HT Picks; New Reads

The people who made and lost millions

The dramatic story of an improbable gang of self-proclaimed “degenerates” who made WallStreetBets into a cultural movement that moved from the fringes of the internet to the centre of Wall Street, upending the global financial markets and changing how an entire generation thinks about money, investing, and themselves.

Jaime Rogozinski and Jordan Zazzara were not what anyone would mistake for traditional financial power players. But they turned WallStreetBets, a subreddit focused on risky financial trading, into one of the most disruptive forces to bubble up from the fringes of the internet. This crude and unassuming message board harnessed the power of memes and trolling to create a new kind of online community. The group intertwined with the distrust and turmoil of our times and spoke to a generation of young men who were struggling to find their place in the world.

Deeply reported and fast moving, The Trolls of Wall Street is the suspenseful story of the people who made and lost millions, battling with each other — and with Wall Street — for power and status. It is a sobering account of how millions of young Americans became obsessed with money and the markets, casting a long and lasting influence over finance, politics, and popular culture.*

Mysteries of life in a backwater town

First published in 1996 as In the Light of the Black Sun and long unavailable, Rohit Manchanda’s debut novel, A Speck of Coal Dust, is one of the finest coming-of-age narratives in Indian-English writing and a forgotten classic.

Set in the coal-mining regions of eastern India, this exquisitely crafted work follows Vipul, the eleven-year-old son of a mine manager, as he awakens to the mysteries of life in a backwater town marooned in time. He finds in his environs much to marvel at, to dread, to love and to cherish, while a motley cast of characters – oddball friends, capricious teachers, a comics-loving swami, missionaries, and tinpot rogues – floats into and out of his life.

Here, Vipul’s eyes are opened to the smallness, and at once the grandeur, of the arena he inhabits and its place in the larger world, even as he learns his early lessons of cruelty and kindness, the glories and severities of nature, and sensual stirrings laced with guilt... *

Back from the dead

Eighteen-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dredged up from the past when the Price family agrees to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And — could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead.

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.*

*All copy from book flap.