, unterhaltsamer und unerwarteter Geschichten, die zeigen, wie voreingenommen wir oft an Themen herangehen. Es regt dazu an, Probleme aus neuen Perspektiven zu betrachten und kreative Lösungen zu finden.

Mack Malloy, Anwalt und Expolizist, wird von seinen Kollegen in der Sozietät beauftragt, das Verschwinden eines weiteren Kollegen und des Betrages von 5,6 Millionen Dollar aufzuklären.

Given his contempt for authority, his tendency to pursue investigative avenues of his own choosing, and his habitually ornery manner, it's a wonder that John Rebus hasn't been booted unceremoniously from his job as an Edinburgh cop. He certainly tempts that fate again in A Question of Blood , which finds him and his younger partner, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, trying to close the case of a withdrawn ex-soldier named Lee Herdman, who apparently shot three teenage boys at a Scottish private school, leaving two of them dead, before turning the pistol on himself. "There's no mystery," Siobhan insists at the start of this 14th Rebus novel (following Resurrection Men ). "Herdman lost his marbles, that's all." However, the hard-drinking, chain-smoking Rebus, who'd once sought entry into the same elite regiment in which Herdman served (but ultimately cracked under psychological interrogation), thinks there's more motive than mania behind this classroom slaughter. Perhaps something to do with the gunman's role in a 1995 mission to salvage a downed military helicopter, or with Teri Cotter, a 15-year-old "Goth" who broadcasts her bedroom life over the Internet, yet keeps private her relationship with the haunted Herdman. Rebus's doubts about the murder-suicide theory are deepened with the appearance of two tight-lipped army investigators, and by the peculiar behavior of James Bell, the boy who was only wounded during Herdman's firing spree and whose politician father hopes to use that tragedy as ammo in the campaign against widespread gun ownership. But the detective inspector's focus on this inquiry is susceptible to diversion, both by an internal police probe into his role in the burning death of a small-time crook who'd been stalking Siobhan, and by the fact that Rebus--who shies away from any family contacts--was related to one of Herdman's victims. Now middle-aged and on the downward slope of his pugnacity (the high point may have come in 1997's Black and Blue ), Rebus has become the engine of his own obsolescence. Overexposure to criminals has left him better at understanding them than his colleagues, and he only worsens his career standing by fighting other people's battles for them, especially Siobhan, who risks learning too many lessons from her mentor. To watch Rebus subvert police conventions and fend of personal demons (that latter struggle mirrored in A Question of Blood by Herdman's own) is worth the admission to this consistently ambitious series. --J. Kingston Pierce

In 1994 fledgling journalist Louis Theroux was given a one-off gig on Michael Moore's TV Nation, presenting a segment on apocalyptic religious sects. Gawky, socially awkward and totally unqualified, his first reaction to this exciting opportunity was panic. But he'd always been drawn to off-beat characters, so maybe his enthusiasm would carry the day. Or, you know, maybe it wouldn't... In Gotta Get Theroux This, Louis takes the reader on a joyous journey through his life and unexpectedly successful career. Nervously accepting the BBC's offer of his own series, he went on to create an award-winning documentary style that has seen him immersed in worlds as diverse as racist US militias and secretive pro-wrestlers, the violent gangs of Johannesburg and extreme drinkers in London. Arguably his biggest challenge was corralling celebrities in his When Louis Met series, with Jimmy Savile proving most elusive. Blindsided when the revelations about Savile came to light, Louis was to reflect again on the nature of evil he had spent decades uncovering. Filled with wry observation, larger-than-life characters, and self-deprecating humour, this is Louis at his insightful and honest best.