Elmore Leonard-like "surf noir"; a great, stupid Hong Kong-style '90s action flick; and more Roundup 11/03/2025 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 classic “surf noir” novel for fans of Elmore Leonard and characterful, scene-driven mysteries; a ton of great essays, articles, and columns on A.I., the “naive internet,” murder in Silicon Valley, and more; a hugely enjoyable 1990s sci-fi martial-arts b-movie featuring Brittany Murphy and some great Hong Kong-style fight choreography; and four songs I’ve been listening to a lot. 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. Subscribe 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. : Keep reading with a 7-day free trial Subscribe to Read Max to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. Source: https://maxread.substack.com/p/elmore-leonard-like-surf-noir-a-great