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

Robert Christgau is one of the coolest music writers of all time – a hugely important force for decades, through his work in the Village Voice – where he helped shape acceptance and understanding of generations of new sounds – and a contributor to other publications and broadcast outlets, where his voice is always one of the smartest in the room! And while we've always dug what Christgau has to say about other folks, it's also pretty great to read his own story, too – a life spent living in New York, where his path crossed countless other cultural figures and moments, apart from the music and musicians you might expect. This volume focuses mostly on his youth, his growth on the New York scene of the 60s, and his role in the 70s – and the book is softcover, 366 pages. Book

Journalist Philip Clark spent a good deal of time with piano legend Dave Brubeck in his later years – then did a really wonderful job of going backwards, and putting together all the many pieces of Dave's musical puzzle! There's no doubt that Brubeck was one of the most important jazz musicians of the 20th Century – especially in the 50s and 60s – but Clark also really helps us understand why that is, and paints a picture of Brubeck's music and influence that stretch far beyond the smaller world of modern jazz! The hardcover volume is 445 pages, with some black and white images – and covers key moments of Brubeck's career in great depth. Book

One of the most lavish, loving books on hip hop that we've ever seen – a huge volume that manages to be a history of rap music, a photo book, a guide to key albums, and also a personal journey as well – all served up with a vivid, non-stop array of images that make the whole thing even more of a visual delight than digging in the crates! The volume is huge – stuffed with over 1000 images, most in color – photos of album covers, street art, hip hop DJs and MCs, and countless other subjects – all presented in loose chronological order, alongside a history and evolution of the music, plus a timeline of key records and moments – all guided by some personal reflections by the author as well. Chuck D gives the book some huge props in the intro – and this updated volume is a heavy 446 pages, in a softcover edition, filled with images throughout. Book

A hugely detailed look at one of the hippest rock labels of the 80s – New Zeland's Flying Nun Records, an imprint that also had a huge impact on the rest of the world at the time! Flying Nun were key in helping guitar-based sounds get past the modes of the punk and post-punk years – not shaking off those influences, but refining them, pushing them forward, and really evolving the sound through key groups like The Clean, Chills, Verlains, Bailter Space, and Straightjacket Fits – all of whom really helped pave the way for big indie moments over here in the decade that followed. The book offers up an insane amount of information on Flying Nun – in year-by-year chapters that detail every single release, always with photos and cover art, plus more images too – in a hefty softcover volume that's almost 400 pages, and full color throughout. Book

An insanely fantastic book on one of our favorite record labels of all time – the All Platinum family of labels from the New Jersey scene of the late 60s/early 70s – a precursor to the later Sugar Hill hip hop empire, and home to The Moments, Whatnauts, and countless other great groups! The book is way more than just the story of the label – as it's super-heavy, weighs as much as a stack of records – and features hundreds of pages with full color images, both of rare records and artists who recorded for All-Platinum too – all in support of chapters that approach the label and its related imprints in a range of different ways. The book not only looks at the big stars, but tackles the lesser-known acts too – and traces all the many sub-labels like Stang, Vibration, A1, Turbo, and Astroscope – then looks at the company's relationship to Chess Records too. The book features an illustrated discography of all the related labels after the main content – with color images of labels and covers – and the whole thing is 532 heavy, glossy pages – well worth the price! Book

A fascinating criss-cross of cultural moments in the UK – as the writer begins with the fact that the first James Bond film and the first Beatles single were issued on the same day in 1962 – and looks at the way both cultural juggernauts shaped identity in the years to come! John Higgs traces issues of class, sexual identity, and cultural politics as they intertwine on the larger scene in England during the 60s – beginning with pre-Bond/Beatles years, running strongly through the 60s and 70s – then tracing some surprising moments of intersection in later years too. Hardcover edition is 515 pages. Book

That's the great bassist Charles Mingus on the cover – and this issue of Jazz Critique acts as a mini-discography of some of his greatest recording sessions – with listings of dozens of key albums, including sideman sessions, rare live material, and other gems that work together to showcase some of the most acclaimed moments of Mingus on records! As with other issues, the text is mostly in Japanese – but the discography has images of record covers and other details in English – and the issue then moves into a range of other jazz-based features too, in a 200 page, book-styled issue with black and white images throughout. Book