Featuring: Ava Barry, Brian Castleberry, Bruce Handy, Chris Hayes, Eoin Higgins, Chris Hine, Jenny Noa, M.L. Rio, Noraly Schoenmaker, Colette Shade, Phil Tinline, Markus Zusak

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Ava Barry, SHOOT THE MOON (Pegasus)

Private investigator Rainey Hall stumbles into a dark mystery from her past that embroils her with an underground society of artists, a dangerous new drug, and a string of violent deaths.

While in high school, Rainey spent a summer taking advantage of the wildfires near Los Angeles to break into the empty houses of the rich and famous with her best friends, Alice and Spencer, committing small acts of larceny. These acts of rebellion culminated in a big theft from a powerful, well-connected musician with underworld ties. Days later, Alice went missing.

Now — nine years later — Rainey is a private detective chasing a missing person case. Chloe, a young vulnerable artist with a history of substance abuse, disappeared from her parents’ house without a trace. As she digs into the case, Rainey not only discovers a string of missing artists, but connections to Alice, a case that had gone cold years ago. Diving back into her own past and Alice’s disappearance, the investigation quickly becomes more twisted and dangerous than Rainey’d ever anticipated. She unearths a mysterious society steeped in drugs, art, and some of the most influential people in Los Angeles.

Powerful forces begin to close in on Rainey as she finds herself in a race against time to save Chloe — and finally reveal the truth of what happened to Alice all those years ago.

This is Barry’s third novel, and a sequel to Double Exposure. I’ve been looking forward to this ever since finishing the first in the series. Barry’s novels always seem to be released very quietly, which is a little strange. Hope to get to it very soon. Shoot the Moon is out now, published by Pegasus in North America and in the UK.

Also on CR: Reviews of Windhall and Double Exposure

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram

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Brian Castleberry, THE CALIFORNIANS (Mariner)

It’s 2024, and Tobey Harlan — college dropout, temporary waiter, recently dumped — steals from the wall of his father’s house three paintings by the venerated and controversial artist Di Stiegl. Tobey’s just lost everything he owns to a Northern California wildfire, and if he can sell the paintings (albeit in a shady way to a notorious tech bro) he can start life anew in a place no one will ever find him, perhaps even Oregon.

A hundred years before, Klaus Aaronsohn — German-Jewish immigrant, resident of the Lower East Side — inveigles his way into a film studio in Astoria, Queens. In love with silent cinema, Klaus will restyle himself Klaus von Stiegl, a mysterious aristocratic German film director. In true Hollywood fashion, he will court fame, fortune, romance, and betrayal, and end his career directing Brackett: a radical, notorious 60s-era detective show.

Weaving between Tobey and Klaus is the story of Diane “Di” Stiegl: Klaus’s granddaughter, raised in Palm Springs, who claws out a career as an artist in gritty 1980s NYC. As America yields the presidency to a Hollywood cowboy, as Diane’s grifter father and free-spirited mother circle in and out of her life, Diane will reflect America’s most urgent and hypocritical years back to itself, uneasily finding critical adoration as well as great fame and wealth.

I was pleasantly surprised when this arrived in the mail. I’d noticed it in the publisher’s catalogue, and made a note to keep my eyes open for it. As one of my most-anticipated novels of the year, I’m looking forward to reading it soon (unfortunately, not sure I’ll get it read-and-reviewed by its release date, though — my work schedule at the moment is monstrous). The Californians is due to be published by Mariner Books in North America and in the UK, on March 11th.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received from publisher

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Bruce Handy, HOLLYWOOD HIGH (Avid Reader Press)

What influence did Francis Ford Coppola have on George Lucas’s American Graffiti? And Lucas on John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood? How does teenage sexuality in Fast Times at Ridgemont High compare to Twilight? Which teen movies pass the Bechdel test? Why is Mean Girls actually the last great teen film of the 20th century?

In the same way that Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls connects the films of the 1970s to the period’s cultural upheaval, and David Hadju’s Positively 4th Street tells the story of the sixties through the emergence of folk music, Bruce Handy’s Hollywood High situates iconic teen movies within their times and reveals the intriguing stories, artists, and passions behind their creation. These films aren’t merely beloved stories; they reflect teens’ growing economic and cultural influence, societal panics, and shifting perceptions of youth in America.

Much more than a nostalgia trip, Hollywood High is a lively, provocative, and affectionate cultural history, spanning nearly one hundred years. Handy, an acclaimed journalist and critic who spent two decades at Vanity Fair, examines the defining films of each generation and builds connections between them. From the Andy Hardy classics (1937–1946) to the iconic Rebel Without a Cause (1955); Beach Party series (1963–1968); American Graffiti (1973); Fast Times at Ridgemont High(1982); the John Hughes touchstones Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1984–1986); Boyz N the Hood (1991); Mean Girls (2004); the Twilight saga (2008–2012); and The Hunger Games series (2012–2015); this is a captivating deep dive into the world of teen movies that captures their sweeping history and influence. We’ll hear from icons James Dean, Annette Funicello, George Lucas, Amy Heckerling, John Hughes, Molly Ringwald, John Singleton, Tina Fey, and Kristen Stewart, and discover why the most timeless teen movies resonate across generations.

I can’t imagine there are many people born in the 1970s and 1980s who didn’t grow up watching many of these movies… Very much looking forward to reading this. Hollywood High is due to be published by Avid Reader Press in North America and in the UK, on May 20th.

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Chris Hayes, THE SIRENS’ CALL (Penguin Press)

A wide-angle reckoning with how the assault from attention capitalism on our minds and our hearts has reordered our politics and the very fabric of our society

We all feel it — the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.” Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. The Sirens’ Call is the big-picture vision we urgently need to offer clarity and guidance.

Because there is a breaking point. Sirens are designed to compel us, and now they are going off in our bedrooms and kitchens at all hours of the day and night, doing the bidding of vast empires, the most valuable companies in history, built on harvesting human attention. As Hayes writes, “Now our deepest neurological structures, human evolutionary inheritances, and social impulses are in a habitat designed to prey upon, to cultivate, distort, or destroy that which most fundamentally makes us human.” The Sirens’ Call is the book that snaps everything into a single holistic framework so that we can wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future.

Thought this sounded interesting. (Hayes is pretty good, in general — he’s certainly mellowed since his early days on MSNBC, when he veered between mimicking Rachel Maddow and excitable news puppy…) This has been on my must-read list since it was announced. The Sirens’ Call is out now, published by Penguin Press in North America and Scribe in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

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Eoin Higgins, OWNED (Bold Type Books)

An examination of how a cabal of tech-billionaires is colluding with once-idealistic journalists to create an entirely new media landscape

Owned is the story of the underreported and growing collusion between new wealth and new journalism. In recent years, right-wing billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks have turned to media as their next investment and source of influence. Their cronies are Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi — once known as idealistic and left-leaning voices, now beneficiaries of Silicon Valley largesse. Together, this new alliance aims to exploit the failings of traditional journalism and undermine the very idea of an independent and fact-based fourth estate.

Owned examines how this shift has allowed spectacularly wealthy reactionaries to pursue their ultimate goal of censoring critics so to further their own business interests — and personal vendettas — entirely unimpeded while also advancing a toxic and antidemocratic ideology.

A rich history of the decades-long rise of this new right-wing alternative media takeover, Owned follows the money, names names, and offers a chilling portrait of a future social media and news landscape. It is a biting exposé of journalistic greed, tech-billionaire ambition, and a lament for a disappearing free press.

(Very) Long-time readers of CR will know that I’ve very much enjoyed a number of Matt Taibbi’s books. Like many people who did, I watched his strange descent into online conspiracy and dabbling in the Muskverse with disappointment, but also curiosity. So, when I saw Higgins mention his book on BlueSky, it immediately went on my to-read list. Very much looking forward to reading it. Owned is out now, published by Bold Type Books in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky

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Chris Hine, ANT (Harper)

The first in-depth look at the Minnesota Timberwolves rising star, from his backstory to his mindset, and the relationships that fueled his drive to greatness.

From his jaw-dropping dunks to his charismatic personality, Anthony Edwards draws comparisons to the greatest shooting guards of all time like Kobe and Jordan. A portrait in the education of a budding NBA superstar, Ant chronicles Edward’s meteoric rise. The number-one pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, a two-time All-Star, Edwards has, in just a few seasons, become a household name and the face of the Minnesota Timberwolves. And he’s only twenty-three years old.

With locker room access, original interviews, and fresh reporting by Chris Hine, the Minnesota Star Tribune’s beat writer covering the Wolves, Ant delves into Edwards’ early life in Atlanta, the challenges and family tragedy he overcame, and the relentless determination that has propelled him to stardom.

Another biography of a (very) young NBA star. I started reading Hine’s biography of Anthony Edwards the same day that I got the DRC, and blitzed through it. It’s well written and, considering Edwards has been a relatively private star, revealing. However, much like Tim MacMahon’s biography of Luka Dončić, there’s not a lot to cover, yet. I’ll post my full review hopefully soon. Short version, though, is that this is certainly good and recommended to Timberwolves fans, but it was also maybe too early. Ant is due to be published by Harper in North America and in the UK, on June 3rd.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Jenny Noa, BAD DREAMS (self-pub’d)

What happens when a love of performing is matched only by the need to be invisible? Jenny Noa’s unsparing debut examines the origins of her creative aspirations, the obstacles that have always stood in the way, and the painful, lengthy process of letting those dreams go.

Bad Dreams is a poignant exploration of what it means to find and accept oneself while balancing life’s unexpected turns and inconvenient passions. Whether it’s about her complicated relationship with her mother, the death of her young husband, her own struggle with mental illness, or the time that juvenile possum walked down the hall and into her bedroom, the author shares her observations with humility and humor.

Spotted this on NetGalley, and first the cover and then the synopsis caught my attention. Looks interesting. Bad Dreams is out now in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via NetGalley

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M.L. Rio, HOT WAX (Simon & Schuster)

A tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning — one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country — and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back — where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.

Very pleased that there’s a much shorter wait between Rio’s second and third novel. This one sounds exactly like something I want to read, so I’ll be diving in as soon as I can. (Certainly well before its publication.) One of my most-anticipated novels of the year. Hot Wax is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America and Wildfire in the UK, on September 9th.

Also on CR: Review of If We Were Villains

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Noraly Schoenmaker, FREE RIDE (Atria Books)

The inspiring account of a woman in her thirties who, in a moment of personal crisis, embarked on an epic, transcontinental motorcycle ride — and along the way found a new sense of purpose.

Noraly Schoenmaker was a thirty-something geologist living in the Netherlands when she learned that her live-in partner had been having a long-term affair. Suddenly without a place to stay, she decided to quit her job and jet off to India in search of a new beginning. Her plans were dashed when she fell quickly and helplessly in love: with a motorcycle. Behind the handlebars, she felt alive and free — nimble enough to trace the narrowest paths, powerful enough to travel the longest of roads.

She first rode toward the Pacific, through the jungles of Myanmar and Thailand, then into Malaysia. Rather than satisfy her appetite for the open road, this ride only piqued it. She shipped her bike to Oman, at the base of the Arabian Peninsula, and embarked on a journey through Iran, across Turkmenistan along its border with Afghanistan, over the snowy peaks of Central Asia, and into Europe, all the way back home to the Netherlands. She covered remote and utterly unfamiliar territory; broke down on impossibly steep mountains; and pushed too many miles along empty roads, farther and farther from civilization. But through her travels, she discovered the true beauty of the world — the kindness of its people, the simplicity of its open spaces, as well as her own inner strength.

In spirit of The Motorcycle Diaries and Wild, this is an inspiring story of self-discovery and renewal. Filled with unforgettable figures, hilarious disasters, and powerful human connections, it shows you what happens when you open your heart and let the world in.

I’m not familiar with the author’s YouTube channel (or any other social media presence), but it’s perhaps not surprising that I would learn about them when a book is getting published… Thought it sounded interesting, and brought to mind Ewan MacGregor’s Long Way shows. Looking forward to reading it. Free Ride is due to be published by Atria Books in North America (June 3rd) and August Books in the UK (June 5th).

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Colette Shade, Y2K (Day Street Books)

The early 2000s conjures images of inflatable furniture, flip phones, and low-rise jeans. It was a new millennium and the future looked bright, promising prosperity for all. The internet had arrived, and technology was shiny and fun. For many, it felt like the end of history: no more wars, racism, or sexism. But then history kept happening. Twenty-five years after the ball dropped on December 31st, 1999, we are still living in the shadows of the Y2K Era.

In Y2K, one of our most brilliant young critics Colette Shade offers a darkly funny meditation on everything from the pop culture to the political economy of the period. By close reading Y2K artifacts like the Hummer H2, Smash Mouth’s “All Star,” body glitter, AOL chatrooms, Total Request Live, and early internet porn, Shade produces an affectionate yet searing critique of a decade that started with a boom and ended with a crash.

In one essay Colette unpacks how hearing Ludacris’s hit song “What’s Your Fantasy” shaped a generation’s sexual awakening; in another she interrogates how her eating disorder developed as rail-thin models from the collapsed USSR flooded the pages of Vogue; in another she reveals how the McMansion became an ominous symbol of the housing collapse.

Perfect for fans of Jia Tolentino and Chuck Klosterman, Y2K is the first book to fully reckon with the mixed legacy of the Y2K Era — a perfectly timed collection that holds a startling mirror to our past, present, and future.

I read this pretty soon after I got it, and very much enjoyed it. A relatively short collection of essays, all connected with the cultural touchstones of the 1990s. Plenty of nostalgia, some reassessment, and always interesting. Recommended for anyone who was alive and aware during the 1990s. Y2K is out now, published by Dey Street Books in North America and in the UK.

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky

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Phil Tinline, GHOSTS OF IRON MOUNTAIN (Apollo/Head of Zeus)

How did America end up trapped in a nightmare of conspiracy theories, in which millions see the government as an evil ‘deep state’? It didn’t begin with Donald Trump, and it won’t end with him.

In Ghosts of Iron Mountain, Phil Tinline traces the roots of today’s fears back to the years after the Second World War, when America was the most powerful nation the world had ever known. He tells, in vivid, entertaining and brilliant detail, the story of a literary hoax that shocked a nation. Its impact – and its astonishing afterlife – reveal America’s fears as you’ve never seen them before.

In 1967, at the height of the war in Vietnam, a group of New York writers cooked up a satirical response to the Dr Strangelove-like thinking prevalent in Washington. They concocted what appeared to be a top-secret government report into what would happen to the USA if permanent global peace broke out.

Report from Iron Mountain claimed that winding down America’s vast war-making machinery would wreck the economy and tear society apart, necessitating draconian controls over the population. It was published as non-fiction – and was frighteningly convincing. Journalists tried to find out who had written it. Worried memos reached right up to the president. It became a bestselling cause celebre.

Even when the hoax was revealed, many refused to believe it wasn’t real. Denial became proof of truth. The Report was seized on by eager figures on the far right and in the militia movement, who insisted that it revealed terrifying government conspiracies to pollute the environment, enslave Americans and even instigate eugenics. It helped to shape the movie that has done more than any other to revive conspiracy theory: Oliver Stone’s JFK. And it spawned a second hoax, which has helped sustain its bizarre relevance right up to today.

Ghosts of Iron Mountain traces this story through a gallery of vivid characters, from the radical academic C. Wright Mills and the writers EL Doctorow, Victor Navasky and Leonard Lewin in 1960s New York, to the Hitler-loving far-right impresario Willis Carto, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the conspiracy theorist William Cooper, L. Fletcher Prouty (the ‘Mr X’ of JFK), and the ranting broadcaster Alex Jones.

This is one of the great stories of our time, and an entertaining, compulsively readable narrative that reveals how nightmares about its own government drove America crazy.

That synopsis certainly makes it seem rather timely… Looking forward to reading this — hopefully soon, but if the real world gets even more batshit, I may hold off a bit until there’s a readjustment back towards normalcy (even if just a small shift). Ghosts of Iron Mountain is due to be published by Apollo/Head of Zeus in the UK (March 27th) and Scribner in North America (April 29th).

Follow the Author: Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via NetGalley

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Markus Zusak, THREE WILD DOGS (Harper)

There’s a madman dog beside me, and the hounds of memory ahead of us… It’s love and beasts and wild mistakes, and regret, but never to change things.

What happens when the Zusak family opens their home to three big, wild, street-hardened dogs — Reuben, more wolf than hound; Archer, blond, beautiful, destructive; and the rancorously smiling Frosty, who walks like a rolling thunderstorm?

The answer can only be chaos: There are street fights, park fights, public shamings, property damages, injuries, hospital visits, wellness checks, pure comedy, shocking tragedy, and carnage that must be read to be believed.

There is a reckoning of shortcomings and failure, a strengthening of will, but most important of all, an explosion of love — and the joy and recognition of family.

Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth) is a tender, motley, and exquisitely written memoir about the human need for both connection and disorder, a love letter to the animals who bring hilarity and beauty — but also the visceral truth of the natural world — straight to our doors and into our lives and change us forever.

I’ve still never read anything by Markus Zusak… I have no idea why not, but this non-fiction title caught my attention. Three Wild Dogs is out now, published by Harper in North America and Macmillan in the UK.

Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
Review copy received via Edelweiss