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"It looks like the fork has pierced the sky"

"It looks like the fork has pierced the sky"

Three picture books my son loves, an underseen Le Carré adaptation, and four tracks I love

Feb 17, 2025
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Read Max
Read Max
"It looks like the fork has pierced the sky"
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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:

  • Three beautiful and charming picture books my 4-year-old loves;

  • some great essays and columns on DOGE, Elon Musk’s relationship to South African politics, bad Instagram poetry, and the money behind cooking YouTube channels;

  • a great, perfectly drab John Le Carré adaptation I’d never seen;

  • four new tracks I’ve been listening to on repeat.

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.

Finally, please note that I may receive a small commission if you purchase books via links in this email.

Now, the roundup:

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