As a youngster, writes Specktor, actors and filmmakers were a common happy-hour sight around his home, thanks to a father who worked as an agent for “an insurgent company called Creative Arts Agency.” One memorable visitor was David Lynch, then at the beginning of his career, who sized young Specktor up and pronounced him an …
Two families stand at the center of Millet’s lovely, keening tales: Buzz, Amy, and their children Liza and Nick; and single mother Helen with daughters Mia and Shelley. They are well-educated, middle-class, liberal Americans, appalled by the state of their country and, in the case of the parents, bemused by their children. The younger generation …
Uthaug’s first novel to be published in English imagines a time several centuries in the future when 11% of men—enough to keep the genetic pool sufficiently varied—are allowed to survive infancy, only to be kept captive and heavily medicated. Definitely not for the squeamish, the novel follows four women who have trouble dealing with the …
After Crawford Cope hits his father with a baseball bat, he’s sentenced to 300 hours of community service—working to revamp a baseball diamond that will be named Cope Field after his famous pops, a hometown hero who played in the major leagues. Craw, who’s white, is paired with Hannah Flores, a brown-skinned, bisexual punk rocker …
This timely book delves into a host of issues connected to nuclear weapons, with conclusions that are, to say the least, disturbing. Panda, who has extensive experience as a writer and government adviser specializing in military geopolitics, brings a great deal of research material to the task, combining historical information with novel insights. He notes …
As soon as Daniel Brooker turns 18 years old, he heads to the Department of Designated Dates to find out when he will die of natural causes; in this peculiar alternate reality provocatively conjured by the author, anyone can procure this information (a technological instrument called a “gizmotron” makes this possible) if they so choose. …
From the New Yorker’s iconic headline font to what certainly seem to be the real processes of the magazine’s operation, Kelley’s mostly charming debut is steeped in the lore of his former employer. As it opens, the unnamed narrator has received an assignment to fact-check a story known as “Mandeville/Green”—the name of the article’s author …
In 1944, fierce aerial fighting rages over London as the bombs and rockets continue killing and maiming English civilians. A 13-year-old “East End bloke” navigates the rubble and looks for things to steal. He always wishes for inclement weather so the Jerries won’t bomb them. In the few pieces of clothing he owns, his gran …
Far out, era defining, and often deeply problematic, Crumb’s comics captured the zeitgeist of the ’60s and ’70s counterculture and continue to inspire legions of artists today. Emerging from a traumatic youth with unfiltered sexual hang-ups and a love of prewar comics, Crumb grew to be an unlikely hero of the scene. His characters like …
Leaving out inessential detail and (aside from occasional personal comments in boldface) nearly all human presence, McIntyre turns narratives from his Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone series into still absorbing but more quickly paced studies. He and co-author Poulsen focus on a mated pair, dubbed Wolf 21 and Wolf 42, highlighting their close relationship and the …
