Best of
Pop-Culture

2022

How Do I Un-Remember This?: Unfortunately True Stories


Danny Pellegrino - 2022
    no one openly gay. Luckily, Danny Pellegrino grew up in the 90s, coming of age when the internet opened up a whole new world for a curious kid itching for life outside of Midwest suburbia. Danny escaped the pains of growing up by submerging himself in a sea of pop culture—bingeing The Nanny until he had the confidence of Fran Fine, belting out Brandy songs until his heartaches were healed, or watching every semi-clothed Ryan Phillippe scene known to man.Now, as a successful podcaster interviewing the same iconic personalities that he idolized as a kid, Danny's life has only become more entertaining and delightfully chaotic.Heartfelt and hilarious, How Do I Un-Remember This? is a collection of real-life stories exploring Danny's journey from feeling like the only gay kid in Ohio to becoming a big-time podcaster in Los Angeles, and all the amusing moments life threw at him in between. With remarkable honesty and his trademark humor, Danny discusses his struggles alongside his love for all things pop culture in a way that is equally emotional and uplifting. And of course, it's all sprinkled with a little 90s nostalgia and a whole lot of comedy.

Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road


Kyle Buchanan - 2022
    The story of this modern classic spanned nearly two decades of wild obstacles as visionary director George Miller tried to mount one of the most difficult shoots in Hollywood history.Production stalled several times, stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron clashed repeatedly in the brutal Namib Desert, and Miller’s crew engineered death-defying action scenes that were among the most dangerous ever committed to film. Even accomplished Hollywood figures are flummoxed by the accomplishment: As the director Steven Soderbergh has said, “I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film, and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead.”Kyle Buchanan takes readers through every step of that moviemaking experience in vivid detail, from Fury Road’s unexpected origins through its outlandish casting process to the big-studio battles that nearly mutilated a masterpiece. But he takes the deepest dive in reporting the astonishing facts behind a shoot so unconventional that the film’s fantasy world began to bleed into the real lives of its cast and crew. As they fought and endured in a wasteland of their own, the only way forward was to have faith in their director’s mad vision. But how could Miller persevere when almost everything seemed to be stacked against him?With hundreds of exclusive interviews and details about the making of Fury Road, readers will be left with one undeniable conclusion: There has never been a movie so drenched in sweat, so forged by fire, and so epic in scope.

How to Win The Bachelor: The Secret to Finding Love and Fame on America's Favorite Reality Show


Chad Kultgen - 2022
    Now, discover the fascinating history of the show, uncover the ins and outs of the phenomenon that has become Bachelor Nation, and take a deeper look at what separates the winners from the losers. From how best to exit the limo on Night One, to strategies for making a run for the all-important First Impression Rose, to how to avoid being labeled a villain, this clear-eyed guide illustrates the rules and strategies any would-be contestant should know. The ultimate must-read for every fan, How to Win the Bachelor gives you an inside look at the franchise where The Rose holds all the power.

The Nineties


Chuck Klosterman - 2022
    It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. In the beginning, almost every name and address was listed in a phone book, and everyone answered their landlines because you didn't know who it was. By the end, exposing someone's address was an act of emotional violence, and nobody picked up their new cell phone if they didn't know who it was. The '90s brought about a revolution in the human condition we're still groping to understand. Happily, Chuck Klosterman is more than up to the job. Beyond epiphenomena like Cop Killer and Titanic and Zima, there were wholesale shifts in how society was perceived: the rise of the internet, pre-9/11 politics, and the paradoxical belief that nothing was more humiliating than trying too hard. Pop culture accelerated without the aid of a machine that remembered everything, generating an odd comfort in never being certain about anything. On a '90s Thursday night, more people watched any random episode of Seinfeld than the finale of Game of Thrones. But nobody thought that was important; if you missed it, you simply missed it. It was the last era that held to the idea of a true, hegemonic mainstream before it all began to fracture, whether you found a home in it or defined yourself against it. In The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman makes a home in all of it: the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan. In perhaps no other book ever written would a sentence like, "The video for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was not more consequential than the reunification of Germany" make complete sense. Chuck Klosterman has written a multi-dimensional masterpiece, a work of synthesis so smart and delightful that future historians might well refer to this entire period as Klostermanian.

From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy


Scott Meslow - 2022
    Funny, charming, and reliably crowd-pleasing, rom-coms were the essential backbone of the Hollywood landscape, launching the careers of many of Hollywood's most talented actors and filmmakers, such as Julia Roberts and Matthew McConaughey, and providing many of the yet limited creative opportunities women had in Hollywood. But despite--or perhaps because of--all that, the rom-com has routinely been overlooked by the Academy Awards or snobbishly dismissed by critics. In From Hollywood with Love, culture writer and GQ contributor Scott Meslow seeks to right this wrong, celebrating and analyzing rom-coms with the appreciative, insightful critical lens they've always deserved.Beginning with the golden era of the romantic comedy--spanning from the late '80s to the mid-'00s with the breakthrough of films such as When Harry Met Sally--to the rise of streaming and the long-overdue push for diversity setting the course for films such as the groundbreaking, franchise-spawning Crazy Rich Asians, Meslow examines the evolution of the genre through its many iterations, from its establishment of new tropes, the Austen and Shakespeare rewrites, the many love triangles, and even the occasional brave decision to do away with the happily ever after.Featuring original black-and-white sketches of iconic movie scenes and exclusive interviews with the actors and filmmakers behind our most beloved rom-coms, From Hollywood with Love constructs oral histories of our most celebrated romantic comedies, for an informed and entertaining look at Hollywood's beloved yet most under-appreciated genre.

Believe in Yourself: What We Learned from Arthur


Marc Brown - 2022
    This treasure trove of quotes and life lessons is divided into five sections that will inspire readers of all ages to listen to their hearts, work together, have an original point of view, and most of all, to believe in themselves!Featuring over 60 pieces of all-new artwork, here is a keepsake perfect for superfans young and old—as well as the next generation being introduced to this beloved character.

Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts


Evan Ross Katz - 2022
    Evan Ross Katz explores the show’s cultural relevance through a book that is part oral history, part celebration, and part memoir of a personal fandom that has universal resonance still, decades later.Katz—with the help of the show’s cast, creators, and crew—reveals that although Buffy contributed to important conversations about gender, sexuality, and feminism, it was not free of internal strife, controversy, and shortcomings. Men—both on screen and off—would taint the show’s reputation as a feminist masterpiece, and changing networks, amongst other factors, would drastically alter the show’s tone.Katz addresses these issues and more, including interviews with stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Charisma Carpenter, Emma Caulfield, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head, Seth Green, Marc Blucas, Nicholas Brendon, Danny Strong, Tom Lenk, Bianca Lawson, Julie Benz, Clare Kramer, K. Todd Freeman, Sharon Ferguson; and writers Douglas Petrie, Jane Espenson, and Drew Z. Greenberg; as well as conversations with Buffy fanatics and friends of the cast including Stacey Abrams, Cynthia Erivo, Lee Pace, Claire Saffitz, Tavi Gevinson, and Selma Blair.Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born engages with the very notion of fandom, and the ways a show like Buffy can influence not only how we see the world but how we exist within it.

Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now


Jeff Yang - 2022
    And still: Asian America is just getting started. In this intimate, eye-opening, and frequently hilarious guided tour through the pop-cultural touchstones and sociopolitical shifts of the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and beyond, Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Phil Wang chronicle how we’ve arrived at today’s unprecedented diversity of Asian American cultural representation through engaging, interactive graphics (like a step-by-step walk-through of a typical night out in Koreatown...for those who probably won't remember it the day after), charts (how much has yellowface fluctuated decade over decade?), graphic essays from major AAPI artists, exclusive roundtables with Asian American cultural icons, and more, framed by extended insider narratives of each decade by the three co-authors. Rise is an informative, lively, and inclusive celebration of community, and will remain a cultural touchstone for years to come.

Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born Lib/E: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts


Evan Ross Katz - 2022
    Over the course of its seven-year run, Buffy the Vampire Slayer cultivated a loyal fandom and featured a strong, complex female lead, at a time when such a character was a rarity. Evan Ross Katz explores the show's cultural relevance through a book that is part oral history, part celebration, and part memoir of a very personal fandom that has universal resonance still, decades later. Katz--with the help of the show's cast, creators, and crew--reveals that although Buffy contributed to important conversations about gender, sexuality, and feminism, it was not free of internal strife, controversy, and shortcomings. Men--both on screen and off--would taint its reputation as a feminist masterpiece, and changing networks, amongst other factors, would drastically change the show's tone. Katz addresses these issues and more, including interviews with stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Charisma Carpenter, Emma Caulfield, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head, Seth Green, Marc Blucas, Nicholas Brendon, Danny Strong, Tom Lenk, Bianca Lawson, Julie Benz, Clare Kramer, K. Todd Freeman, Sharon Ferguson; and writers Douglas Petrie, Jane Espenson and Drew Z. Greenberg; as well as conversations with Buffy fanatics and friends of the cast including Stacey Abrams, Cynthia Erivo, Lee Pace, Claire Saffitz, Tavi Gevinson, and Selma Blair. Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born engages with the very notion of fandom, and the ways a show like Buffy can influence not only how we see the world but how we exist within it.

Ruse: Lying the American Dream from Hollywood to Wall Street


Robert Kerbeck - 2022
     Robert Kerbeck makes his money--his real money--by lying on the phone, tricking people inside multibillion-dollar corporations into telling him things they definitely should not. He's become one of the world's greatest practitioners of a unique, shadowy talent called THE RUSE.Robert didn't grow up wanting to be a spy, he just wanted out of the family car business. To his father's annoyance, he found his escape in acting. But to support himself he needed a survival job. And before he knew it, while his pals were waiting tables, he was beginning his apprenticeship as a corporate spy.Of course, the ruse job was only supposed to be temporary. He was interacting with Hollywood luminaries on a regular basis: drinking with Paul Newman, taking J.Lo to a Dodgers game, touring E.R. sets with George Clooney, peeing next to Al Pacino. Kevin Spacey hit on him and Yoko Ono hung up on him. He even worked with O.J. Simpson the week before he became America's most notorious double murderer.His once promising acting career tailed off as he burrowed deeper and deeper into the world of corporate espionage, to the point where investigators once mistook him for the world's most infamous hacker. His income jumped from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year. Until the Crash of 2008...Ruse explores the lies he told, the celebrities he screwed (and the ones who screwed him), the cons he ran, and the millions he made--and lost--along the way. Kerbeck has never revealed his hand, until now.

Star Trek: Picard: No Man's Land: An Original Audio Drama


Kirsten Beyer - 2022
    While Raffi and Seven of Nine are enjoying some much-needed R&R in Raffi’s remote hideaway, their downtime is interrupted by an urgent cry for help: a distant, beleaguered planet has enlisted the Fenris Rangers to save an embattled evacuation effort. As Raffi and Seven team up to rescue a mysteriously ageless professor whose infinity-shaped talisman has placed him in the deadly sights of a vicious Romulan warlord, they take tentative steps to explore the attraction depicted in the final moments of Picard season one.Star Trek: No Man’s Land is a rich, fully dramatized Star Trek: Picard adventure as Michelle Hurd and Jeri Ryan pick up their respective characters once more. Written for audio by Kirsten Beyer, a cocreator, writer, and producer on the hit Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard, and Mike Johnson, a veteran contributor to the Star Trek comic books publishing program, this audio original offers consummate Star Trek storytelling brilliantly reimagined for the audio medium. In addition to riveting performances from Hurd and Ryan exploring new layers of Raffi and Seven’s relationship, Star Trek: No Man’s Land features a full cast of actors playing all-new characters in the Star Trek: Picard universe, including Fred Tatasciore, Jack Cutmore-Scott, John Kassir, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Lisa Flanagan, Gibson Frazier, Lameece Issaq, Natalie Naudus, Xe Sands, and Emily Woo Zeller, and is presented in a soundscape crackling with exclusive Star Trek sound effects. Drawing listeners into a dramatic, immersive narrative experience that is at once both instantly familiar and spectacularly new, Star Trek: No Man’s Land goes boldly where no audio has gone before as fans new and old clamor to discover what happens next.

Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy


Symeon Brown - 2022
    What if you could escape economic uncertainty by winning the internet's attention? What if you could turn the adoration of your social media followers into a lucrative livelihood?But as Symeon Brown explores in this searing exposé, the reality is much murkier. From IRL streamers in LA to Brazilian butt lifts, from sex workers on OnlyFans to fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes, these are the incredible stories that lurk behind the filtered selfies and gleaming smiles.Exposing the fraud, exploitation, bribery, and dishonesty at the core of the influencer model, Get Rich or Lie Trying asks if our digital rat race is costing us too much. Revealing a broken economy resembling a pyramid scheme, this incredible blend of reportage and analysis will captivate and horrify you in equal measure.

Star Wars: Tribute to Star Wars


Lucasfilm - 2022
    Forty-five of Japan’s leading manga artists illustrate Star Wars!Explore the galaxy through the beautiful artwork of 45 outstanding Japanese manga artists and illustrators, including Akira Himekawa, Kamome Shirahama, and Taiyo Matsumoto.Celebrating the universal appeal of these iconic characters and their timeless stories, this collection presents each artist’s unique tribute to the Star Wars universe and is a must-have for fans of Star Wars and manga alike!

with/holding


Chantal Gibson - 2022
    Together, text and image call up a nightmarish and seemingly insatiable buzzing-clicking-scrolling-sharing appetite for a daily diet of Black suffering.In this follow-up to her award-winning debut collection How She Read (2019), Gibson gives sombre voice to Nostalgia, “the signifying ache in search of its signified.” A meditation on the rise of falling monuments, in the wake of Add to Cart consumer culture, this collection draws on the language of brand marketing, news and social media, DIY culture and graphic design—"the tyranny of copy and paste”—to confront the role of the new colonial machinery in the relentless consumption and commodification of Black bodies.Drawing on icons past and present, this collection imagines Black voices moving freely across time and space: the hold of a 19th century slave ship diagram printed on a white rubber yoga mat; a whispering set of 1950s grinning salt n pepper shakers on a Pinterest dinner table; ringside with wrestler Sweet Daddy Siki at 1970s Maple Leaf Gardens on YouTube; and the dissenting centre of the 2020 Black Square. In the journey from longing to belonging, with/holding disrupts the fetishizing algorithms that continue to reproduce Black pain, promote anti-Black racism, and reinforce white supremacy. As an act of protest, this collection imagines how to survive the unspeakable present. As an act of reclamation it seeks to build a meaningful connection to the past through transcending acts of resistance.

Easy Street: A Story of Redemption from Myself


Maggie Rowe - 2022
    Her well-appointed home is in a fashionable Los Angeles neighborhood. She has a kind and successful husband who makes her laugh. She celebrates the accomplishments of friends and acquaintances, is widely regarded as "nice," and after years of struggle, is finally making a name for herself in Hollywood. But the successful, confident, and gracious face she presents to the outside world can often feel like a deception to Maggie, who's long grappled with mental illness and feelings of inadequacy.Enter Joanna Hergert, an autistic middle-aged woman living with her elderly mother in subsidised housing. When Maggie's husband, Jim, strikes up an acquaintance with Joanna and her mother outside a local restaurant one afternoon, Maggie is quick to befriend the pair—despite Joanna's not-at-all subtle romantic fixation on Jim—prompted, in part, by a less-than-admirable desire to be seen as generous. However, what starts as a charity project, soon blossoms into a complicated, intimate, and beautiful lifelong friendship that will challenge Maggie to confront many of the things she's tried to avoid about herself, her privilege, and the trade-offs she's made to live life on her own terms.Engrossing, heart-breaking, moving, and at times very funny, Easy Street is part midlife coming-of-age, part buddy comedy about an unlikely pair of women, and part dramedy about embracing an openness of spirit, the strength of the families we fashion, finding peace with the choices we make, and, above all, learning to be compassionate with ourselves.

Marvel Studios Be More Loki: Alternative Thinking from the God of Mischief


D.K. Publishing - 2022
    Let the Marvel Cinematic Universe's most mischievous Asgardian show you how to live life on your own terms.Known across the universe for his unique sense of style, charm, and supreme self-confidence, Loki is perfectly placed to give you great tips on how to manage those pesky sibling rivalries or change the mindset of those who always seem to be disappointed in you.Teaming pithy advice with iconic images and witty quotes from almost a decade of blockbuster Marvel Studios movies, Be More Loki is the perfect gift tongue-in-cheek guide to doing things a little differently for family, friends, and colleagues alike. Shake up the status quo with Loki's special brand of alternative thinking!(c) 2021 MARVEL