Patrick Masterson writesCHIRP Radio Summer Reading List 2022: Patrick Masterson

From July through September, CHIRP Radio is sharing reading recommendations from its DJs and volunteers. Up next is a list from CHIRP volunteer Patrick Masterson.

Because this is CHIRP, I’ve elected to list music-related books below in the event that you’re starved of something to page through this summer. For those on a budget, I’ve also noted which among them can be found at a Chicago Public Library location near you. Get a card if you can’t get your own copy and get familiar.

Pop Stars, Hardcore Heroes, and House Legends: 10 Years of Chicago Reader Music Features by Leor Galil

BUY: Chicago Reader

Chicago’s only remaining full-time music journalist and one-time third-best pizza in the city compiled some of his reporting into a handy little book as the Reader explored novel ways to fundraise during its long, arduous (but now, thankfully, complete) conversion to nonprofit status. Anyone claiming to be a fan of Chicago music but not reading Galil’s features is either lying or fresh off the bus from Dubuque, but either way, reportage on stories ranging from Angel Olsen to Angel Bat Dawid and Frankie Knuckles to footwork are included herein to help you catch up. Aside from Leor’s effortlessly digestible prose, it also doubles as a nice snapshot of the city’s sonic life during the 2010s. You’ll have to pick up a copy of this one from the Reader directly, but it’s worth it to support one of the city’s finest alt-media institutions (after CHIRP, of course).

The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic by Jessica Hopper

BUY: Bookshop.org | Chicago Public Library

Another Reader vet whose editorial work also includes stints at Rookie, Pitchfork and MTV News, Hopper is well known beyond the Windy City and her subjects run the gamut from Coachella dispatches to one of my favorite essays from an old Punk Planet about the lack of female voice in emo, which forever sullied Cursive for me. (“There’s always Joan of Arc,” she wrote in my signed copy from a Quimby’s reading.) Note that while the hefty, brightly colored, 400-page 2021 second edition from FSG is also available at CPL, I’m recommending the more manageable, muted 2015 original from Featherproof for the sake of your beach reading.

Uproot: Travels in 21st-Century Music and Digital Culture by Jace Clayton

BUY: Bookshop.org | Chicago Public Library

Better known as Dutty Artz co-founder DJ /rupture and famous in the blogosphere’s ascendant years for Mudd Up!, you might come to Clayton’s globe-hopping ruminations thinking they’ll feel heavy, that you’ll be lost in a miasma of unfamiliar names, styles and cultures. Not so; mixed with all the deftness of the Gold Teeth Thief mixtape that originally put his name on the map, Jace gives you an Anthony Bourdain-style glimpse into global music culture and how technology is changing it peppered by his own experiences chasing down artists or lugging vinyl around foreign lands. You’ll read it so fast, a library renewal won’t be necessary.

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Jason Moody writesCHIRP Radio Summer Reading List 2022: Jason Moody

From July through September, CHIRP Radio is sharing reading recommendations from its DJs and volunteers. Up next is a list from CHIRP volunteer Jason Moody.

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

BUY: Bookshop.org

The time has come for a comprehensive unpacking of the 90s, the decade when the phrase, “That’s just how it was, that’s just what you did,” applied to nearly everything. Klosterman does not disappoint with his insightful commentary about pop culture, tech, politics and more. I lived it as did the author, but for those who didn’t, The Nineties serves as a reliable, humorous and entertaining guide.

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Mike Bennett writesCHIRP Radio Summer Reading List 2022: Mike Bennett

From July through September, CHIRP Radio is sharing reading recommendations from its DJs and volunteers. Our first list is from DJ Mike Bennett.

This list consists of six recommendations of old favorites, the novel I’m reading at the time I’m writing this, and three new books I hope to read before September 22 rolls around.

So here’s a sample of some favorite books:

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

BUY: Bookshop.org

This is the best novel I’ve ever read dealing with the impact of slavery in America. Gyasi’s amazing debut follows the lives of two half-sisters in Africa, one who marries a British army officer, the other who is sold into slavery, and then each chapter moves forward chronologically, dealing with one of their descendants. With an ability to capture character equal to Edward P. Jones (whose brilliant novel The Known World is an influence on Gyasi), this is an absorbing and enlightening book.

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