Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

   (Next Mile Press, 2026). ISBN: 9798997600008 2026 has been a big year for all things Route 66, which celebrates its one hundredth birthday on November 11. Along with new installations and attractions; renovations to some of the Mother Road’s most cherished motels, restaurants, and gas stations; and a resurgence of interest in the famous Chicago to Santa Monica route by news agencies, researchers, and travelers (many from other countries), there has been a dramatic increase in the number of books being written about the Main Street of America. In my role as a Route 66 researcher, performer, presenter, writer, traveler, and immersive experience designer, I have read (and reviewed) many of those new books. Most are your typical coffee table travelogs, full of glossy pictures and the where, when, and what of the route, typically organized by state or type of attraction. Most of the books have some particular area of focus that separates them from the others, such as a detai...

  (Beverly, MA: Motorbooks, an imprint of The Quarto Group, 2025). ISBN: 978-0-7603-9148-8 This beautifully designed coffee table book, edited by Jim Hinckley (a statue of whom is a popular Route 66 tourist destination in his hometown of Kingman, Arizona), helps to further the case that the myriad books about the Mother Road that continue to be published are very much like the businesses and attractions on the route itself. Each offers a unique view of the landscape and menu. Although I have read more than twenty books and many articles about Route 66 in the past four years—including titles by Hinckley and some of his coauthors here—I found an impressive amount of new information, which I attribute to not only the authors’ varied experiences, but how those experiences shape their individual approaches to their chapters. More on that to come. No matter how educated you are on the subject matter, chances are excellent you’ll learn something new. The photography in Route 66: 100 Y...

 (St. Louis, MO: Reedy Press, 2025), ISBN-13: 978-1-681065823 When considering the most well-known and impactful writers and photographers who chronicle Route 66—Jim Hinckley, Michael Wallis, Joe Sonderman, and Chery Eichar Jett, all of whom I have met and/or presented with—one must include Jim Ross and Shellee Graham. My introduction to the work of this husband–wife super-duo, about 18 months ago, happened as I was preparing a series of presentations on what I call “Supernatural 66.” As part of my research, I read their 2017 Secret Route 66: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure . Two months ago, I was privileged to do a presentation about/as Cyrus Avery, “Father of the Mother Road,” at AAA RoadFest in Tulsa, where Jim and Shellee were also presenting and debuting Route 66: The First 100 Years . I was lucky enough to have a close friend gift me the book just before their presentation, which I very much enjoyed. Afterward, they were nice enough to personalize and autog...