The story of a legendary New York nite spot – served up in a really wonderful way! The Pyramid was a gritty bar in the East Village in the 80s – a small spot, but one that served as a real crossroads for music, performance, and gender identity – a place that was experienced by few, but shared as a legend by many – with an influence that's recounted here by those who experienced the Pyramid during its glory days! The book is a mix of oral histories, but structured well by the authors – who were all involved in the club itself at the time – interspersed with all sorts of great visual documents, including photographs of key performances – one of which even includes a young Steve Buscemi! The club mixed theater, music, performance art, and other modes – and the book really gets at the unique spirit that fanned the flames during its important mid-80s run. The book also includes a very cool set of materials from vintage press releases, and lots more surprises too – and the softcover edition has a great sense of presentation, on many different-colored pages. Book

Many years back, we always thought that David Byrne should have written a children's book – a volume to convey the best themes of some of the Talking Heads tunes to a younger, impressionable generation. And while that never actually happened, this beautiful edition of work released in conjunction with the American Utopia stage performance may be the next best thing – all sorts of lovely little illustrations from Maira Kalman, interspersed with text from Byrne from the performance – brought together in a volume that's as much a pleasure to flip through as the larger performance on stage. This isn't an attempt to capture the show in a book – but instead kind of a sidebar, almost a distillation of the ideas taken into a cool new format – served up in a hardcover volume, with full color illustrations throughout! Book

A really cool project, and one that's even cooler than you might guess from the title – as the graphic novel is a very well-done exploration of key strands of electronic music – starting with the early years, moving through disco, Chicago House, Detroit Techno, and beyond – all with individual chapters that really do a great job of telling the story! At some level, the book is a bit like the hip hop history of Ed Piskor, but there's a different approach to storytelling too – as the scenes are interwoven with more personal, reflective elements – almost a Harvey Pekar quality at times, which really makes the narrative come alive. The artwork is great – mostly black and white, but with some color as things move to the 21st Century – and we're really pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the book is, and especially proud of the way it handles Chicago. Harcover edition is 239 pages, with images throughout – and a smaller text section at the end. Book

A rich overview of the role of Jewish creators in American comics – from the early days of the art form, through important 60s and 70s underground years, to some of today's best indie moments! The book features plenty of images – from the likes of Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner, Robert Crumb, Milt Gross, Ben Katchor, Harvey Kurtzman, and others – but it also features a fair bit of writing on the role of Jews, and Jewish identity in comics, by author Paul Buhle – listed on the cover as the editor, but much more the driving intellectual force of the whole book. 198 pages, with black and white images, hardcover. Book

A book that's a piece of art in an of itself – as it's the only way these different strands of creative activity from artist Jim Dine could have come together! The approach is unusual – the book is something of a poem, but created from words that Dine wrote on various surfaces in various places over the years, which are then photographed, and assembled into a large book without any other text at all! At an initial level, the book feels like someone selecting images of scrawlings on walls, but together the images rise up as a creation of their own – both verbal and visual – in a really lovely clothbound book that comes in a heavy slipcover that's a perfect package for the contents. Book