The Dawn of Punk
The Ramones. Lou Reed. Talking Heads. Something special was happening in 1970s New York. It just needed a name …
Funny Faces
Mel Brooks, Larry David, Diane Keaton … A new coffee-table book offers an inside look at the comedy world through behind-the-scenes photographs by Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Jeff Garlin
Murder, They Wrote
A new Martini Club adventure! The wisecracking Detective Miller returns! This month, our mystery columnist makes the case for the crime-fiction series
Strokes Schadenfreude
Twenty-five years after the release of The Strokes’ debut album, Is This It, a new book examines how the band struggled to outrun its rich-kid reputation
Announcing the 2026 Tom Wolfe Prizes Short List
Meet the 12 finalists in fiction and reportage for year two of AIR MAIL’s literary awards …
Surf’s Up!
A dazzling new coffee-table book captures five decades of American surfing culture through Jeff Divine’s lens
The Wild Life of Peter Beard
His 1965 book, The End of the Game, sounded an early warning about Kenya’s wildlife crisis. Six decades on, its haunting photographs look more prophetic than ever
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss the history of how Hitler dismantled Germany’s democracy, a guide to the psychology behind investing, and a romp through the abodes of the British monarchy
Anatomy of a Winner
From Novak Djokovic to Coco Gauff, one veteran sportswriter investigates the secret codes that let tennis’s greats find joy amid the sport’s cruelty
Hallo, Hot Stuff!
A new coffee-table book pays homage to the bodybuilder turned actor turned governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss the posthumous memoir of Hollywood restaurateur Dan Tana, a New York Times journalist’s case for opting out, and the layman’s guide to disaster preparedness
Harry Gruyaert in Color
A new coffee-table book collects the Belgian photographer’s saturated, unabashed pictures of New York, taken over 52 years of trips to the city
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss the story of how debris from 9/11 was repurposed, a jaunty history of punctuation, and a look into the making of Paul Simon’s Graceland album
Announcing the Winners of the 2025 AIR MAIL Tom Wolfe Prizes
The recipients of the inaugural awards are Vincenzo Latronico, for fiction, and Meghan Daum, for reportage
Murder, They Wrote
This summer’s best mystery books feature heroines of Homeric proportions, from a female police chief who resuscitates a tragic cold case to a union leader turned drug queenpin
Portrait of a Country
A new coffee-table book collects more than 100 rare and previously unpublished photographs by Lee Friedlander, America’s pre-eminent chronicler
Editor’s Picks
This week, don’t miss the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; a harrowing new account of Hiroshima; and an illustrated field guide to endangered bird species
The Director and the Madman
Born one year apart, Roman Polanski and Charles Manson lived eerily parallel lives for years before finally intersecting at the brutal murder of Sharon Tate
Rocky Road
The Pan-American Highway was going to connect Alaska to Argentina, but it couldn’t surmount the Darién Gap. Now it’s migrants, not motorists, making the crossing