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Popular Culture September 2019
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| Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem by Daniel R. DayWhat it is: A moving memoir by groundbreaking fashion designer Daniel Day, who parlayed the hustling skills he acquired as an impoverished Harlem youth into a successful career designing street wear.
Why it matters: Day's designs, popularized by hip-hop artists and athletes, have left an indelible mark on black culture since the 1980s.
Want a taste? "Fashion for me wasn't about expression. Fashion was about power." |
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| The Sixth Man by Andre Iguodala with Carvell WallaceWhat it's about: NBA swingman, 2012 All-Star, and 2015 Finals MVP Andre Iguodala's remarkable life both on and off the court.
Topics include: Iguodala's gold medal win in the 2012 Summer Olympics, his three NBA championship wins with the Golden State Warriors, and his success as a Silicon Valley investor.
Reviewers say: "The best basketball memoir since Bill Russell's Go Up for Glory...a sports memoir for the ages" (Booklist). |
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American Cosmic: UFOs, Religions, Techonology
by Diana Walsh Pasulka
What it's about: The mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions.
What's inside: Over the course of a six-year ethnographic study, D.W. Pasulka interviewed successful and influential scientists, professionals, and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who believe in extraterrestrial intelligence, thereby disproving the common misconception that only fringe members of society believe in UFOs.
Why you'll like it: It explores the intriguing question of how people interpret unexplainable experiences, and argues that the media is replacing religion as a cultural authority that offers believers answers about non-human intelligent life.
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| Elvis in Vegas: The Heyday and Reinvention of the Las Vegas Show by Richard ZoglinWhat it's about: How Elvis Presley's 1969 career comeback revitalized the out-of-touch Las Vegas entertainment industry and made a lasting impact on the city's music scene.
Read it for: An upbeat, richly contextualized portrait of the fruitful relationship between performer and city.
For fans of: Rat Pack Confidential and other rousing Sin City showbiz chronicles. |
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The Sopranos sessions
by Matt Zoller Seitz
How it all begins: On January 10, 1999, a mobster walked into a psychiatrist's office and changed TV history.
What's inside: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show's debut, Sepinwall and Seitz have reunited to produce The Sopranos Sessions , a collection of recaps, conversations, and critical essays covering every episode.
Why you'll keep reading: The Sopranos Sessions explores the show's artistry, themes, and legacy, examining its portrayal of Italian Americans, its graphic depictions of violence, and its deep connections to other cinematic and television classics.
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Stony The Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
by Henry Louis Gates
What it is about: One of our leading chroniclers of the African-American experience, seeks to answer that question in a history that moves from the Reconstruction Era to the "nadir" of the African-American experience under Jim Crow, through to World War I and the Harlem Renaissance.
Why you'll like it: Through his close reading of the visual culture of this tragic era, Gates reveals the many faces of Jim Crow and how, together, they reinforced a stark color line between white and black Americans.
Why it's an important read: An essential tour through one of America's fundamental historical tragedies. A story of heroic resistance, as figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells fought to create a counter-narrative, and culture, inside the lion's mouth.
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Pop Science: Serious Answers to Deep Questions Posed in Songs
by James Ball
What's inside: A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist uses data, facts, and science to deliver hilarious, fascinating answers to some of the most famous questions in pop music history.
Why you'll like it: Breaking down lyrics from Bob Dylan, Queen, Rihanna, the Ting Tings, Billy Joel, and a variety of other genre- and decade-spanning artists with colorful graphs and Venn diagrams, Pop Science reveals the exact points where lowbrow pop culture and the highest science and philosophy meet.
Praise: "Is there life on Mars? Where have all the flowers gone? Pop songs can pose excellent questions and James Ball has given them the answers they deserve." (The Times UK)
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| Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie BrownsteinWhat it is: A vivid, occasionally dishy memoir from the co-founder of the pioneering riot grrrl trio Sleater-Kinney.
What's inside: Candid musings on Brownstein's fraught upbringing and chaotic coming-of-age, the sexism she's faced in the music industry, and Sleater-Kinney's squabbles and eventual breakup (though the band famously reunited to much fanfare in 2014).
Is it for you? Portlandia fans looking for scoop on Brownstein's Emmy-nominated work on the series won't find it here. |
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| Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace with Dan OzziWhat it is: An intimate memoir from the lead singer of Against Me! chronicling her lifelong struggles with gender dysphoria and addiction prior to coming out as transgender in 2012.
Why you might like it: Supplemented with years' worth of never-before-seen journal entries dating back to Grace's childhood, this resonant search for self is a candid ode to survival and embracing your identity. |
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| Punk Rock Blitzkrieg: My Life as a Ramone by Marky Ramone with Rich HerschlagWhat it is: A revealing memoir from drummer Marky Ramone (born Marc Bell), the last surviving member of 1970s New York band the Ramones.
Read it for: Ramone's insights on his bandmates, including Joey's battles with obsessive compulsive disorder, Johnny's buttoned-up political conservatism, and DeeDee's addiction woes.
Who it's for: Ramones devotees; punk and New Wave enthusiasts. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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