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.
pop culture
Asian American Pop Culture Stands on the Shoulders of a Giant Robot
Today’s Asian American pop culture stands on the shoulders of Giant Robot, a beloved zine that published an eclectic mix of artists and subjects.
Author and Podcaster Rax King Is Irresistibly Cheeky in ‘Tacky’
Author and podcaster Rax King shares her love of tasteless kitsch in her funny book on pop culture, Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer.
Scholar Peter Stanfield Brings ‘Hate’ to the Who’s Pop Art Period
Peter Stanfield’s ‘A Band With Built-In Hate’ highlights redundancy, aggression, obsolescence, and ambiguity in Townshend’s lyrical stance and the Who’s performing methods.
Hauntings, Dystopia, and the English Outsider in Guy Mankowski’s Albion’s Secret History
Guy Mankowski’s book on pop culture in England, Albion’s Secret History, celebrates the unsung.
Phuc Tran’s Existential Trip of a Memoir, ‘Sigh, Gone’
Phuc Tran's smart, tough memoir, Sigh, Gone, might launch a broken down kid to read 150 great books—for free, at the local library.
‘Shapeshifters’ and Other Trans-forming Humans
Supernatural Historian John Kachuba deftly demonstrates in Shapeshifters: A History that change is the only constant in life.
Extras for an Hour, Voyagers for a Lifetime: ‘Live Long and Evolve’
Biology professor Mohamed A. F. Noor voyages through deep sci-fi in Live Long and Evolve, exploring how evolutionary biology is portrayed within the television franchise, Star Trek.
Indecent Exposure and Christopher Beha’s ‘Arts & Entertainments’
This story, although not mindless, is kind of a trashy read; rather like the celebrity culture it critiques.
The Essays in ‘Sex Scene’ Are as Vivid and Provocative as One Would Hope
Sex Scene offers a new angle for examining the "longest revolution", and demonstrates the profound ability of the media to influence how we think, and what we think about.