You Want to Squeeze in Another Spooky Season Read

Obsessed over the SBF trail or already binged Britney's memoir

Hi friends,

I hope you all enjoyed @Betsy Marrow’s Ireland recs last week — I know I did.

In a fun intersection of this newsletter and my work life, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center is hosting a book talk with New York Times columnist David Leonhardt on Wednesday at 4:30PM. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist will be speaking with Ron Daniels, president of the university, about his new book Ours Was a Shining Future at 555 Pennsylvania Ave (the old Newseum). If you’re in the era, I hope you’ll stop by and say hi (I hear there will be snacks). You can register here.

And, now, what to read if…

You Want to Extend Spooky Season

Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk

Halloween candy may be on the half-price rack — and retailers are now decorated for Christmas — but there’s still time to squeeze in one last spooky season book. If that’s something you’re after, grab C.L. Polk’s Even Though I Knew the End, a novella that blends fantasy, noir and romance.

Helen Brandt, a magical private detective in early 1940s Chicago, strikes up a deal with crime lord Marlow to hunt down the infamous White City Vampire in exchange for $1,000 — and her soul. Years earlier, Helen made a deal with a demon to bring her family back to life after a fatal car crash. In exchange, the demon will claim her soul ten years later. As that date grows closer and Helen’s time with her partner Edith faces an end, Marlow’s offer is too good to refuse. With just three days to save her life, she sets out to find the killer murdering people across the Windy City.

It's remarkable how much C.L. Polk, who uses they/them pronouns, fits in 150 pages. The world building is exceptional, bringing to life both Chicago and a complex magical system. Helen is a narrator in the noir detective tradition, and Polk nails the gritty, tense tone of those books while adding a magical twist.

Reminder rec: Leslye Penelope’s Monsters We Defy is also a fantastic historical deal-with-the-devil novel.

You Followed the SBF Trial

Number Go Up by Zeke Faux

Long-time newsletter subscribers know I’m fascinated by cons — so it’s probably unsurprising that I’ve got caught up in the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto charlatan who was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy last week. (The Wall Street Journal’s trial podcast is great if you’re looking to follow the ins-and-outs.) For more on Bankman-Fried (often abbreviated to SBF) and the crypto kingdom he oversaw, check out Number Go Up by financial journalist Zeke Faux.

Number Go Up isn’t a straight biography of SBF, but more an examination of the wild, unregulated world of cryptocurrency. The book opens with Faux admitting he was taken in by Bankman-Friend (he wrote a borderline puff piece for Bloomberg Businessweek in 2022), even though he had long believed crypto was a pyramid scheme. From there, he systematically proves his theory that cryptocurrency, and the infrastructure surrounding it such as Bankman-Fried’s exchange, was at best a bubble and at worst an outright con. (Number Go Up also backs up my pet theory that crypto is MLM for men.)

It's a fascinating read, highlighting the outrageous characters behind the cryptoboom, ranging from a former child actor, who played a young Emilio Estevez in “The Mighty Ducks,” to an Italian plastic surgeon turned counterfeiter. Faux (a perfect name for a reporter investigating a fraud) excels at explaining the complex financial transactions in terms anyone can understand. Readers who devoured Bad Blood will want to read this one.

Reminder rec: The Missing Crypto Queen examines yet another crypto con.

You’re Thinking About the Wronged Women of the 2000s

Birds of California by Katie Cotugno

Britney Spears’ new memoir is the latest piece of what I called an “entire cottage industry dedicated to exposing the poor treatment of prominent women twenty years ago” in a recent piece for the Chicago Review of Books. There are memoirs (Spears’ and Jessica Simpson’s), documentaries (“Lorena”) and podcasts (You’re Wrong About). Like Laura Hankin’s The Daydreams, Birds of California is in conversation with these rehabilitation efforts. It manages to be both a swoon-worthy love story and a compelling critique of misogyny.

The book’s heroine, Fiona St. James, is a Lindsay Lohan-type figure — a child actress who flamed out after a series of public meltdowns. Ten years after the show she starred in, “Birds of California,” was cancelled in response to her antics, Fiona is working at her family’s copy shop, and hiding from gawkers. Her efforts to stay out of the headlines grow more complicated when her former co-star, Sam Fox, walks into the store asking her to sign on to a reboot of the show that made them famous. Sam looks back fondly on their time on the show, Fiona does not. Yet, in a surprise to them both, they end up falling for each other, even as Fiona’s reputation and Sam’s continued interest in the reboot loom over them.

I inhaled the Birds of California audiobook, narrated by superstar Julia Whelan. Fiona and Sam are both real, flawed-yet-loveable characters that I found myself rooting for. While Cotugno is a longtime YA writer, Birds of California is her first adult book. I’m already hearing good things about her next one, Meet the Benedettos, and am looking forward to diving in.

---

Thanks for letting me in your inbox. And, remember, if you’re in the D.C-area, I hope to see you at David Leonhardt’s talk Wednesday.

And, one more thing to share: For Parade, I interviewed Lee and Andrew Childs about the latest installment of the Reacher series.

---

What to Read If is a free weekly book recommendation newsletter. Need a rec? Want to gush about a book? Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Twitter @elizabethheld or Instagram.

If you're reading this on Substack or were forwarded this email, and you'd like to subscribe, click the button below.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.