Quite a varied collection of new books, all of which I’m very much looking forward to reading.
Featuring: Andy Boot, M. R. Carey, Debra Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Grace D. Li, Rachel Maddow, Graham Mason, David McGlynn, Madeline Peltz, Joel Simon, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Etan Thomas
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Andy Boot, METAL MYTHOLOGY (Mirror Books)
Metal Mythology is a deliciously-dark deep dive into the Heavy Metal music genre and the history of the folklore which inspired its music.
The book begins with the story of Heavy Metal’s early years in the 1970s, explaining how it became popular with bands from working class British backgrounds like Birmingham’s Black Sabbath (with late Ozzy Osbourne) and East End lads Iron Maiden. Today’s fanbase — so-called “Metalheads” — will account for 13% of all arena and stadium audiences this year.
It then delves into the rich — and often very British — folk legends which inspired some of heavy metal’s biggest tunes, and reveals the likely story behind them. It’s a dizzying mix from the werewolves, shapeshifters, fairies and vampires of pagan ballads, to the witch hunters and torture devices documented in historical records and the twisted characters by horror writers like Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft and Mary Shelley.
Former Kerrang writer and prolific novelist Andy Boot looks at how this folklore was passed down and mutated as Britain changed from pagan to Christian and went from the dark ages through Enlightenment and past the Industrial Revolution. It’s a mix of social history, fantasy, folklore, gothic horror, and Heavy Metal music which will appeal to several unique (and very engaged) audiences, each in a different way.
While there’s been no end of books of heavy metal, mythology or British history, there’s yet to be one of all three. And that is the magic behind this title.
I learned about this book via Instagram, if I remember correctly. Written by a long-time writer for Kerrang!, the synopsis caught my attention — as a long-time metalhead, years of reading about the bands has given me a bit of knowledge about their various inspirations, so an entire book about it? Of course that was of interest. Hope to get to this pretty soon. Metal Mythology is out now, published by Mirror Books.
Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received via NetGalley
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M. R. Carey, ORPHEUS (Orbit)
On a planet where one half is forever in sunlight and the other in endless night, a young colonist must venture into the deadly Nightside to uncover the truth about the disappearance of his mother…
HUMANITY CAN’T SURVIVE THE NIGHTSIDE
On the distant colony world of Tessix, the sun never moves in the sky. One side of the planet burns under endless noon, whilst the other is a frozen wasteland in perpetual darkness. Human life is only possible in a narrow strip of land where the terraforming project almost worked.
Growing up on the borderland between light and dark, under the fading sun globes of Tanner’s Hook, fifteen-year-old Bead Plessey clings to his friends and his fantasies. Bead dreams of one day escaping the grim realities of life on Tessix – the declining population, the ruthless autocracy of the Noonday government, and the monstrous Daspa that come out of the nightside to feed on human blood.
When a stranger turns up at Bead’s home asking for lodgings, he brings the possibility of change. But who is Jud Valery, and where has he come from? Is his interest in Bead benign or sinister? And how is he connected to the disappearance of Bead’s mother, Omrid, eight years before? Looking for answers, Bead assembles an ill-assorted band of allies – but their investigation takes them far beyond Tanner’s Hook, into the nightside and into the long-buried secrets that shaped their world.
Latest sci-fi novel from Carey. While I continue to be woefully behind on his book, I am nevertheless really looking forward to reading this. Great premise. Orpheus is due to be published by Orbit Books in North America and in the UK, on February 16th, 2027.
Also on CR: Guest Post “On Writing Strong Women”; Review of The Girl With All the Gifts
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via NetGalley
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Debra Dean, I WAKE UP BARKING (Harper)
A bighearted story of love, grief and second chances, told by an unlikely, but very observant, narrator.
What if you were given a second chance at the life you lost, but you returned as the a creature that sees everything and can say nothing?
Mesmerized by an odor that comes drifting over the backyard fence one morning, a small terrier follows the scent for days until she arrives at an unfamiliar house, where a man stands, bent over and retying his shoe. When he stands, she realizes what drew her here: The man is her bookseller husband from her previous life. Now, she must try to charm herself back into his life and discover how she died and why she has returned.
I Wake Up Barking offers a heart-wrenching perspective on what it really means to come home. Funny, poignant, and delightfully insightful, this is a truly original story about regrets, second chances, and finding peace
An intriguing premise. No idea what to expect, but I’m looking forward to finding out. I Wake Up Barking is due to be published by Harper in North America on June 8th, 2027.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Dustin Hoffman, LOOK AT ME (Simon Six)
For nearly six decades, Dustin Hoffman has been one of the most compelling and unpredictable figures in American culture. From his breakthrough performance in The Graduate to his unforgettable roles in Midnight Cowboy, Tootsie, Rain Man, and beyond, he has spent a lifetime inhabiting extraordinary characters and redefining what a Hollywood leading man could be. Now, in Look at Me, Hoffman turns his remarkable powers of observation on himself.
Warm, candid, hilarious, and deeply moving, Look at Me is an intimate memoir about art, ambition, family, friendship, love, aging, and the mysteries of a creative life. Written with acclaimed author Ariel Levy, the book traces Hoffman’s journey from a young actor searching for purpose to a two-time Academy Award winner reflecting on what matters most as he enters his ninth decade.
Along the way, Hoffman shares stories that are by turns outrageous, poignant, and unforgettable: an unexpected clash with Steve McQueen, adventures in Greenwich Village during the turbulent 1960s, encounters with legends including Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Mike Nichols, Robert Duvall, Arthur Miller, and Gene Hackman, and the personal experiences that shaped some of his most celebrated performances.
But Look at Me is more than a chronicle of a storied Hollywood career. It is a meditation on mortality, identity, and the enduring need to create. With the wit, vulnerability, and emotional honesty that have defined his finest work, Hoffman invites readers into the private world behind the public icon.
I’ve been trying to remember which Hoffman movie that I watched, and I can’t put my finger on it. I was probably Tootsie or Rain Man; but I think, for years, Hook loomed largest. Whichever movie it was, there’s no denying that he has left an indelible mark on American cinema, so this memoir was a must-buy. (I got the audiobook, of course.) I did realize, though, that I haven’t watched some of his most-critically-acclaimed movies… No doubt, as is my wont, I’ll end up watching at least a couple of them while I’m reading his memoir. (As I did with Michael Douglas and One Helluva Ride.) I’ll be reading/listening to this next. Look at Me is out now, published by Simon Six in North America and Gallery in the UK.
Follow the Author: IMDb, Goodreads
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Grace D. Li, ANATOMY OF A BETRAYAL (Tiny Reparations)
In science, nothing stays secret for long.
Fall quarter, Stanford University: This is the year Rosalind Song will get everything she’s ever wanted. She’s nearly three years into her PhD, and soon enough, she’ll publish her research. But it’s a dangerous time to be doing science, especially as a foreigner, and when the FBI begins asking pointed questions about the lab and the professor she works for, she knows her carefully constructed life is at risk — unless she can discover what they’re really after.
As Rosalind begins her own private investigation into the Gao lab and her supervisor’s shadowy past, she keeps running into the same obstacle: Peter Sun. She and Peter have spent years competing against each other, and at first, Rosalind thinks this is just another contest.
Peter, though, knows it isn’t. Because when the FBI arrived, they offered him a deal. And unbeknownst to anyone — his family, his friends, Rosalind — he said yes.
I very much enjoyed Li’s debut novel, Portrait of a Thief, and have been looking forward to her next book ever since. Very much looking forward to reading this — because it’s not out until mid-next year, I’ll try to hold off on a review for a little bit, but I’ll probably read it in a week or two. Anatomy of a Betrayal is due to be published by Tiny Reparations Books in North America (June 1st, 2027) and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK (June 3rd).
Also on CR: Review of Portrait of a Thief
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via NetGalley
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Rachel Maddow, DEPARTMENT OF FATE (Crown)
A trip through the history of the Justice Department, finding heroism and treachery in equal measure—and, in the end, a rescue effort for our battered democracy.
Over its nearly 150 years, the United States Department of Justice became America’s most consequential institution, determining the rules and limits of what makes us who we are as a country: our political freedoms, our economy, and our nation’s most revolutionary core principle: equal protection under the law.
As the Department made wildly consequential decisions about what types of Americans to target, and for what crimes, it has been steered at times by patriotism, bravery, and self-sacrifice, but just as often by lust for power, corruption, and vengeance. Its political masters have cherrypicked economic winners and losers, determined which causes will be allowed to succeed or fail, and dictated which people and places will thrive and which will be beaten down. The department has fixed the path of the nation’s political swings.
In this searing new history, Rachel Maddow traces these triumphs and misdeeds through the founding and rise of the KKK, the riotous chaos of the Red Scare, civil rights murders and violence, railroad barons’ crushing of unions, cabinet scandals that make Watergate look like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the faux erudite lawlessness of the Reagan Administration, and the collapse into thug rule in the Trump Administration.
Written in her typical whip-smart prose and with a biting sense of clarity, Department of Fate invites us to see how the history of this key institution illuminates a path ahead for a more resilient, re-democratized America committed to making good on even its loftiest promises. In a moment beset with polarization and misinformation, Maddow’s voice shines in this blistering demand to do better—to rebuild the republic, and stronger this time.
I’ve been a fan of Maddow’s work for quite some time (pretty soon after her MSNBC show launched, it turns out), and have enjoyed her other recent books. This is my current audiobook “read”, and it’s interesting and engaging so far. Department of Fate is out now, published by Crown in North America and Random House in the UK.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
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Graham Mason, CRACK SHOT (Dutton)
A teenage girl witnesses the murder of a secret agent and is marked for death, with explosive Cold War secrets and the family farm on the line.
It’s 1955, and sixteen-year-old Janey Huggins just wants to hunt critters on her remote homestead in rural Iowa. But with her farm on the brink of foreclosure, she is forced to move to the big city — Des Moines — to attend secretarial school to make some money. On the train to her new future, however, a chance encounter ushers Janey to the center of international espionage.
After a mysterious secret agent slips her a hidden object moments before his murder by an armed assassin, Janey becomes the target of a ruthless and bumbling Soviet spy ring convinced she possesses secret information that could help them win the Cold War.
Armed with her wits and the lessons she learned from her late mother, Janey fights her way through cornfields, city streets, and a maze of deception and proves to be surprisingly capable — to everyone’s surprise but her own. As bodies pile up and loyalties blur, Janey must decide where she belongs in a world that doesn’t believe her. She just wants to get home, and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get there.
Thought this sounded like a fun, intriguing Cold War spy caper. Looking forward to reading it. Crack Shot is due to be published by Dutton in North America on July 27th, 2027.
Follow the Author: Goodreads
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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David McGlynn, LIBERAL ARTS (TriQuarterly)
A kaleidoscopic novel-in-stories set at a fictional Midwest college
Two centuries old and covered in ivy, Wisconsin’s Buchanan College is populated by an eclectic mix of students, staff, and professors hailing from the nearby suburbs to the far corners of the globe.
From the outside, Buchanan seems an idyllic world of higher learning. Yet behind its bucolic exterior, a series of interconnected dramas play out: a slew of first-year students mysteriously disappear within days of moving in; an injured hockey star discovers an unlikely fountain of youth; an alumna returns to campus after fifty years in the hope of reconnecting with a former love. And throughout the novel we follow the story of Jenny Ramirez, a social worker and the wife of a popular professor, who commits an act that alters how the college sees her, and how she sees herself.
Over a span of four years, from orientation to graduation, the characters in Liberal Arts are forced to weigh their ideals and aspirations against the harsh and often ridiculous realities of the world, and are left asking what, if anything, a liberal arts education has left to teach them.
I recall seeing this on Edelweiss, I think, and making a mental note to check it out when it was published. I actually ended up forgetting entirely, until I saw it available from the public library. I jumped at the chance to read it — I’ll be getting to it very soon. Liberal Arts is out now, published by TriQuarterly in North America.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram
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Madeline Peltz, GOOD GIRLS AND ALPHA MALES (Sourcebooks)
Gen Z is coming of age in a world that feels stacked against them. That’s exactly why conservative media is targeting them.
The fight for young minds is happening daily on podcasts, YouTube, and social media—platforms saturated with conservative messaging. The right has spent decades investing in this year-round digital propaganda apparatus, targeting Gen Z’s economic insecurity and distrust of mainstream institutions to push answers rooted in hyper-individualism, misogyny, and bigotry.
In Good Girls and Alpha Males, journalist Madeline Peltz takes readers inside the online conservative sphere shaping the future of politics. From “tradwife” influencers to “manosphere” mouthpieces, she exposes the voices driving Gen Z’s shift to the right along gendered lines. With equal ferocity, Peltz interrogates the Democratic Party’s culpability, condemning the hostility to its younger, more progressive flank.
Personal and heartfelt, Good Girls and Alpha Males interweaves Peltz’s own story with her coverage of right-wing media over the last decade. With deep empathy for a generation caught between disillusionment and radicalization, Peltz offers a wake-up call about the forces shaping Gen Z—and what the future holds if they go unchecked.
The incredible influence that American conservatives have had on the country’s people and politics has been a long-time interest of mine. As an outsider, it has always been pretty obvious how conservatives/the right-wing have distorted the national conversation to their own ends (often through flagrant, obvious-but-apparently-not-to-Americans lying). In recent years, as the old guard ages and starts to leave the limelight, it’s been quite widely reported how right-wing politics has turned its attention to younger generations (and especially young men). I’m hoping Pelz’s new book will be an interesting account of this movement. Good Girls and Alpha Males is due to be published by Sourcebooks in North America on February 16th, 2027.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Joel Simon, NEWS FOR FREE (Columbia Global Reports)
Across the United States, local news is collapsing, trust is eroding, and public media is under political attack. Yet democracies cannot survive without reliable information. In News for Free, journalist and press-freedom advocate Joel Simon travels from New Hampshire and Texas to Denmark, South Korea, and beyond, asking whether governments can support journalism without controlling it.
Drawing on vivid reporting, history, and urgent debates over technology and artificial intelligence, Simon shows why public media remains both vulnerable and indispensable — and proposes a new model for independent, publicly supported journalism capable of strengthening civic life in a fractured age.
I’ve been a fan of the Columbia Global Reports books for quite some time, now. Even if I don’t agree with the arguments/conclusions put forward by the authors, they are pretty much always interesting and worth a read. As someone who has an even longer interest in journalism and media landscape, this new book by Simon was a must-read. News For Free is due to be published by Columbia Global Reports in North America on April 20th, 2027.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss
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Adrian Tchaikovsky, THE BEST OF ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY (AdAstra)
37 stories, more than 600 pages, the ultimate collection of Tchaikovsky’s short(er) fiction.
Delve within…
Hungry ants that want to reconstruct the world in their own image. Occult investigations into private clubs. A philosopher’s attachment to his beloved pet. A new definition of battlefield archaeology.
What the homunculi do when the wizard’s away. A trans-dimensional theatre troupe. Murder by flower-arrangement. The infectious consequences of a fairytale wedding.
A magician conjures Sherlock Holmes. What happens when the mining robots mine, but not for you. The ultimate polycule. What is the groppler and why does it gropple?
Spanning the full spectrum of science fiction and fantasy to the deliciously strange, this collection stretches Tchaikovsky’s prolific career, accompanied by a foreword from author of Old Man’s War, John Scalzi.
A huge collection of Tchaikovsky’s fantastic, varied short fiction? Count me in. I can’t promise I’ll get it read quickly (I have limited patience when it comes to short story collections, and usually have to spread out the read between longer/other books), but I am very much looking forward to diving into it: many of the stories within will be new to me, but I’m also looking forward to re-reading those I’ve read elsewhere. The Best of Adrian Tchaikovsky is due to be published by AdAstra in the UK (June 3rd, 2027), and is published in North America by Subterranean Press (out now).
Also on CR: Interview with Adrian Tchaikovsky (2012); Guest Posts on “Nine Books, Six Years, One Stenwold Maker”, “The Art of Gunsmithing — Writing Guns of the Dawn”, “Looking for God in Melnibone Places: Fantasy and Religion”, and “Eye of the Spider”; Excerpts from Guns of the Dawn and Green City Wars; Reviews of Empire of Black & Gold, Guns of the Dawn, Children of Ruin, Spiderlight, Ironclads, Made Things, and One Day All This Will Be Yours, Shards of Earth, and Ogres
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, BlueSky
Review copy received via NetGalley
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Etan Thomas, LESSONS FROM MICHAEL JORDAN: THE WIZARDS YEARS (Akashic Books)
A truly groundbreaking exploration of the lessons learned from the basketball GOAT, Michael Jordan, from those who competed with and against him
REFLECTIONS ON MICHAEL JORDAN — the true GOAT of men’s basketball — often center around his six championships with the Chicago Bulls. There has been remarkably little in-depth coverage of his two years with the Washington Wizards at the tail end of his NBA career. Lessons from Michael Jordan is a fascinating exploration of this surprisingly fertile, influential, and largely ignored period in MJ’s life.
This volume is a conversation — a collection of personal reflections, raw insights, and lived moments shared by the people who actually played alongside Michael Jordan during this time in his career. The book comprises twenty-three interviews (an homage to the #23 on MJ’s jersey) conducted by Etan Thomas, with Patrick Ewing, Juan Dixon, Jerry Stackhouse, Phil Chenier, Kwame Brown, Jahidi White, Chamique Holdsclaw, Popeye Jones, Christian Laettner, Tyronn Lue, Wes Unseld Jr., and more.
Lessons from Michael Jordan reads like a locker room conversation turned life lesson. The tone stays casual but reflective. Each contributor brings their truth, and Etan Thomas steps in as a guide. Whether a reader is drawn to a specific voice or a theme (leadership, legacy, work ethic, media pressure, etc.), they will find a great deal to hold on to. It’s for the student who needs a shot of belief, the athlete grinding in silence, the young person wondering if they’re seen or understood — or anyone interested in learning life and basketball lessons from the greatest player to ever grace the hardwood.
I spotted this a while ago in a publisher catalogue, and thought it looked like an interesting, different kind of basketball book. It seems like there’s very little of Jordan’s career that hasn’t been picked over ad infinitum, but in reality there hasn’t been much that’s still/easily available about his time on the Wizards. So, as a collection of interviews with those who were there with him — by someone who was also there — I think this is going to be a very interesting and illuminating read. Looking forward to it. Lessons from Michael Jordan is due to be published by Akashic Books in North America on January 5th, 2027.
Follow the Author: Website, Goodreads, Instagram, BlueSky
Review copy received via Edelweiss
