Best of 2021: Our favourite pop culture books of the year

With 2021 behind us, now is a great time to check out some of the best pop culture books that were released this past year. From long-awaited autobiographies from the 95-years-young Mel Brooks to a heartbreaking memoir from Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) to a deep dive into Marvel Comics that encompassed reading 27,000 comics (!), 2021 delivered a wildly diverse set of great non-fiction for all tastes.

Read on for our favourite pop culture books of the year.

All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business – Mel Brooks (Penguin Random House)

At 95-years-old, legendary comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks is finally looking back at his incredible life and career in this long-awaited autobiography. Written in a conversational tone, each chapter reads like a long dinner conversation with Brooks as he relates stories about growing up in Depression-era NYC as a child, serving in WWII, and his pivotal role in the formation of modern comedy.

All About Me! traces Brooks’ comedy trajectory from a teenage comic doing one-liners in the Catskills to his writing work on Sid Caesar’s iconic Your Show of Shows. As we move chronologically through his work, specific chapters are dedicated to the writing, filming, and reception of classic Brooks films including The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs. While Brooks is known for writing, directing, and starring in these comedy classics, All About Me! also delves into his lesser-known production work on decidedly non-comedic films like David Lynch’s The Elephant Man and David Cronenberg’s The Fly (not to mention 1986’s beleaguered sci-fi flop, Solarbabies). Brooks also devotes ample space to his Broadway work, including the wildly successful run of The Producers. 

Brooks seems to revel in telling these funny and heartfelt stories of success (and occasional failure), always with an eye for sticking to what you believe in and never letting meddling studio heads get their way. The book’s title is actually a bit of a misnomer, as All About Me! frequently delves into Brooks’ collaborations with the likes of his close friend Carl Reiner and his early co-star and wife Anne Bancroft.

With the expert skill of a lifelong raconteur, All About Me! is a welcome deep dive into the life and times of one of our most beloved comedians and entertainers.

All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told – Douglas Wolk (Penguin Random House)

Whether you’re a lifelong Marvel Zombie or a new comics fan looking to delve deeper into the mythos of your favourite character from the MCU movies, it’s impossible to read everything Marvel Comics has published since 1961. Or is it?

Comics scholar Douglas Wolk (Reading Comics) has done just that with the appropriately titled All of the Marvels, a massive dive into 60 years of comic storytelling. Wolk read a jaw-dropping 27,000 Marvel comics (!) for this book, which he uses to make the case that Marvel represents what he calls the “epic of epics.” Given that most of the Marvel characters (including Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and countless lesser-known heroes and villains) interact with each other along the way and exist in the same universe (or universes), the totality of Marvel comics represents a towering achievement of narrative storytelling, unlike any other pop-culture phenomenon we’ve ever known.

While it’s a bit dry in the early chapters, All of the Marvels reveals itself to be an eye-opening examination of decades of Marvel’s fantastic output from creators that have shaped the way we view storytelling to this very day. (Your comics to-read list will also explode exponentially, so a subscription to the Marvel Unlimited app makes a great pairing with this.) Excelsior!

Crying in H Mart – Michelle Zauner (Penguin Random House)

Best known as the creative force behind the beloved indie-pop act Japanese Breakfast, Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart is a resonant and heartbreaking memoir about family, food, loss, and music.

Crying in H Mart is centered around Zauner’s relationship with her mother, and her diagnosis of terminal cancer when Zauner was 25. We follow the unbearable pain and stress of her mother’s doctor appointments and procedures, which also happen to correspond with Zauner’s musical career finally starting to take off. Through it all, Zauner links her relationship with her mother and grandmother through their shared love of Korean food, which reinforces her cultural connection even in the darkest of times.

With clear and thoughtful prose, Zauner brings readers into the darkest period of her life to illustrate how she was able to overcome her grief and forge a deeper connection with her family through the act of cooking, even when they were separated by vast distances. Crying in H Mart is often a difficult go, but Zauner’s frank and open style makes this a rewarding and incredibly emotional read.

Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994–2007) – Dan Ozzi (Mariner Books)

While punk and its various offshoots were exploding in popularity in the ’90s and early aughts, fans became increasingly vigilant about their favourite bands “selling out.” The cardinal sin in the eyes of the underground communities that birthed these artists was signing to a major-label. The very idea was seen as anathema to everything punk represented; a quick cash grab and renunciation of punk ideals in order to get more CDs in malls.

Music journalist and author Dan Ozzi takes a look at indie bands that made the jump to major labels and the ramifications of their moves in his new highly-readable book, Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994–2007) (Mariner Books). 

Ozzi examines eleven bands and their dalliances with the mainstream: Green Day, Jawbreaker, Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182, At the Drive-In, The Donnas, Thursday, The Distillers, My Chemical Romance, Rise Against, and Against Me! Each band gets its own chapter, allowing Ozzi to focus on the band’s background and their relationship to their respective scenes before their major-label signing.

With open interviews with the bands, fans, record label staff, fanzine writers, and more, Ozzi has crafted eleven highly readable vignettes that paint a picture of punk rock at a crossroads. Together, these eleven stories create a patchwork of ideas about what bands owe their audience and the ever-present push and pull between art and commerce that every band still has to navigate in their own way.

The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music – Dave Grohl (Dey Street Books)

Human ball of energy Dave Grohl has settled down just long enough to pen The Storyteller, a series of earnest and thrilling stories about his life in music. Grohl has eschewed a full autobiography for more of a highlight reel approach here; each chapter in The Storyteller is built around a specific period of his life or theme, which lets him skip around chronologically (like a natural storyteller would).

Grohl delves into his lifetime infatuation with music, from his time as a high school hasher to his run with D.C. punk icons Scream, his skyrocketing success with Nirvana, and his 25+ years with the Foo Fighters. There are tales of drunken shenanigans the world over, the joy and fear of Nirvana’s freakout success and its tragic aftermath, the continuing evolution of the Foo Fighters, and much more. Through it all, Grohl remains a humble but excited narrator; whether he’s describing playing (and partying) with his rock icons or traveling around the world to be there for his daughter’s school dance, these stories are told with enough heart and humor to make even the wildest moments seem somehow relatable. Listen to a sample below.

Warped & Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of the American Genre Film Archive – Lars Nilsen and friends, edited by Kier-La Janisse (Mondo)

Warped & Faded is essentially a trio of comprehensive genre film books together in one hefty package. The book begins with a breezy and informative oral history of Weird Wednesday, a weekly free series held at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas. Featuring mystery screenings of regional film oddities from the Alamo’s vault, the success of the screenings eventually led to the creation of The American Genre Film Archive (AGFA), an association dedicated to preserving and releasing rare genre films.

In addition to the oral history, the book features The Weird Wednesday Compendium, a huge section of capsule reviews of the titles that screened at the weekly series, and The Weird Wednesday Hall of Fame, breakout essays on specific influential directors and actors that emerged from the drive-in scene including Al Adamson and Andy Milligan (both of whom recently received deluxe Blu-ray box set collections via Severin Films), Jess Franco, John Carradine, Susan Tyrell, and more from genre experts like Stephen Thrower and Kat Ellinger.

Packed with gorgeous full-color poster reproductions and rare stills, Warped & Faded is an essential addition to any self-respecting genre fan’s bookshelf.

Will – Will Smith and Mark Manson (Penguin Random House)

Will Smith is one of the biggest movie stars of all time, and he’s only too happy to remind you of that fact throughout his long-awaited autobiography. Will details Smith’s staggering work ethic that has led him to unparalleled global success with films like Independence Day and Bad Boys, and the personal sacrifices he has made to get to this point.

While that may sound like a needless victory lap, Will also sheds a light on Smith’s rough upbringing, including his difficult relationship with his volatile father. We then follow his come-up in the early hip hop scene as The Fresh Prince, his relationship with DJ Jazzy Jeff, his long run on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and his eventual conquering of Hollywood with a slate of massive blockbusters.

On the personal front, Smith openly discusses his two marriages, including his marriages to Jada Pinkett Smith, his children (some of which are now celebrities in their own right), and his battles with self-worth that he still struggles with to this day.

A natural entertainer, the audiobook version of Will features Smith’s hilarious impressions, singing, rapping, and the famous chuckle that makes listening to this book feel like a long private chat with the Fresh Prince himself.