58 new eBooks and audiobooks coming out September 19 - 25, 2023

By Kobo • September 19, 2023New eBooks and Audiobooks

Here are some of the most anticipated books coming out September 19 - 25, 2023

With his 3^rd book, (following The World’s Worst Conspiracies and 2021’s The Storm Is Upon Us, How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything) journalist and conspiracy theory expert Mike Rothschild addresses the elephant in the room, namely his surname. 18^th century banker Mayer Amschel Rothschild is referred to by economic historians as a “founding father of international finance,” and by conspiracy theorists as the patriarch of a wealthy cabal that secretly controls the world to this day. In Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories, (Mike) Rothschild digs into the facts and fantasies around the family. Readers learn what’s known about the family’s wealth and what influence the living Rothschilds exert today, as well as what conspiracy theorists over centuries have accused them of (eg., sinking the Titanic, causing COVID, encircling the world in a network of laser-equipped satellites, etc.), and how it reflects a long-running strain of antisemitic paranoia.

Also out this week, The Deadly Rise of Anti-science: A Scientist's Warning by infectious disease and public health expert Dr. Peter J. Hotez, who spells out the damage done by misinformation (and outright falsehoods), amplified in some areas of the media about diseases such as COVID and vaccines with no basis in science, sowing confusion where medical science is clear and causing needless harm. See also, social media darling Brittlestar’s Welcome to the Stupidpocalypse: Survival Tips for the Dumbageddon.

Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It is the story of something that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but is actually happening, involving a company called Clearview AI, whose technology claims to be able to identify anybody (literally anybody) from a single photo. Though the technology was seen by the likes of both Facebook and Google to be too radical for public use (it turns out they do have a boundary with respect to user privacy) Clearview found support from libertarian entrepreneur Peter Thiel and figures surrounding former president Donald Trump, and has been embraced by law enforcement agencies around the world. Expanding on a 2020 New Yorker article, journalist Kashmir Hill fills out the picture of this company in our contemporary context, where one branch of government pushes back against big tech overreach while another seeks cutting edge tools of surveillance.

Comedian Leslie Jones is identifiable by anyone who’s seen a recent episode of SNL, even in the baby photo that graces the cover of her new book, Leslie F*cking Jones: A Memoir. She is careful to note though, that while she strives for honesty, being now in her mid-fifties and having used cannabis recreationally for years, her best efforts at honesty might not always lead to verifiable reality. In any case, hilarity is guaranteed.

If, despite an abundance of excellent non-fiction coming out this week, you absolutely must hear about a work of fiction: then behold Karl Ove Knausgaard’s The Wolves of Eternity. Though it continues the story of 2021’s apocalyptic novel The Morning Star, it’s being billed as a standalone work. A standalone sequel? Is that possible? It’s worth bearing in mind that paradox is nothing new to Knausgaard, who launched onto the literary scene a decade ago with his 6-volume work, My Struggle, which readers were meant to read as fiction—that happened to feature a protagonist named Karl Ove whose life largely paralleled the life of the author. Whether this story will carry across more than just two books—which are not a series—remains to be seen.

More books coming out this week