Best Pop Culture Books to Give As Gifts

Monty Python luminary and brilliant comic actor Eric Idle brings us tales from his extraordinary life, including run-ins with the likes of George Harrison, Queen Elizabeth, Mick Jagger, Steve Martin, Carrie Fisher, David Bowie, Paul Simon, and—of course—that ragtag troupe of geniuses who changed comedy (and the world) forever. —Jonathan Russell Clark

Bill Nye explains how his personal history—from being an engineer at Boeing to a stand-up comedian to the beloved Science Guy—taught him to look at problems through a nerd’s lens, i.e., with rapacious curiosity, optimism, and a willingness to act, and how this has helped him solve numerous issues he’s personally faced and some that confront the world at large. If you’re going to listen to anyone about tackling problem-solving, who better than the man whose middle name is Science? —Jonathan Russell Clark

As a founding member of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco, Jeff Tweedy has spent the past two decades penning and performing the soundtrack for a generation of long, soul-searching road trips. Though his songs seem to pour from his listeners’ hearts rather than into them, this is the first he’s spoken at length about the personal history between his lines. Plunk yourself down in the passenger seat and enjoy the ride of his life. —Lauren Oster

“Wild Card,” ADROCK’s introduction to the Beasties’ history, is named in memory of founding member MCA (who passed away in 2012), “the rare person who actually does all the crazy things they say they’re gonna do.” It’s also a fitting description of the band’s story, told with Mike D in the trio’s characteristic break-all-rules, invite-everybody-over style: tall (true) tales share space with rare photos, illustrations, a cookbook, a graphic novel, a bespoke map of New York City’s cultures and characters…you get the idea. The coffee table won’t know what hit it. —Lauren Oster

If you were lucky enough to slip backstage after a Florence + the Machine concert and stumble upon its force-of-nature singer’s journal, you’d have your hands on, well, this. Florence Welch’s first collection of lyrics, poetry, and artwork is an invitation to the cosmic blossoming that began with sneaking out of art school classes and has exploded across the globe. In these intimate arrangements, she’s curated the evidence of who and where she’s been all these years—and as the title suggests, the gorgeous accumulation reads like a book of spells. —Lauren Oster

A generous collaborator and larger-than-life character onstage, David Bowie was an elusive figure when the lights went down: he maintained that he was not his otherworldly alter egos, and was notorious for carrying a foreign newspaper around New York City (so if recognized, he could claim he was, say, an anonymous Greek gentleman). With interviews from more than 180 “friends, rivals, lovers, and collaborators”—and never-before-seen material from two decades of his own conversations with Bowie—Dylan Jones initiates the ultimate conversation about rock and roll’s most enigmatic shape-shifter. —Lauren Oster

International travel with a rap collective doesn’t leave one with much time for socializing and sightseeing—Dessa calls it the “adventure tax” she pays to buckle herself into tour vans all day and fold herself into dark clubs each night. But the accomplished performer has the Rumplestiltskin-like ability to spin her hours on the road into literary gold. Her stunning essay collection would be a feather in anyone’s literary cap, and the fact that she’s assembled it while wearing something like a dozen hats is nothing short of miraculous. You’ll need an extra copy of this one for your own next trip. —Lauren Oster

Five decades after Otis Redding’s indelible performance at the Monterey Pop Festival and his tragic death in a plane crash, a fellow musician has released his definitive biography. With the cooperation of the Redding family and painstaking research (including unprecedented access to information on the singer’s background, upbringing, and meteoric career), Jonathan Gould offers a comprehensive portrait of the phenomenal young man who defined the Stax Records sound and changed soul music forever. —Lauren Oster

As Questlove notes in his introduction to Vikki Tobak’s treasure trove, “music should be seen and heard,” and this jaw-dropping collection of hip hop’s most iconic images—with nearly 200 photographs from more than 50 photographers—presents music like it’s never been seen before. Contact sheets offer a contemporary glimpse of how visual artists interact with their subjects, and these primary texts—captured at underground New York clubs in the ’70s, classic album shoots, and everywhere hip-hop has gone over the past 40 years—are an invitation to some of the most you-had-to-be-there moments of all time. —Lauren Oster

When Jann Wenner founded Rolling Stone in 1967, he was a Berkeley dropout and San Francisco fanboy bringing counterculture to the mainstream. Half a century later, he’s the godfather of rock and roll journalism—and Joe Hagan, the journalist he tapped to write his biography, considered the job his “last great assignment.” Readers will love the resulting book for the same reason Wenner loathes it (he called it “deeply flawed and tawdry”): Hagan captures both the historical significance of what Wenner created and the long, strange trips the Rolling Stone crew and its subjects took to get there. This is rock history at its juiciest. —Lauren Oster

When Michelle Obama first joined her husband, President Barack Obama, in the spotlight, it seemed we had a reluctant FLOTUS-to-be. An accomplished attorney and dedicated matriarch who planted herself squarely between her daughters and the media, she seemed unlikely to paste a phony grin on her face and invite us all over for tea sandwiches. Luckily for us, she didn’t: with eloquence and elegance, she reminded women and girls the world over that there’s nothing they can’t become. In her own words, her memoir is a “re-humanization effort” that reveals “the ordinariness of a very extraordinary story.” —Lauren Oster

While the man-shaped accumulation of hope and light known as Lin-Manuel Miranda would have us all believe anything is possible, we’ll go on record saying it’s impossible to page through his Twitter greetings and sign-offs—a delightful “Gmorning” to encourage his followers as each day begins, and a tender “Gnight” to bid them farewell each evening—without breaking into a face-splitting grin. With witty illustrations by Jonny Sun, this collection is catnip for Hamilton fans, of course—but, like the very best hugs, it’s also a universal cure-all. —Lauren Oster

While we can’t all be indie-movie queen Parker Posey’s best friends—she only has 24 hours a day, after all—we can now stay up all night with her quirky, hilarious voice, thanks to her candid new memoir. You’re on an Airplane is as unapologetically idiosyncratic as its author, and the antithesis of Ye Olde Ghostwritten Redemption Story: Posey offers relatable struggles and triumphs, to be sure, but these are stories her friends were entertained by, she says, so why not share them? Perhaps she’d be amenable to a coffee date invite after all? —Lauren Oster

Netflix’s Fab Five joined forces for a coffee-table-worthy version of the game-changing guidance they offer TV audiences, and it’s much, much more than a how-to manual (though there are plenty of Hip Tips to round out its pages). Each expert helms his own section with input from his co-stars: Antoni Porowski’s food writing, for instance, shares space with favorite food and drink recipes from all five Queer Eye personalities. It’s also a peek behind-the-scenes and a collective celebration of individuality: these guys want everyone to live their best lives. —Lauren Oster

New episodes of Stranger Things won’t reach televisions until next summer, but Hawkins and the worlds it conceals are an open book as of this fall. The official companion to the smash hit’s first two seasons offers deep dives with the show’s creators and stars, embedded secret messages (with a Morse code disk like Eleven’s to reveal them, naturally), and an exclusive first look at what’s to come. We dare you to read this one beneath a blinking strand of holiday lights. —Lauren Oster

Featuring an all-star, all-female cast of narrators—including Alicia Keys, Ashley Judd, Janeane Garofalo, and Esperanza Spalding—Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls reinvents fairy tales by telling the true stories of hundreds of extraordinary women, including Serena Williams, Beyoncé, Cleopatra, and Elizabeth I. —Jonathan Russell Clark

Even if they’ve seen the movie (and let’s be honest, they probably have), Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel is meant to be consumed in its original form (again, and again, and again…) Invite them to the revisit this monster hit and zeitgeist-defining event. —Jonathan Russell Clark

Comedian and memoirist Maeve Higgins left her native Ireland for a new life in New York City, resulting in the hilarious and poignant essay collection, Maeve in America. This book will charm and inspire—and amuse and bemuse—anyone who’s ever navigated the strange realities of adulthood. —Jonathan Russell Clark

During the filming of Star Wars, a young Carrie Fisher kept a diary of her experiences on set. Rediscovered nearly four decades later, the late, great Fisher realized these remembrances would make a wonderful book. The Princess Diarist is filled with compelling behind-the-scenes stories from one of the most iconic movies of all time, told with Fisher’s trademark brilliance and wit. —Jonathan Russell Clark

This striking essay collection confronts our culture’s materialism head-on, as writer Heather Havrilesky discusses our pursuit of new products and technology. She makes the case that this will lead to a shallow future, one that will never be satisfying, and advocates instead for rejecting products in favor of living in the current moment—and accepting that it’s enough. —Swapna Krishna

One of the great writers of the 20th century, James Baldwin wrote numerous works of unsurpassed power and beauty, and we think his 1974 novel makes a fantastic introduction to his truly remarkable oeuvre. The story of Tish and Fonny, a young couple in love and living in an atmosphere of racial injustice and corrupt police, If Beale Street Could Talk (recently adapted into a film by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins) is a riveting work of issues that remain relevant and deeply troubling. —Jonathan Russell Clark

Admit it: you would buy this book for its title, which finds its roots in the very popular Munchies and Viceland TV series. Keeping in mind that “pot brownies” have been around for at least half a century, it’s clear that the 65 sophisticated recipes here—for both sweet and savory dishes—will satisfy the munchies for millennial hipsters and old hippies alike. —Elizabeth Anne Hartman

Want to delve deeper into the terrifying (and all-too-real) world of the sci-fi phenomenon? Inside Black Mirror is the official companion to the Netflix cult hit. The show’s creator, Charlie Brooker, and its producer, Annabel Jones, detail the origins and inspiration behind each film, while actors, directors, and other key players add color and commentary based on their own experiences. —Ben Kassoy