Roger Célestin’s ‘The Delicate Beast’ Will Devour You
Prolific writer Roger Célestin presents in his debut novel, The Delicate Beast a timely tale of how autocracy will devour you once the process has begun.
Books
Features, reviews, interviews, and lists about books including cultural commentary and history, non-fiction, literature, and more.
John Patrick Higgins’ ‘Fine’ Hangs on in Quiet Desperation
The lives of middle-aged men are to John Patrick Higgins as the statue of Ozymandias was to Shelley: epic, broken, and tragi-comic monuments to quiet desperation.
Take Video Games and Our Perilous Era Seriously
Marijam Dids’ book on video games and culture, Everything to Play For, is a wake-up call for those ignorant of the titanic importance gaming has in the modern world.
Goth Punks AFI Get Their Flowers in New Biography
AFI’s resilience and innovation take center stage in Andi Coulter’s new biography, which is every bit as deserving of praise as more heralded peers.
Laila Lalami’s ‘The Dream Hotel’ Questions Our Concept of Freedom
Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel asks how much freedom Americans are willing to sacrifice to feel safe. What if that includes losing their right to privacy?
Home and Away with Audio Author Adam Gnade
Across novels and audio recordings of his writing backed by music, penning from home and while away, Adam Gnade has created a singular snapshot of American life.
5 Great Books That Reinvent Music Criticism
This is by no means a comprehensive survey of contemporary music criticism, but these five books all point a way forward for the field.
The Best Books of 2024
PopMatters Best Books of 2024 include a broad range of nonfiction, many books on music, short fiction, a novel that turns a Mark Twain classic inside out, and much more.
The Vices and Virtues of Ignorance in These Times
In Understanding Ignorance, philosopher Daniel DeNicola invites us to explore the meaning and implication of what we don’t know, which may be as complex as knowledge itself.
Jazz’s Historical Agenda as Protest Music in the Stellar ‘Brassroots Democracy’
The excellent Brassroots Democracy details the beautiful and bleak ways that jazz music created the soundtrack of an emancipatory movement that lasts to this day.
Arthur Russell’s Underground Genius
Arthur Russell biography Travels Over Feeling is an elegy for a generation of underground artists that died too soon and a requiem for a vanished New York.
The Defective Premise of Paula Ramos’ ‘Defectors’
Paola Ramos has more than one “massive blind spot”, which makes the ambitious Defectors not scholarly enough and too good to be true.