If You Liked School, You'll Love Work (2007)

Like one of Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh's many sobriety-averse characters, these yarns wander widely and wildly — in a good way. The concluding novella, ''Kingdom of Fife,'' is a satisfying, Scotland-set tale of drink, drugs, and dogfighting (how topical!). If You Liked School, You'll Love Work's other stories, in which Welsh indulges his penchant for Roald Dahl-style plot twists with much success, take place in the Canary Islands or, more often, America. The highlight of the latter batch is the unsettling, sun-blasted ''Miss Arizona'' — and that's not just because it name-checks a certain weekly entertainment magazine. B+