February 2026 Acquisitions

Books:

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, 1985.

David Avallone and Kewber Baal, Elvira in Horrorland, 2024.

Malcolm Croft. The Little Book of John Lennon, 2020.

Malcolm Croft. The Little Guide to the Beatles, 2019.

Bill Morgan, The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Guidebook, 2003.

The Little Book of San Francisco, 2022.

Music:

Shirley Caesar and Rev. James Cleveland, The King and Queen of Gospel Volume 1, 2002.

Claude Debussy, Greatest Hits, 2001.

Dixie Hummingbirds, 20th Century Masters--The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Dixie Hummingbirds, 2002.

English Beat, The Beat at the BBC, 2025.

Faces, Early Steps, 2025.

Terry Hall, The Collection, 1992.

Heaven 17, Higher and Higher: The Best of Heaven 17, 1993.

Tina Turner, Simply the Best, 1991.

January 2026 Acquisitions

Books:

Bonnie Bader and Sue Cornelison, Martin Luther King Jr.: A Little Golden Book Biography, 2018.

James Ellroy and Glynn Martin, LAPD '53, 2015.

Albert B. Feldstein (ed.), The Invisible MAD, 1975.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Stories, 1962.

Torunn Gronbekk et al, Catwoman Vol. 2: Never Let Them Smell Blood, 2025.

Owen King et al, Self Help, 2025.

Cynthia Von Buhler, Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu, 2025.

The EC Archives: Crime SuspenStories Volume 2, 2024.

Movies:

Barb Wire, 1996.

Music:

Bix Beiderbecke, Volume 1: Singin' the Blues, 1990. 

Chills, Soft Bomb, 1992.

Dr. Feelgood, Stupidity, 1976, 2025.

Ferris Wheel, Can't Break the Habit, 2000.

Roberta Flack, The Best of Roberta Flack, 1981.

Curtis Harding, Face Your Face, 2017.

Edwin Hawkins Singers, Oh Happy Day, 2001.

Human League, Greatest Hits, 1988.

Yoko Ono, Plastic Ono Band, 1970.

Pachelbel, Greatest Hits and Other Baroque Favorites, 2003.

Jimmy Page, Jimmy's Back Pages... the Early Years, 1992.

Sex Pistols, The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle, 1979.

Various, Hang the DJ: Modern Rock 1987, 1996.

Various, Mod Anthems Volume 2, 2016.

Various, Tonite Let's Make Love in London, 1968, 2016.

"A Cautionary Tale, Not a Triumphal One"

"This dark history has a happy ending, sort of. The Environmental Protection Agency began forcing smelting companies to install pollution controls in the 1970s. The EPA's phaseout of leaded gasoline, fought by oil company lawsuits for years, was basically complete by the mid-1980s. Blood lead levels in the population dropped 78 percent from 1976 to 1991, and crime rates began dropping dramatically in 1992. The correlation was so close it gave rise to a 'lead-crime hypothesis' among epidemiologists. The nationwide number of serial killers, whose average age is 22, dropped, too, from 669 in the 1990s to 117 by the decade ending in 2020; a 2007 analysis concluded that there was a 'robust' connection between childhood lead exposure and violent crime. Whatever inborn tendency to serial murder that seems to exist in some men may have lost its environmental trigger."

In a 2025 Washington Post article, Wendy Smith reviews Caroline Fraser's Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers.

December 2025 Acquisitions

Books:
Charles Ardai et al, Heat Seeker: Combustion Vol. 2, 2025.
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, 1847, 1996.
David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, 2021.

EC Epitaphs from the Abyss Vol. 1, 2025.

What's the Story: The Little Guide to Oasis, 2025.

Movies:
To Be or Not to Be, 1942.

Music:
Bangs & Talbot, Back to Business, 2022.
Buckingham Nicks, Buckingham Nicks, 1973, 2025.
Mavericks, 20th Century Masters--The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Mavericks, 2001.
Various, Praise Be! Boarding The Gospel Train, In Thrall of The Lord Lux and Ivy Dig the God-Fearing Nation, 2025.

November 2025 Acquisitions

Books:
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, The Knives, 2025.
R.K. Gordon, Beowulf, 1992.
Robert Inchausti (Ed.), The Pocket Thomas Merton, 2017.
Nicole Johnson, Pirates of the Caribbean, 2023.
Ziauddin Sardar and Borin Van Loon, Introducing Cultural Studies: A Graphic Guide, 2010.

Movies:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977.
Clueless, 1995.
Ferris Bueler's Day Off, 1986.
Hairspray/Pecker, 2001.
The Harder They Come, 1972.

Music:
Ivy, Traces of You, 2025.
Spinal Tap, The End Continues, 2025.
Mavis Staples, Sad and Beautiful World, 2025
Tame Impala, Deadbeat, 2025.

October 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Nigel Benson, Introducing Psychology: A Graphic Guide, 2007.

Dave Dwonch and Travis Hymel, The Loose End, 2025.

Jeffrey Weinstock, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 2007.

Movies:

The Last Showgirl, 2024.

Music:

Richard Ashcroft, Lovin' You, 2025.

Black Keys, No Rain, No Flowers, 2025.

Dropkick Murphys, For the People, 2025.

Hives, The Hives Forever... Forever the Hives, 2025.

Lords of the New Church, Killer Lords, 1993.

Royel Otis, Hickey, 2025.

Saint Etienne, International, 2025.

August 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Horace Clarence Boyer and Lloyd Yearwood, The Golden Age of Gospel, 2000.

Kevin Starr, Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s, 1991.

Music:

Chairmen of the Board, The Best of Chairmen of the Board, 2002.

Chi-Lites, The Best of the Chi-Lites, 2007.

Dr. Feelgood, Down by the Jetty, 1975, 2025.

Aretha Franklin, Live at Fillmore West, 1971.

Franz Ferdinand, The Human Fear, 2025.

Randy Newman, The Natural, 1984.

Wet Leg, Moisterizer, 2025.

"It's Nice to Hear Someone Do Something Different"

"The real reason that indie started to die, or at least felt as though it did, is Spotify. As streaming supplanted downloads and album sales, it automated music discovery. Instead of reading Pitchfork or asking a record-store clerk for recommendations, more and more people began to let algorithms suggest their next obsession. This had a variety of consequences. One is that it's become harder than ever for challenging music—music that you need to listen to a few times in order to love—to gain a foothold. The prestige associated with doing something different has started to fade."

Spencer Kornhaber at The Atlantic reviews Chris DeVille's Such Great Heights: The Complete History of the Indie Rock Explosion.

"A Signifier of Something Beyond Music"

"If you buy the idea that what the Britpop brand represents is optimism, positivity and youth culture winning without compromise then you can see its appeal to a 17-year-old in 2025. Who wouldn't hanker after the notion of a prelapsarian world before the scrutiny of social media, 9/11, the rise of the 'alt-right' et al? And the era’s 'fuck you, we're gonna have a good time' excesses look alluring in an age of wellness influencers and constant cameraphone surveillance."

Alexis Petridis at The Guardian attempts to "explain why we're all still in thrall to the ​m​ad-fer-it 90s."

And Chris DeVille at Stereogum writes after a Chicago concert that, "at long last, Oasis have conquered America."

While Steven Zeitchik at The Hollywood Reporter says that "Oasis Just Glitched the Algorithm."

And Alex Edelman at Rolling Stone describes an Oasis reunion concert as a "religious experience, if the religion was 'football hooligan.'"

July 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Torunn Gronbekk et al, Catwoman Vol. 1: Who Is Selina Kyle?, 2025.

Robert E. Johnson and Janet L. Bryon, Berkeley Walks, 2023.

Sven Kirsten and Peter Moruzzi, Palm Springs Tiki: Polynesia in the Desert, 2024. 

Jeanne Theoharis, King of the North: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Life of Struggle Outside the South, 2025.

The Pocket Oasis, 2025.

Movies:

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, 2003.

Don't Look Back, 1967.

Kiss Me Deadly, 1955.

Music:

Barracudas, The Complete EMI Recordings, 1990.

Fishbone, In Your Face, 1986.

Durand Jones, Flowers, 2025.

Sly Stone, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2025.

Paul Weller, Find El Dorado, 2025.

X-Ray Spex, Germfree Adolescents, 1978.

Various, Come to My World: A Brief History of Indie Pop 1985-2023, 2024.

Various, These People Are Nuts!, 1989.

"But What Made His Art So Popular?"

"Kinkade's most famous subject was the humble cottage, lit from within by unsettling candlelight. Former Evangelicals may also recall the Bridge of Hope, which spans a creek and heads nowhere. A white dogwood tree stands nearby, a 'symbol of the purity of God’s grace,' according to the Kinkade company's website. Kinkade created a world that some people, maybe even millions of people, wanted to inhabit. Though he was a Christian and his work often contained religious imagery, his art did not proselytize so much as it advertised an alternative reality where proselytization was no longer necessary. In Kinkade-land, everything is serene. There is cohesion. Grandmothers love his pink skies and cobblestone paths. Even today I can close my eyes and imagine a Kinkade abode, squatting underneath some eldritch sunset. A Kinkade landscape is often lifeless. There are few human beings, and fewer complications. Sometimes Jesus appears; other times he is more of a suggestion. Sometimes the paintings light up, literally, as if the artist wanted to burn holes in our retinas."

Sarah Jones at Dissent discusses Art for Everybody, a documentary about Thomas Kinkade.

May 2025 Acquisitions

Books:
Raeghan Buchanan, The Secret History of Black Punk, 2023.
David D. Burns, The Feeling Good Handbook, 1999.
Charles Dickens, The Life of Our Lord, 2025.
Herman Melville, Billy Budd and Other Tales, 2009.
Molly O'Neil (ed.), American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes, 2009.

Music:
Alarm, Standards, 1990.
P.P. Arnold, The First Lady of Immediate, 1968.
Bootsy Collins, Album of the Year #1 Funkateer, 2025.
Cory Band, Britpop Brass, 2018.
Various, Another Splash of Colour: New Psychedelia in Britain 1980-1985, 2016.
Various, Paul Weller Presents That Sweet Soul Music, 2025.
Various, The Indie Scene 1981, 1992.

April 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2025.

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 1995.

Gerry Duggan, Marvel 1872: Warzones!, 2015.

Garth Ennis and Liam Sharp, Batman: Reptilian, 2022.

Gilbert Lupfer and Paul Sigel, Gropius, 2017.

Matt Margini, Red Dead Redemption, 2020.

The LGBTQ+ History Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained, 2023.

Movies:
Rocky, 1976.

Music:

P.P. Arnold, Kafunta, 1968.

Chills, Spring Board: The Early Unrecorded Songs, 2025.

Bob Mould, Here We Go Crazy, 2025.

Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, 2021.

Al Stewart, An Introduction to Al Stewart, 2017.

Frank Zappa, Strictly Commercial, 1995.

Various, Faster & Louder: Hardcore Punk, Vol. 2, 1993.

Various, Popscene: From Baggy to Britpop 1989-1994, 2024.

March 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Mike Clifford, The Harmony Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, 4th Edition, 1984.

Ta-Nahesi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze, Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, 2025.

Will Eisner and Gary Chaloner, The Complete Will Eisner's John Law, 2025.

Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers, A Pocket Style Manual Eighth Edition, 2018.

Bryan Hill et al, Postal, Vol. 4, 2016.

Joeph Loeb et al, Superman for All Seasons, 2023.

B. Clay Moore and Shane Patrick White, Endless Summer, Vol. 1: Dead Man's Curve, 2022.

Eric Stephenson and Jamie McKelvie, Long Hot Summer, 2005.

Thorstein Veblen, The Higher Learning in America: A Memorandum on the Conduct of Universities by Business Men, 1918, 2022. 

Movies:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 2008.

Music:

Roy Ayers, 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection, 2000.

Bad Brains, Rock for Light, 1983, 2021.

Dorothy Love Coates, The Best of Dorothy Love Coates and the Original Gospel Harmonettes, 1991.

Echo and the Bunnymen, Me, I'm All Smiles, 2006.

Horrors, Night Life, 2025.

Housemartins, The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death, 1987.

David Johansen, From Pumps To Pompadour: The David Johansen Story, 1995.

Wilko Johnson, Back in the Night: The Best of Wilko Johnson, 2002.

Kneecap, Fine Art, 2024.

Rain Parade, Last Stop on the Underground, 2024.

Sam and Dave, Soul Men, 1967.

Sylvester, The Original Hits, 1989.

20/20, Back to California, 2025.

Barbara Weathers, Barbara Weathers, 1990.

Link Wray, Rumble! The Best of Link Wray, 1993.

Various, Destination: Bomp!, 1994.

Various, Gone but Not Forgotten: A Tribute to Those Who Rocked, 1995.

Various, Millions Like Us: The Story of the Mod Revival 1977-1989, 2014.

Various, Suburban Annihilation: California Hardcore 1978-1983, 2023.

Various, Twisted Dream Machine: The Paisley Underground California's Psychedelic Renaissance: 1982-1986, 2024.

Various, Weird Scenes from the Hangout: Psychedelic & Freakbeat Dancefloor Anthems 1967-1982, 2024.

"Corporate Restructuring Leads to Mass Layoffs at C+C Music Factory"

"'These changes are definitely necessary, but a lot of good workers are being sent home today. Of course we'll miss them, but it's now time for us to move forward as the nation's prominent supplier of dance music.'"

From The Hard Times.

February 2025 Acquisitions

Books:
Selina Alko and Sean Qualls, The Case for Loving, 2015.

Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty, Ms. Tree Vol. 6: Fallen Tree, 2024.

Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, Daredevil: Born Again, 2025.

Eldo Yoshimizu and Benoist Simmat, Gamma Draconis, 2021.

Cody Ziglar and Justin Mason, Spider-Punk: Arms Race, 2024.

The Economics Book, 2024.

Movies:
The Day of the Locust, 1975.

Music:
Brand New Heavies, Shibuya 357, 2021.

Jerry Butler, The Best of Jerry Butler, 1987.

Dave Clark Five, The Hits, 2008.

Marianne Faithful, 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection, 2003.

Kendrick Lamar, GNX, 2025.

Psychedelic Furs, Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live, 2001.

Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, King & Queen, 1967.

Jules Shear, Horse of a Different Color: The Jules Shear Collection 1976-1989, 1993.

The Smiths, The World Won't Listen, 1987.

Vangelis, Blade Runner, 1994.

The Who, Quadrophenia, 1973, 2011.

"Those Words Feel Even More True Today"

"Fukuyama's pining for past ideological struggles suggests that the Last Man would eventually get bored with technocracy, consumerism, and the stultifying constraints of middle management—and seek new monsters to fight. America's flirtation with an authoritarian leader who promises he alone will fix the nation's problems and restore the country's past glory is a manifestation of this phenomenon. The greatest challenges to liberal democracy would not come from new ideological competitors but rather from complacency. 'Democracies survive and succeed only because people are willing to fight for the rule of law, human rights, and political accountability,' Fukuyama wrote in 2014."

Michael A. Cohen at The New Republic revisits Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History?"

January 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Charles Ardai and Ang Hor Keng, Gun Honey: Collision Course, 2025.

Odie Henderson, Black Caesars & Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema, 2024. 

J. Robert Lennon and Carmen Maria Machado (eds.), Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games, 2023.

Sean Murphy et al, Batman: White Knight Presents Harley Quinn, 2021.

Jordan Peele, Us: The Complete Annotated Screenplay, 2024.

Matt Reeves and Peter Craig, The Batman Official Script Book, 2022.

Eric Stephenson (ed.), Put the Book Back on the Shelf: A Belle & Sebastian Anthology, 2006.

Movies:

Fahrenheit 451, 1966.

Music:

David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2023.

Tom Meighan, Roadrunner, 2025.

Sam Moore, Plenty Good Lovin': The Lost Solo Album, 2002.

Sam and Dave, Double Dynamite, 1966.

Various, Rhythm & Blues 1947-1974 (Volume 3 1955-1958) , 1985.

Various, English Freakbeat Volume 5, 1996.

"Some of the People and Moments That Got Me Through Week One"

"This is a terrible moment, but it's also a historic and challenging one. We can't avoid it and we shouldn't try to. Even if we occasionally have an inexplicable compulsion to put a blanket over our head, move to another country, or dive into a household chore we've put off for forty years."

Jill Lawrence at The Bulwark offers a "Sanity Check After Trump's First Week Back in Office."

Ed Kilgore at New York argues that "Trump's 'Shock and Awe' Looks More Like Chaos and Confusion."

At The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait writes that, at the recent Democratic National Committee meeting, "The Democrats Show Why They Lost."

And John Avlon at The Bulwark says that the Democratic Party "should look back to the message from Bill Clinton."

December 2024 Acquisitions

Books:
Andy Babiuk, Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments from Stage to Studio, 2015.
Brian Michael Bendis, Jinx, 2001.
David Eltis and David Richardson, Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 2015.
John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, 2004.
Tamron Hall with Lish Steiling, A Confident Cook: Recipes for Joyous, No-Pressure Fun in the Kitchen, 2024.
Tini Howard et al, Catwoman Vol. 4: Nine Lives, 2024.
Val McDermid, 1989, 2023.
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, 1851, 1981.
Elseworlds: Superman Vol .1, 2018.

Movies:
The Aristocrats, 2005.
The Ipcress File, 1965.

Music:
Archies, The Archies Christmas Album, 2008.
Bad Brains, I Against I, 1986.
BellRays, Meet the BellRays, 2002.
Redd Kross, Red Cross EP, 2020.
Various, Crime Jazz: Music in the First Degree, 1997.