10 books you should read in August, including Michael Mann’s Heat 2 and T.J. English’s Dangerous Rhythms

Also check out Scenes From My Life, a moving memoir from late actor Michael K. Williams

By Cat Auer  |  July 28, 2022 | 8:00am
Books News Heat
10 books you should read in August, including Michael Mann’s Heat 2 and T.J. English’s Dangerous Rhythms
Clockwise from bottom left: Complicit (Image: Simon & Schuster), Witches (Image: Catapult), Didn’t Nobody Give A Shit What Happened To Carlotta (Image: Brown), Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz And The Underworld (Image: William Morrow), A Career in Books: A Novel About Friends, Money, and the Occasional Duck Bun (Image: Plume) Graphic: Libby McGuire

Every month, a deluge of new books comes flooding out from big publishers, indie houses, and self-publishing platforms. To help you navigate the wave of titles arriving in August, The A.V. Club has narrowed down the options to 10 of the books we’re most excited about, including an exploration of the ways jazz and the mob intertwined, an on-page follow-up to the on-screen classic Heat, a biography of Man Ray’s muse, and a memoir from the late Michael K. Williams.

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Dangerous Rhythms: Jazz And The Underworld
Image William Morrow

T.J. English (August 2, William Morrow)“You cannot understand America without knowing the history of jazz—or the mob. Taken together, they are part of the country’s origin story, symphonically intertwined,” writes journalist T.J. English in his latest nonfiction. Early 20th century mobsters, smelling money in the emerging art form, offered musicians outlets to ply their trade. But rooted in a “plantation mentality,” these relationships were devastatingly unequal for the mostly Black performers who depended on access to audiences for a living: club bookings, radio play, jukebox offerings, and more were heavily controlled or influenced by organized crime. English, who has explored mob history in earlier books, illuminates the evolution of jazz and the experiences of artists like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, and more within this social context.

6 Comments

  • teageegeepea-av says:
    July 28, 2022 at 4:29 pm

    Real-life Black teen Carrie Johnson, who killed an armed white cop
    entering her home during the capital’s 1919 riots (charges against her
    were ultimately dropped)

    That fits with William Stuntz’ claim about how pro-defendant the criminal justice system was in Gilded Age northern cities (although 1919 is past the Gilded Age and DC isn’t quite the north).

    Reply
  • charliemeadows69420-av says:
    July 28, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    TJ English is the best true crime writer about the Mafia.   Havana Nocturne is a great book.   

    Reply
  • naturalstatereb-av says:
    July 28, 2022 at 9:09 pm

    Not exactly what I’d call an exciting literary month.

    Reply
  • koopatroopastupidkinja-av says:
    July 28, 2022 at 9:41 pm

    New Anthony Marra novel, Memory Pictures Presents, is out Aug. 2. His story collection and previous novel were amazing, so can’t wait for this.

    Reply
  • djclawson-av says:
    July 28, 2022 at 11:50 pm

    What? Nothing about the bi-romantic asexual Obi-Wan book?!?

    Reply

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