Featuring: Kurt Andersen, Jason Bailey, Jessica Chen Weiss, Stephanie Danler, Michael Dunne, Dan Franklin, Emma Garland, Ryan Lowell, Katie Mack, Natalie Sue, Olivia Waite, Sharon Weinberger

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Kurt Andersen, THE BREAKUP (Random House)

A marriage cracks apart as a near-future United States redraws its borders…

Natalie and Asher’s marriage has long been marked by fault lines, quiet rifts in how they view their fellow Americans and navigate AI-suffused life in 2045. After twenty-three years together, and after surviving the two years of civil war in the 2030s, Natalie in rural Tennessee (part of the new Free American Republic) and Asher in San Francisco (in the now smaller United States).Natalie and Asher’s relationship mirrors America’s own unraveling — confused, messy, painful, ambivalent, and impossibly intimate.

When Natalie and Asher are brought back into proximity while touring far-flung colleges with their seventeen-year-old, they find themselves on a road trip through a strange, uncertain new American landscape, transformed by both the terrorist uprising and technology, all while dealing with the flux — and resilience — within their own family. They face the questions the nation has reckoned with for a generation: what differences are irreconcilable, and when is something broken worth saving?

Razor-sharp, ambitious, ranging from tragic to comic and brimming with imagination, The Breakup is a sweeping story where the personal and sociopolitical intersect in ways bracingly plausible, keenly insightful, and surprisingly hopeful.

I can’t remember when or where I first heard of Kurt Andersen’s work. Wherever it was, it was a long time ago, and I feel like I’ve been following his writing forever. From his novels to his non-fiction, I think he always has something thought-provoking and/or sharp to say. I haven’t read all of his novels (though, as is my wont, I do own them all, waiting patiently on a shelf to be cracked open), but his latest really caught my attention and I intend to read it as soon as I can. (Hopefully in the next month or so.) The Breakup is out now, published by Random House in North America.

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Jason Bailey, YIPPEE KI-YAY (Abrams)

A sprightly, incisive, and definitive account of Die Hard — the greatest action movie of all time — and its sequels, combining Hollywood history, behind-the-scenes drama, and criticism, and drawing on extensive research and original interviews with the cast, writers, producers, and filmmakers

When it was released in the summer of 1988, box office prognosticators did not have high hopes for Die Hard. It was up against Rambo III, the most expensive movie in history to that point, a new film from Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a new Dirty Harry movie as well. Every man of action in Hollywood had passed on the Die Hard script (strike one), which left it in the hands of Bruce Willis, a TV star (strike two) only known as a comic actor (strike three). Yet today, many consider Die Hard the greatest action movie ever made, with a precise economical script, serious heart, and standout performances from the entire cast, including Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, and breakout star Willis.

More than that, near the end of the machismo-obsessed, steroid-infused ‘80s, Die Hard created a new type of action hero — a tough guy who shoots and quips, yes, but also bleeds and cries. And it launched a formula that was imitated by many other films in years to come, with a lone hero fighting bad guys on a battleship, a city bus, or Air Force One.

Like many people of my vintage, Die Hard is a movie that buried its hooks in my brain from the first time I saw it. It was a different kind of action movie, one that mixed great action and a dollop of humour, and introduced an incredible number moments and scenes that would become memes (before we really knew what a meme was). When I saw this book was on the way, it immediately went on my Must Read list. I’ll be reading this very soon. Yippee Ki-Yay is due to be published by Abrams in North America and in the UK, on May 11th, 2027.

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Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Jessica Chen Weiss, WHAT CHINA WANTS (Oxford University Press)

At a time when many are heralding a new Cold War between the United States and China, What China Wants pushes back against the assumption that China has a zero-sum plan to subvert democracy everywhere and dominate the world. China’s competing domestic priorities mean that conflict with the United States is not inevitable and that China’s trajectory can still be shaped, from the Taiwan Strait to the horn of Africa. Weiss’ book is essential to understanding how China’s internal politics are accelerating and braking changes in the new global order.

What does China actually want from its growing global power? Is conflict with the United States inevitable? What China Wantschallenges the prevailing view that Beijing is driven by an unwavering ambition to displace American primacy and remake the world order. Drawing on decades of research and a wealth of primary sources, Jessica Chen Weiss argues that Chinese foreign policy is better understood through the lens of three core imperatives — sovereignty, security, and development — that are frequently in tension, producing unexpected shifts in behavior rather than a coherent grand strategy. The book takes readers inside the tradeoffs the Chinese government must navigate to explore how nationalist pressures, development imperatives, and deep insecurity over the Party’s legitimacy shape the way the Chinese Communist Party governs at home and engages abroad. It examines the role of Taiwan, the flexibility of CCP ideology, China’s influence in international institutions and in countries across the world, and its contested bid for global leadership — showing in each case how the interplay of Beijing’s core priorities creates far more room for maneuver than most analysts allow.

Weiss argues that China is not a monolith, that ideology is not a driver of Chinese foreign policy, and that nationalism constrains the leadership as much as empowers it. Grasping this complexity is essential to understanding what China wants — and what it can realistically achieve — in the shifting global order. Avoiding conflict requires both Washington and Beijing to invest in credible assurances, address shared global challenges, and resist the temptation to treat competition as an end in itself.

Thought this sounded interesting, and from an initial quick-look, seems to be. I have fallen quite far behind on my growing stack of China-related books, and I need to get caught up. That has not, obviously, stopped me from adding more. A fascinating country, and I will always want to read books about it. Will read as soon as I can, with a review to follow. What China Wants is due to be published by Oxford University Press in North America and in the UK, on February 2nd, 2027.

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

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Stephanie Danler, SMOG (Scribner)

Two handsome brothers from Beverly Hills are on trial for the brutal murder of their parents. The entire country is riveted.

So is Hugo Byrne.

A renowned journalist — decades sober, privately repressed, and haunted by the violent death of his own daughter — Hugo arrives at the Chateau Marmont to cover the trial for a glossy national magazine. He intends to write the definitive account.

But what happens outside the courtroom — the lives disrupted, in some cases ruined — is just as fascinating as the theater inside. And no one fascinates Hugo more than his close friend Liv Ellis, a quick-witted Beverly Hills society wife who accompanies Hugo to the trial, and whose obsession with the brothers is as mysterious as her origins.

An enthralling mix of high-toned dish and dark psychological noir, Smog is a story of wealth, privilege, and abuse; a suspenseful inquiry into the dark heart of that universal institution that is supposed to protect us but so often betrays: the family.

Set during the trial of the Menendez Brothers, but seeming to take a look at the edges of the period/case. The synopsis made me want to read this, despite being quite unfamiliar with the Menendez case, and I’m looking forward to doing so. (I haven’t read Sweetbitter, yet, but I do have it…) Smog is due to be published by Scribner in North America (March 23rd, 2027) and in the UK (April 22nd).

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Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Michael Dunne, CAR WARS (Simon & Schuster)

As the automobile — long a pillar of American identity and economic power — faces its biggest transformation in a century, industry insider Michael Dunne reveals how China dominated the electric vehicle market and what it means for America’s economic and technological future.

In Car Wars, veteran auto industry insider Michael Dunne reveals how China executed one of the most consequential industrial strategies of the 21st century: building a dominant manufacturing ecosystem for electric vehicles, batteries, and software-defined cars right under the noses of Western automakers.

Why did executives in Detroit dismiss Elon Musk and China’s production prowess for years, only to be blindsided in the 2020s by a Chinese EV fleet that is more advanced, more attractive to consumers, and dramatically cheaper than Western options? Drawing on decades of firsthand experience from Detroit to California and throughout Asia, Dunne traces the pivotal decisions, personalities, and policies that reshaped the global auto industry.

The stakes extend far beyond cars. As vehicles become platforms for software, chips, and data, the outcome of the EV race will influence economic power, national security, and technological leadership for decades to come. Car Wars explains how China pulled ahead — and what the United States must do to catch up.

There has been a growing number of books that take a look at the US-China relationship through the lens of specific industries or issues — for example, Red Carpet, Apple in China and Chip War, all of which are interesting and recommended. Add to this growing library Car Wars, which examines a very important topic, and one that I think will come to be even more important over the next few years. I’ll be reading this as soon as I can. Car Wars is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in North America (January 12th, 2027) and in the UK (January 14th).

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Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Dan Franklin, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN SCREAMING AND CRYING (Constable)

A captivating biography of Slipknot by acclaimed music writer, Dan Franklin, to coincide with the 25th Anniversary of Iowa: an album that redefined metal.

Slipknot is one of metal’s most iconic and recognisable bands. In late August 2001, Slipknot released their extraordinarily brutal second album, Iowa. With it, nine masked maniacs from the American Midwest captured the zeitgeist and reimagined the genre. The album’s emotional intensity and aggression was matched only by its commercial success, as it topped album charts and defined the nu metal era.

Two weeks after its release, the world changed forever. After the attacks of 9/11, Slipknot collided with history and a generation in upheaval. As the band’s members struggled with their own demons, it wasn’t certain that Slipknot would survive. What followed is a story that’s as tumultuous, gripping, and as real as it gets.

Somewhere Between Screaming And Crying is the story of Iowa‘s difficult birth and its remarkable impact in a world seemingly coming apart at the seams. As nu metal is embraced by a new generation today, Dan Franklin unravels how and why this much-maligned subgenre still connects so strongly and explores the ongoing influence of Slipknot as one of the most recognisable and artistically vital bands in metal today.

Back in 2020, I read and very much enjoyed Franklin’s Heavy, a history of heavy metal. Somehow, I lost track of the author’s work after that (probably due to the death of Twitter, but he also doesn’t seem to have much of an online presence). Last week, though, I saw that his latest book was about Slipknot — a band that I have been a fan of since shortly after their eponymous debut was released in the UK. (I’ll be honest, at the time I was deeply suspicious of bands with gimmicks, and the masked nine raised an eyebrow. Then I heard “Purity” and “Wait and Bleed”, and I never looked back.) I also very clearly remember Iowa‘s release in the UK: I was home alone after finishing my A-Levels, shortly before heading off to university, and I had it on frequent rotation. I started reading Franklin’s book the day it arrived, and read it pretty quickly. Somewhere Between Screaming and Crying is out now, published by Constable in the UK. (At the time of writing, I couldn’t find any information about a North American publisher.)

Also on CR: Reviews of Heavy and Somewhere Between Screaming and Crying

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Review copy received from publisher

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Emma Garland, TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS (Da Capo)

Examines the lasting impact of 2000s mainstream emo — with original interviews from members of The All-American Rejects, Say Anything, Thursday, and more.

Emo is one of the most enduring subcultures of the 21st century. It’s also one of the most maligned. The stereotypical emo kid remains fixed in the cultural consciousness as a morose teenager with a lip piercing, a fringe plastered across one eye, and Converse scribbled with song lyrics. But that’s only part of the story. With Tell All Your Friends, Emma Garland offers a long-overdue corrective.

Beyond the stereotype is a world of music and fashion whose legacy has shaped pop culture for over two decades. With sharp wit and gleeful nostalgia, Garland unpacks the way emo exploded into the mainstream in the 2000s, and everything that came with it: the looks, the sounds, the MySpace profiles, the moral panics, the complicated sexual politics, the fan fiction, the genre-bending crossovers (some more questionable than others), and more. Along the way, we see how bands like Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eat World made male vulnerability a marketable product; how Say Anything and Taking Back Sunday upended conversations around sex; how My Chemical Romance and The Used gave teenagers space to talk about mental health; how Paramore blasted open the door for new voices in a male-dominated space; and how modern artists ranging from Lil Uzi Vert to The 1975 draw on the legacy of emo in their sound, aesthetics, and marketing. She also examines how a genre defined largely by straight, white men has since been reclaimed by female, queer, and global audiences alike.

Featuring original interviews with members of Say Anything, The All-American Rejects, Thursday, Funeral for a Friend, Tigers Jaw, From First to Last, Sweet Pill, Los Campesinos!, and more, Tell All Your Friends reframes emo for a new era — not as a scene or a passing fad, but as an enduring communal identity.

Emo was not my favourite genre, growing up, but there were a handful of bands that I did like and very much — Jimmy Eat World, Funeral for a Friend, and My Chemical Romance being just three examples. It was pretty much impossible to avoid seeing many of the emo bands mentioned especially if, like me, you subscribed to and religiously read multiple (rock) music magazines. So, when I saw this book available for review, I thought I’d give it a try. Hopefully soon, but I’ll hold off posting a review until closer to its publication date. Looking forward to the nostalgia trip down musical memory lane… Tell All Your Friends is due to be published by Da Capo in North America and in the UK, on February 23rd, 2027.

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Review copy received via NetGalley

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Ryan Lowell, FREIGHT (Little, Brown)

As a lone semi-truck makes its snowy way to the US-Canadian border, a series of vivid characters are inexorably drawn into a desperate, comedic, and murderous scheme to steal its precious cargo.

Curtis, a newly hired dispatcher with a newly pregnant wife at home, holds a scrap of paper that identifies a semi-truck trailer that shouldn’t exist.

Billy Trask is a weathered and charismatic sociopath, who thinks nothing of quietly killing whomever may come in his way, and carefully guards the coordinates for a truck loaded with $10 million dollars-worth of Canadian pharmaceuticals.

Jimmy, Theo, and Sarah are the not-so-innocent locals poised to stand in Billy’s way, none more so than Sarah, a local party girl with the heart and will of a colossus, and who will leave her own trail of mayhem and carnage in her 75-mile-per-hour wake.

I can’t remember exactly when I first heard about this novel, but it was quite some time ago in a Hachette catalogue. Since then, I haven’t noticed it mentioned in many places. This probably explains why it dropped off my radar, but I was recently reminded of it finally decided to purchase it. It is a novel that is in the tradition of “Dennis Lehane, S.A. Cosby, and classic American noir”, so I am very much looking forward to reading it soon. Freight is out now, published by Little, Brown in North America and in the UK.

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Katie Mack, HOW TO BUILD A UNIVERSE (Scribner)

From one of the most exciting and accessible voices in physics, an eye-opening look into the strange and wonderful world of quantum physics and how it is revolutionizing our understanding of the universe.

What is the universe made of, and how do we know? For decades, physicists have studied this question, circling the most fundamental yet enigmatic building blocks of our world; descending to a level below even atoms, and into the subatomic, mysterious particles and fields that make up the quantum realm. This astonishing world is the key to understanding the workings of the universe, but it has held its secrets close, and its rules have defied models since scientists first attempted to map its terrain.

In How to Build a Universe, celebrated astrophysicist Katie Mack pulls back the curtain on these mysteries, presenting the most cutting-edge picture of what we know about the workings of the universe. Mack takes us through our current, and thrillingly accurate, understanding of how the universe works, based on research in the field; and why, despite this, we may be on the precipice of a monumental breakthrough — one that could shatter everything we thought we knew about the universe and the nature of reality. Rather than presenting physics as an enshrined set of facts, the book foregrounds the process of discovery, detailing the false starts, the conceptual leaps, and the passionate debates that shape scientific knowledge. Taking us to the edge of the map and beyond, How to Build a Universe is a shotgun seat to some of the most mind-bending and exciting developments in physics and cosmology, as the fields themselves undergo a revolution, informed by the smallest and most alluring particles that make up the universe.

Katie Mack has written a wildly entertaining and accessible guide to the universe, for readers who want to understand not only the wonders of contemporary physics, but the scientific quest for knowledge itself.

I have been a long-time follower of Katie Mack’s on social media, and thoroughly enjoyed the author’s previous book, The End of Everything (which I highly recommend). As soon as I learned about this new book it went onto my must-read list of 2027. I’ll be reading this very soon. How to Build a Universe is due to be published by Scribner in North America, on March 9th, 2027.

Also on CR: Review of The End of Everything

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Review copy received via Edelweiss

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Natalie Sue, YOU’LL LOVE IT HERE (Harper Collins)

A woman stuck in place, her nosy neighbours and the journey to find where she belongs…

Mona thought her living situation was bad… but the real mess is just beginning.

One day is all it takes for Mona’s life to implode. After years of climbing at her marketing firm, she was supposed to be getting promoted and finally moving out of her crumbling apartment building. Instead, she’s jobless, aimless and still stuck in a space barely big enough for a yoga mat.

Then her eccentric landlady takes a tumble and asks Mona to step in as the building’s reluctant super. The deal is simple: help prep the place for sale, and she can secure the upgrade she’s been chasing. But that’s easier said than done when the neighbours treat “boundaries” as optional. There’s the shouting couple, the mysterious shut-in, a possible panty thief in the laundry room — and Sami, the relentlessly cheerful diner owner who keeps showing up with coffee and unsolicited ideas about community. As Mona gets pulled deeper into the building’s chaos — and closer to the people inside it — she’s forced to confront what, and who, she’s really been trying to outrun. Sometimes, the place you’re desperate to leave is the one that finally shows you who you are.

I really enjoyed Natalie Sue’s previous novel, I Hope This Finds You Well, so when I’ve been keeping my eyes open for her follow-up ever since. Really looking forward to reading this (may start it next). You’ll Love it Here is out now, published by Harper Collins in Canada, William Morrow in the US, and The Borough Press in the UK.

Also on CR: Review of I Hope This Finds You Well

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Olivia Waite, THE DOUBLE DOROTHY (TorDotCom)

As the Fairweather approaches the halfway point of its journey, Dorothy Gentleman may have reached the end of hers…

It’s been a long lifetime, and Dorothy’s current body is on its last legs. With a new terminal diagnosis from Medical, she’s counting the days until her next reembodiment. But then a young man with someone else’s face sits down and claims he is Dorothy’s next embodiment — someone has triggered the system early, using the memory-book Dorothy last updated over a month ago.

Meaning that according to the laws, when Dorothy dies this time — it will be permanent.

Now Dorothy and her doppelganger must sift through that last month of memories, looking for a secret someone’s trying to erase. And all the threads lead back to the very first murder that happened on the Fairweather, five hundred years ago. A case which remains unsolved — and in which Dorothy was a witness, not a detective. All while an old enemy finally dares to step out of the shadows…

This is the third book in Waite’s Dorothy Gentleman series of mystery novellas. I very much enjoyed the first two — especially the first, Murder By Memory — and was very happy to see this was on the way. When it became available for review, I jumped at the chance. Review hopefully soon. The Double Dorothy is due to be published by TorDotCom in North America and in the UK, on March 9th, 2027.

Also on CR: Reviews of Murder By Memory and Nobody’s Baby

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Review copy received via NetGalley

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Sharon Weinberger, VALLEY OF DEATH (Little, Brown)

A veteran national security correspondent reveals how a new military-industrial complex is arising from the cradle of Silicon Valley, with vast implications for American democracy and the global balance of power.

Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Alexander Karp. These tech titans are fast becoming some of the most powerful figures in the realm of national security, with enormous implications for us all. As Sharon Weinberger reveals in this gripping account, the American military and spy agencies helped to create Silicon Valley as we now know it, and some of its biggest and most valuable companies today owe much of their success to the Pentagon and CIA. Beginning with the War on Terror and accelerating under Donald Trump, however, the old alliance between elected leaders in Washington and the unelected CEOs of Silicon Valley has grown increasingly uneasy as power has shifted to the private sector and Big Tech exerts greater and greater influence over its old patrons. Companies such as SpaceX and Palantir, along with newer entrants to the field such as Anduril, are proudly supporting — and quietly shaping — US national defense, whether by providing spies and soldiers with AI and cloud-computing tools or actual military hardware such as microwave weapons, hypersonic missiles, and advanced drones.

The implications of this historic shift are poorly understood and fraught with peril. What happens when mercurial billionaires like Elon Musk control weapons and technologies that were once the preserve of the US government? How will this new military-industrial complex affect the way wars are fought, or even which wars are fought? That is the urgent question before us today, at the dawn of this new era — and as Weinberger reveals, it is one on which our collective future might well hinge.

Like many people, the continued rise and twisting of Silicon Valley’s tech overlords/bros has long been an interest of mine. As has the non-PR-led portion of its history and business. (See also: Nerd Reich by Gil Durán.) To that end, Weinberger’s book caught my attention, and became a must-read as soon as I read its synopsis. I received the audiobook review copy, and I started listening to it pretty much as soon as I did. Valley of Death is due to be published by Little, Brown in North America (September 22nd) and John Murray in the UK (September 24th).

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Review copy received via Libro