A short, surreal, and extremely funny novel about piracy, murder, and careers; a great new libsploitation revenge-thriller action movie; and a terrific and surprising DJ set

Roundup 09/14/2024

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. For this week’s round-up, I’ve got:

• A very funny and surreal recent novel about life and work in the Donald Barthleme mode;

• a wonderfully directed new revenge thriller that combines Jack Reacher with public-interest reporting; and

• a great new DJ set.

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Now, the roundup.