Lovely Hate-Review From citysearch.com

What a great, rich subject for a humor book: the middle finger! Such a bizarre taboo and nasty cultural gesture deserves a cheeky retrospective. Boasting obscure trivia, a smattering of history, and a hologram cover which flips you off, authors M.J. Loheed, Matt Patterson, and Eddie Schmidt (yes, it took three guys!) aim for that cultural niche. "The Comprehensive Guide" to the bird does pique one's interest with its candid and historical shots. Taking in a photo of vice president Nelson Rockefeller with middle finger at full attention is a sly treat, and a shot of Courtney Love jokingly flipping off pal Drew Barrymore at a Tinseltown shindig reminds us that the finger can be used lovingly as well as angrily. The historical, candid photos throughout the book are indeed quite intriguing, but their impact is nullified by the equal number of cheesy staged pictures; not to mention the less than scintillating publicity photo of virtually-no-name actress Julie Delpy coyly flipping the bird to the camera.

"The Finger" does make you curious as to the origins of both the gesture and its myriad nicknames, but thanks to the book's frat-humor tone, you can't tell if the historical theories found within are factually grounded or just made up by the authors. While there's plenty of interest to be found for the above open-ended questions, the book still runs out of steam less than halfway through. And so the remainder of the pages are filled with such fluff as how to make middle-finger-shaped cookies to surprise your friends. Whatever you do, don't surprise them by giving them "The Finger." —Rose Martelli