A beautiful goth fairy tale my kid is obsessed with, a maligned action sequel it's time to revisit, and more

Roundup 09/10/2023

Greetings from Read Max HQ! Before we begin, a note that today is the final day for taking advantage of this newsletter’s Labor Day special, offering 20 percent off both annual and monthly subscriptions! Click below to take advantage:

And welcome to our weekly roundup column, in which I pick out some worthwhile and often overlooked books, articles, movies, and music to recommend to paying subscribers. For this week’s round-up I’ve got:

• A beautifully illustrated Austrian fairy tale my kid loves;

• an actually pretty good action sequel; and

• a nice album of jazz-ish, folk-ish music.

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I love to hear from readers who want to recommend a cool book or movie (or whatever!) to me, or from readers who are looking for specific kinds of recommendations. Just leave a comment or drop me a line at maxread@gmail.com.

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Now, the roundup. First, as always, a dispatch from the future: