As 2022 came to a close, UT Press books were talked about in magazines, on podcasts, and in book reviews. As always, we’re proud to share the cross-platform media coverage our authors and their books receive. Here are the highlights from the last few weeks of 2022. Use the links to read more about these great titles, and to order or pre-order them.
Music
Margo Price’s Maybe We’ll Make It was included in Rolling Stone’s “Best Music Books of 2022.” Angie Martoccio writes, “[Maybe We’ll Make It is] as heart-wrenching and unflinchingly honest as Price’s songs — you might rip through it in just one sitting.” Margo was profiled by Melena Ryzik in the New York Times, a piece which discussed the book throughout in telling Margo’s story. Vulture included mention of the book in their write-up anticipating Margo’s new album, Strays, as part of their “28 Albums We Can’t Wait to Hear in 2023.”
Margo was also interviewed on the Debutiful podcast and for the KXT Music Blog. The previously published Chapter 16 review of Maybe We’ll Make It ran this week at the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The book was included in AnalogPlanet’s “Last Minute 2022 Holiday Gift Guide,” and mentioned in Sadie Dupuis’s “2022 Reading List” at SPIN, which also included Black Country Music and I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive.
Who Got the Camera? was reviewed in the Journal of Popular Music Studies. Felicia Angeja Viator calls it, “[An] absorbing new book,” going on, “Who Got the Camera? uses captivating narratives, carefully reasoned arguments, and a touch of humor to help readers fit rap music and rap artists with historical trends and tensions…Who Got the Camera? is a book crafted with great respect for both its subjects and for us, its readers. Harvey cares as much about revealing the meaning of the cultural phenomena so easily dismissed by most scholars as he does about good, clear prose.”
Francesca T. Royster’s Black Country Music was included in SPIN’s “Best Music Books of 2022.” Erica Gonsalves writes, “Royster addresses the dismissal that Black country music artists and fans feel within this community, combining memoir writing with journalism as she focuses on specific Black artists helping to create space in a genre that appears too willing to neglect its own roots.” Gonsalves goes on, In Black Country Music, the featured artists are sometimes surprising (Tina Turner, Beyoncé), but in sharing their efforts in the genre, the Black community can reclaim country music as part of their present.”
Royster’s book was reviewed at No Depression, where Henry Carrigan writes, “Black Country Music is an exhilarating book, and Royster’s ingenious blend of memoir and analysis showcases the emerging artists and fans that she affirms are ‘changing what country music looks and sounds like.” Royster’s interview on the Texas Standard was included in their “top musical moments of the year” episode. Black Country Music was also included in a “Best of 2022” list at CounterPunch, and in the New York Amsterdam News’s “Best Black books of 2022,” where Jordannah Elizabeth writes, “Black Country Music follows the author on an observational and historical journey through the racially divisive undertones of American country music…This book is just as personal as it is a well of knowledge regarding the history of the Black country tradition and the artists who contribute to it, past and presence.”
You’re with Stupid was also included in SPIN’s “Best Music Books of 2022”; Erica Gonsalves writes of Adams’ book, “kranky co-founder Bruce Adams provides behind-the-scenes insight on the Windy City’s music labels (with Touch & Go and Wax Trax! leading the charge) and how they contributed to the meteoric rise of Gen X stars such as Liz Phair, Nirvana, and Smashing Pumpkins,” going on, “This book nurtures our sense of nostalgia for a tremendous decade of music, especially in kranky’s pursuit to ‘release music that transcended the moment,’ and reminds us of simpler, pre-Internet times where radio airplay, touring, and fanzines heavily influenced the success of music’s breakoutstars.”
Adams’ book was reviewed at The Stranger, where Dave Segal writes, “[Adams] proves to be an incisive and wry observer of the Windy City’s paradigm-shifting musical ecosystem and his role in shaping rock’s vanguard,” going on, “You’re with Stupid abounds with interesting insights about musical and cultural niches that deserve more attention and, more importantly, it reveals the inner workings of one of history’s greatest record companies.” Reviewing the book for the Washington Independent Review of Books, Daniel de Visé writes, “The best kranky releases sound refreshingly different, not just from other indie rock of the ‘90s but from nearly everything on the radio, or off it, in 2022. They’re well worth a listen. And You’re with Stupid is worth a read, especially if you belong to the generation that stayed up late to catch ‘120 Minutes’ on MTV and attended Yo La Tengo shows in multiple millennia.”
DJ Screw was included in the Texas Observer’s “Best Texas Books of 2022,” and in the critic Andrew Dansby’s roundup of the year in books for the Houston Chronicle, where he writes, “Walker’s thorough and vibrant oral history of the late, great Houston DJ is two books lovingly twisted into one. It tells the story of Robert Davis Jr. and how he became a local and then international music trend-setter. It also provides overdue documentation of the music scene that nurtured Screw.” An interview with Walker included in Houstonia Magazine’s Winter 2022 issue also published online this week; Shelby Stewart calls the book, “An amalgam of firsthand accounts from the people closest to DJ Screw, from family and close friends to members of Screwed Up Click (the popular hip hop collective he founded),” going on, “While the book’s narrative ultimately ends in tragedy, readers are also exposed to the beauty, brotherhood, generosity, and passion for music that dominated DJ Screw’s life…Told in detailed and intimate language, each person Walker interviews helps personify the kind of man and artist DJ Screw was, no matter what name you might have known him by.”
Razabilly was reviewed in California History. Jorge N. Leal writes, “Razabilly is a noteworthy study among newer interdisciplinary works on the making and remaking of Los Angeles. It dexterously examines how Chicanas/os and Latinas/os within this music scene experienced, survived, and even thrived during the convoluted 2000s.” Leal goes on, “Most significantly, Centino shows how during a time when the threats to disempower and demonize them increased, Chicanas/os and Latinas/os drew from their collective cultural memories to assert their rights to space and place in Los Angeles—for their own leisure, for a good time, and to seek a better life.”
Alex Pappademas of Quantum Criminals was interviewed about Steely Dan, including discussion of the book, on the Jokermen podcast.
Fangirls was mentioned and quoted in a piece at The Guardian titled, “Crossing the line: Louis Tomlinson queue controversy sparks debate around camping out for gigs.”
Glitter Up the Dark was included in “The 10 Books I Read in 2022 That Impacted Me the Most (So Far . . .),” at Josh Friedberg’s “Spectrum Sounds.” Friedberg writes of Geffen’s book, “Glitter Up the Dark is easily one of the most pathbreaking and innovative books on music history I’ve ever read in a lifetime of reading about music history. Geffen’s insights taught me a lot and made this book a joy to read.”
Texas
The One Ann Only was included in the Texas Observer’s “Best Texas Books of 2022.”
Texas Lithographs was excerpted in the January/February issue of Alcalde.
David Ulin’s review of More City Than Water was included in Alta’s list of “Best Alta Monday Book Reviews of 2022.”
Before Lawrence v. Texas was highlighted at New Pages.
Sharpening the Legal Mind was included in the January/February issue of Alcalde, in the latest iteration of their “New Reads from the Longhorn Universe.”
The Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection was reviewed at Communication Arts. Angelynn Grant writes, “Wood type is bold and beautiful, and a hefty book like this one (don’t drop it on your toe!) seems fitting. It offers a wealth of information about the specimens in the Rob Roy American Wood Type Collection at the University of Texas (UT) in Austin, Texas, their classifications and the manufacturers who created them while also telling a finely detailed history of Kelly’s journey acquiring wood type, designing and printing specimens, and researching their histories…Beautifully printed, the book comes with a brilliant green-ribbon bookmark and vibrant red/orange endsheets in a pattern drawn from the collection’s borders and rules.”
Film, Media, and Popular Culture
The American Jewish Story through Cinema was mentioned and quoted in a New York Times piece titled, “Contemplating a Canon of Jewish American Films.”
The Empire of Effects was reviewed in CHOICE. S. Lenig writes, “Turnock’s expansive study of Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and by turns of the wider special effects industry provides insight, nuance, and practical reactions to an industry that often dominates the filmmaking process and erodes the elements of story, direction, or performance…Highly recommended.”
Below the Stars was reviewed in Media Industries. Lauren Steimer writes, “[Below the Stars] provides us with multiple previously obscured union histories. It also drives home our need to re-envision the ideological constructs we sometimes cling to in our field: the conflation of actor and star and the belief in the impermeable boundaries between media. In short, this book fills several gaps in the field and is a necessary addition to any course on the US media industries, stardom, performance, and/or US television history.”
Literature
The Book of Merlyn was included in The Portalist’s list of “The Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Loved Most in 2022.”
Books Are Made Out of Books was mentioned in a review of the new Cormac McCarthy novels in the London Review of Books.
Plagues & Pencils was mentioned in Austin Kleon’s “My reading year, 2022.”
Sports
Egypt’s Football Revolution was reviewed at the Anthropology Book Forum. Victor Nygren writes, “Through detailed analysis of media, sports fans and revolutionary change, the reader follows the trajectory of the ‘national game’ from its peak of popular attraction to its fall into obscurity. With a focus on affect and emotions, this tale of football in Egypt is also one that tells of how the masculine national subject is supposed to feel, act and react to events that bring people, places, old and new media together like no other.” Nygren goes on, “The focus on individual interlocutors, events, and large-scale processes in an interwoven manner adds richness to the texture of this excellent piece that ought to spark interest among sports fans and academics alike.”
Pitching Democracy received a first review this week, from Publishers Weekly. Their reviewer writes, “Enriched by Yoder’s passion for the sport and extensive knowledge of Cold War Latin American politics, this is a detailed study of the links between sport and social change.”
Mr. America was included in Beth Skwarecki’s list at Lifehacker of “9 of the Best Fitness Books I Read in 2022.”
Futbolera was recommended at the website of Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences in an interview with assistant professor Patrick Ridge.
Latin American Studies
Downtown Juárez was reviewed in the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. Daniel E. Martínez writes, “Campbell’s vivid and captivating ethnography of Downtown Juárez is not only accessible, well written, and engaging, but also makes notable theoretical and methodological contributions.” Martínez goes on, “Campbell’s ethnography neither romanticizes nor pathologizes everyday life in Downtown Juárez. Instead, he masterfully centers the lived realities of his informants and provides greater insights into their subjectivities and humanity.” Martínez calls the book, “A must-read for scholars interested in violence, the borderlands, and ethnographic methodologies.”
Trail of Footprints was reviewed in Isis. James R. Akerman writes, “Hidalgo’s masterful study is brilliantly conceived and organized and will become a must-read for both specialists and those new to the field,” going on, “Map historians will value Hidalgo’s processual approach, embracing the social, cultural, political, and legal contexts from which these documents emerged; techniques, practices, and materiality; and the reception and afterlives of these complex documents. This elegant, engaging, and thoroughly researched volume will, however, have wide appeal among specialists in a host of other fields, including the history of science, environmental history, textual studies, and art history.”
Hidalgo’s book was also reviewed in The Latin Americanist, where Felicia Rhapsody Lopez calls it, “A beautifully compiled book that presents a glimpse into the evolving art and function of mapmaking by Indigenous artisans within Mexico’s changing colonial landscapes” and “A highly enjoyable read,” going on, “Trail of Footprints would make a beautiful addition to the personal library of any art historian, as well as anyone interested in Indigenous arts, histories, glyphic traditions, or first-person accounts from Mexico’s colonial period.”
Middle Eastern Studies
The Right Kind of Suffering was highlighted at the HEPPAS Books blog.
The Egyptian Labor Corps was reviewed in Contemporary Levant. Anthony Gorman writes, “This is an attractive, informative and well-researched account,” going on, “Anderson has successfully provided an innovative interpretation of a critical period when Egyptians were seeking to imagine a post-Ottoman and postcolonial future for their country that sheds important light on the nature and legacy of British imperial practices and recognises a range of inspirations that informed Egyptian national visions.”
Indigenous Studies
Foundations of Glen Canyon Dam was included in the January/February issue of Alcalde, in the latest iteration of their “New Reads from the Longhorn Universe.” Bsumek’s book was also highlighted at the New Books blog.
