Best Books 2024

Whatever Happened to That Amazing British Punk Band Buzzcocks?

Whatever Happened to That Amazing British Punk Band Buzzcocks?

Steve Diggle’s Buzzcocks autobiography Autonomy is a refreshing take in an era when punk’s political and social consequences tend to be over-analyzed.

The Journey Motif in ‘The Half-Life of Guilt’ Is No Guilt Trip

The Journey Motif in ‘The Half-Life of Guilt’ Is No Guilt Trip

There is no guilty pleasure in reading Lynn Stegner’s The Half-Life of Guilt. There is only pleasure.

The Complicated Life of Moby Grape’s Skip Spence

The Complicated Life of Moby Grape’s Skip Spence

This bio about Moby Grape’s Skip Spence dissects and casts a glowing light on his work as a composer of some of the most influential music of San Francisco’s psychedelic scene.

Lindsey Drager’s ‘The Avian Hourglass’ Is Wonderfully Weird

Lindsey Drager’s ‘The Avian Hourglass’ Is Wonderfully Weird

While navigating many odd circumstances, Lindsey Drager’s The Avian Hourglass provides a continuous stream of consciousness; scientific, literary, and philosophical.

The Art of Psychological Warfare

The Art of Psychological Warfare

From marketing manipulation to all-out psychological warfare, Stories Are Weapons clarifies how our world – and worldview – is seldom our own.

2 Tone: Race, Music, and Pop Culture in Thatcher’s UK

2 Tone: Race, Music, and Pop Culture in Thatcher’s UK

2 Tone found a sweet spot between punk anger and pop sensibility that mirrored the myriad poles they were trying to bridge in their band members and audiences.

Kathleen Hanna, Riot Grrrl, and Punk

Kathleen Hanna, Riot Grrrl, and Punk

Riot Grrrl’s activism and grass-roots activity showed the movement was more concerned with breaking the rules and conventions than breaking through in punk.

This Lesbian Fashion History Is a Perfectly Tailored Fit

This Lesbian Fashion History Is a Perfectly Tailored Fit

With Unsuitable, lesbian fashion historian Eleanor Medhurst stitches fashion, gender, and sexuality into a perfectly tailored, comprehensive and inclusive book.

The Beatles Shake Britain: The Beginning of Beatlemania

The Beatles Shake Britain: The Beginning of Beatlemania

Shake It Up, Baby! breaks down the Beatles’ concerts, business deals, sleepless nights, and bloody fights month by month during the transitional year of 1963.

Steve Reich’s Music Echoes in Jordan Mechner’s Graphic Memoir ‘Replay’

Steve Reich’s Music Echoes in Jordan Mechner’s Graphic Memoir ‘Replay’

Like Steve Reich’s Different Trains, Jordan Mechner’s graphic memoir Replay is a work of introspection that looks to history and tragic synchronicity.