Every summer reading season, I recall I’ve toted to the beach or pool. This year is no different. I’m currently reading a book I’ll share in an upcoming newsletter, and it’s not about a Malibu meet-cute – though I would love to read one of those if you have recommendations.
(And by the way, we’ll be sharing a fresh helping of with you soon, too.) That said, I do often misunderstand the assignment: I once spent a good chunk of a bachelor weekend sitting by a hotel pool reading Robert Crais’s “L.A.
Requiem.” And when not reading by the pool? I read in my room. This week, though, I’m focusing on a different summer reading tradition: Pop culture-infused nonfiction, which is always a good choice for hot weather: breezy histories, juicy memoirs and refreshing dives into , and more.
If you’re looking for a story to get lost in as your loved ones build sandcastles or do cannonballs in the pool, one of these may be just the thing. by Emily Nussbaum (Out now) With prose as bracing as a chilled Chardonnay tossed in your face, the New Yorker critic Nussbaum delivers , which is not the faint praise it may sound like. Some pop culture books can feel like overlong web posts, but Nussbaum digs deep into the genre’s origins and often-queasy mix of high-flying rhetoric and lowdown showbiz chicanery.
She writes about shows you’ll remember and some you won’t, crafting deft portraits of everyone from “Candid Camera” host Allen Funt and “Gong Show” impresario Ch.