A sci-fi novel about a future political operative, a bizarre lost 2000s action movie, and a great album of Kraut-y Irish folk music

Roundup 12/03/2023

Greetings from Read Max HQ, 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. A couple quick housekeeping notes:

• I’m on On the Media this weekend discussing OpenAI, Sam Altman, and media coverage of the boardroom drama. Brooke Gladstone is one of my favorite people to be interviewed by; you can listen to the segment here.

• My friend Mark Slutsky is raising money for Doctors Without Borders at his great newsletter Something Good. If you donate, Mark will mail you some of these excellent custom Something Good bookplates, so this is really a win-win proposition:

  

Anyway. For this week’s round-up, I’ve got:

• A 90s sci-fi novel about a political operative in near-future U.S.;

• an enjoyably bizarre and very 2000s action movie starring Paul Walker; and

• a great new album of Kraut-y, drone-y Irish folk.

If any of that sounds interesting -- and if you want to support Read Max in its continuing mission of explaining the future to relatively normal people -- please subscribe below. Subscribers get access to these weekly emails and to the comprehensive Read Max Master Lists of Good Movies to Watch and Good Books to Read--as well as preferred pricing on merchandise like the Read Max “EMAIL SUPPLY” caps. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you.

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: