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.
interviews
When Silence Roars: Rock Widows on When the Music Stops
The interviews of rock widows in I Can’t Remember If I Cried reveal life for these women when their husbands exit the stage, the music stops, and the silence roars
Transcending to Badass: That’s How Female Rockers Roll
The female musicians interviewed in Katherine Yeske Taylor’s She’s a Badass have persisted against all odds and infused rock with a feminist verve.
Nicolas Cage Biography ‘How Coppola Became Cage’ Focuses on Methods and Cooperation
Zach Schonfeld’s compulsively readable, well-researched book on Nicolas Cage, How Coppola Became Cage, gets to the heart of the unique, multitalented actor.
Self-Deprecating Nonchalance: ‘Prine on Prine’
The “interviews and encounters” in Prine on Prine reveal John Prine’s care for others, and his self-deprecation and nonchalance about his accomplished career.
‘The Dylan Tapes’ Peeks Behind the Curtain at a Landmark Biography
Anthony Scaduto’s posthumously published The Dylan Tapes is an engrossing journey into the research process of one gifted writer as he profiled another.
What Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ Did to Brian Eno and Giorgio Moroder (Excerpt)
In this excerpt from Thompson’s I Feel Love, which explores the far-reaching influence of song and singer, the disco groove moves Brian Eno and Giorgio Moroder.
How Leeds Led the Goth Scene
Leeds' the F Club, Ace of Clubs, and the Warehouse are just a few of the clubs that ushered in goth. Ethan Stewart talks with musicians and fans who were there.
How Musicians Are Surviving the Pandemic — and the Music Industry
Nine US-based musicians discuss surviving and adapting to the changing music industry in our extraordinarily challenging time of pandemic shutdown.
Journalist Jonathan Cott’s Interviews, Captured
With his wide-ranging interviews, journalist Jonathan Cott explores “the indispensable and transformative powers of the imagination.”
Shannon LaBrie Gets to the Heart of the Matter in “All By Myself” (premiere)
Forty-four years after its original release, Eric Carmen's soft-rock sensation returns with Shannon LaBrie's up-close-and-personal take, a sparse, intimate reflection delivered with love just in time for Valentine's Day.
Glimmers of Truth from the Inebriated Work of the Late, Dirty Realist Writer, Charles Bukowski
If many of the pieces in Charles Bukowski: On Drinking are the literary equivalent of watching dirt circle the drain after a vigorous shower, how long will we keep watching?