Here are 29 books that Contact High fans have personally recommended if you like
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I spent my childhood in New York and my early adulthood in Chicago, which inspired my fascination with the histories of cities and how we can analyze their built environments to understand the culture, politics, and economy of these vital but complicated places. I wrote my first book about New York’s SoHo neighborhood to better understand how some former disinvested industrial areas became wealthy and gentrified and how artists became known as critical actors in the contemporary city. Since then, I’ve focused the bulk of my teaching and research on urban history. This list includes my favorite fiction and non-fiction titles about New York’s dynamic art scene. Enjoy!
The most famous chapter of the renowned book on New York history, Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, outlines how the Cross-Bronx Expressway gutted once thriving Bronx neighborhoods. Can’t Stop Won’t Stop shows how the global cultural phenomenon of hip-hop arose in the same borough two decades later.
Chang takes readers through public housing recreation rooms, South Bronx streets, and elevated subway lines where a group of musicians, visual artists, and dancers changed world culture. I especially love how the book illuminates how a specific place and time period made possible the development of this now ubiquitous artistic genre.
A history of hip-hop cites its origins in the post-civil rights Bronx and Jamaica, drawing on interviews with performers, activists, gang members, DJs, and others to document how the movement has influenced politics and culture.
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I’ve loved hip-hop since, as Biggie Smalls would say, “the public school era.” For over 10 years, I’ve been a journalist and on-air host covering all facets of hip-hop from breaking emerging acts to interviewing superstars. Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion is my first book and the culmination of my expertise in fashion and pop culture. These books served as the bedrock for me—as inspiration, research, and motivation—and one day, I hope that my book will do the same for the next writer.
There wouldn’t be hip-hop without the ladies. As a female hip-hop journalist, I love that the definitive book on female rappers exists.
God Save the Queens is a hip-hop anthology that meticulously chronicles the important (and often unsung) contributions of female rappers. Whether you’re a fan of the old school (MC Lyte) or the new (Megan Thee Stallion), you’ll learn about the notoriously competitive and patriarchal industry and how these women fought adversity, doubt, and the odds to garner respect—and their crowns—in hip-hop.
"Without God Save the Queens, it is possible that the contributions of dozens of important female hip-hop artists who have sold tens of millions of albums, starred in monumental films, and influenced the direction of the culture would continue to go unrecognized." -AllHipHop.com
Can't Stop Won't Stop meets Girls to the Front in this essential and long overdue history of hip-hop's female pioneers and its enduring stars.
Every history of hip-hop previously published, from Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop to Shea Serrano's The Rap Yearbook, focuses primarily on men, glaringly omitting a…
I’ve loved hip-hop since, as Biggie Smalls would say, “the public school era.” For over 10 years, I’ve been a journalist and on-air host covering all facets of hip-hop from breaking emerging acts to interviewing superstars. Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion is my first book and the culmination of my expertise in fashion and pop culture. These books served as the bedrock for me—as inspiration, research, and motivation—and one day, I hope that my book will do the same for the next writer.
For most of us, we’re fans of hip-hop but there’s something special hearing the story of hip-hop from the people who were actually there.
I grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan but The Come Up takes me straight to the streets of New York City, Los Angeles, and beyond. The book draws on more than 300 interviews over three years including some of the originators of hip-hop including Grandmaster Caz, Run-D.M.C., Kool Moe Dee, and Ice Cube.
The vivid voices trace hip-hop’s history and offer insider access—whether you were there or just wish you were—to what really went on behind the scenes.
The music that would come to be known as hip-hop was born at a party in the Bronx in the summer of 1973. Now, fifty years later, it's the most popular music genre in America. Just as jazz did in the first half of the twentieth century, hip-hop and its groundbreaking DJs and artists-nearly all of them people of colour from some of America's most overlooked communities-pushed the boundaries of music to new frontiers, while transfixing the country's youth and reshaping fashion, art, and even language.
And yet, the stories of many hip-hop pioneers and their individual contributions in the…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I’ve loved hip-hop since, as Biggie Smalls would say, “the public school era.” For over 10 years, I’ve been a journalist and on-air host covering all facets of hip-hop from breaking emerging acts to interviewing superstars. Fashion Killa: How Hip-Hop Revolutionized High Fashion is my first book and the culmination of my expertise in fashion and pop culture. These books served as the bedrock for me—as inspiration, research, and motivation—and one day, I hope that my book will do the same for the next writer.
Vibe has been the preeminent publication for hip-hop culture since its inception in 1993. I remember running to the grocery store to pick up each month’s issue and flipping through it’s glossy pages.
The Vibe History of Hip-Hop chronicles the rise of hip-hop from some of the magazine’s sharpest and most esteemed journalists, editors, and photographers. You know the bylines: Danyel Smith, Greg Tate, Anthony deCurtis, dream hampton, Neil Strauss, and Bönz Malone. As Smith writes in the preface: “A history? No. A story, really. A tale from the dark side.”
Music, fashion, dance, graffiti, movies, videos, and business: it's all in this brilliant tale of a cultural revolution that spans race and gender, language and nationality. The definitive history of an underdocumented music genre, The VIBE History of Hip Hop tells the full story of this grassroots cultural movement, from its origins on the streets of the Bronx to its explosion as an international phenomenon. Illustrated with almost 200 photos, and accompanied by comprehensive discographies, this book is a vivid review of the hip hop world through the eyes and ears of more than 50 of the finest music writers…
I’m a historian and writer who strives to combine the history of science and medicine, the study of visual culture, and cultural history in my work. Although I hated being dragged round art galleries and museums as a child, something must have stuck, laying the foundations for my interest in using images and artefacts to understand both the past and the present. Since the early 1990s I’ve been writing about portraits, how they work, and why they are important—I remain gripped by the compelling ways they speak to identity. It was a privilege to serve as a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery in London between 2001 and 2009.
Published by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., this beautifully produced and generously illustrated book contains essays on many aspects of portraiture with special emphasis on the USA. Portraits are fascinating; there is just so much to say about the ways in which materials such as paper, stone, metal, and canvas, ink, crayon, and paint can conjure up a human being. Nations, institutions, professions, families, and individuals all make use of portraits to affirm their positions, persuade those who view them of their worth, and shape forms of remembrance. The essays are relatively short, which encourages readers to browse, read a contribution and then come back often to look as well as read more about one of the most extraordinary forms of visual culture that has ever been produced.
Explores new approaches to portraying identity and the human face and figure, through works from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's collections and other institutions. Is there more to portraiture than eyes meeting eyes? Beyond the Face: New Perspectives on Portraiture presents sixteen essays by leading scholars who explore the subtle means by which artists - and subjects - convey a sense of identity and reveal historical context. Examining a wide range of topics, from early caricature and political vandalism of portraits to contemporary selfies and performance art, these studies challenge our traditional assumptions about portraiture. By probing the diversity and…
Greg Shed is a self-taught California illustrator specializing in Americana. In addition to commercial work and portraits, he has illustrated more than a dozen children’s books—several of which are about American history. A dedicated researcher, Greg has traveled from the Plymouth colony to the American prairie in search of authenticity and details. He has consulted with Native American craftsmen on the manufacture of native period attire. He is known for capturing golden light in his paintings, which often depict Native American cultures, wildlife, and landscapes.
Women and Warriors of the Plains is about the frontier adventures of a newly-married young woman and her camera in the early 20th Century. Settling on the Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation in Montana, Julia Tuell went on to capture portraits and photojournalistic depictions of Native Americans living off the land and going about their everyday lives, including the Northern Cheyenne and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Lakota nation. Many of Tuell’s photos taught me to compose my paintings in a more natural way.
In 1901, Julia Tuell married a man who taught on several Indian reservations. While raising her children and doing the myriad tasks expected of a woman, she found time to become a photographer. This is a collection of her photographs, accompanied by text from Dan Aadland.
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…
A part of me is reluctant to recommend books on art. The same part of me is reluctant to write books on art. After all, a work of art should speak for itself. Then I remembered that for most contemporary art shows, a catalog is produced, and that catalog typically features an explanatory essay by some sympathetic scholar or critic. If the art of today requires verbal elaboration, how much more will the art of the past—especially the remote past—require such commentary? These recommendations are a selection of some favorite texts about how art comes into being—and is part of our being.
Martin is a pal. Even if he weren’t I would recommend this unusual meditation on how a work of art gets made. Imagine you have volunteered to sit for a portrait by a highly distinguished artist (here, Lucien Freud).
This entails many hours, stretching over many months—of sitting in exactly the same position, effectively doing nothing. Not only are you stuck with the situation. You can’t even be sure that the artist, let alone you, will be happy with the result. From this agony comes an essay on the process of a ‘masterpiece’ that is patient, tender, good-natured—and filled with telling anecdotes.
Lucian Freud, perhaps the world's leading portrait painter, spent seven months painting a portrait of the art critic Martin Gayford. Gayford describes the process chronologically, from the day he arrived for the first sitting through to his meeting with the couple who bought the finished painting. As Freud creates a portrait of Gayford, so the art critic produces his own portrait of the notoriously private artist, recounting their wide-ranging conversations and giving a rare insight into Freud's working practice. The book is illustrated throughout with photographs by David Dawson of Freud at work, with paintings by Freud from the 1940s…
I’m a fan of Elton John’s music—obviously! Yet in all the decades that I’ve been listening to him, I never imagined I’d end up writing a book about him, let alone two. But I’m a professional book-writing historian, so when I discovered the 33 1/3 book series (each book on one album), I decided to pitch a proposal—and on a whim, I proposed writing on Elton’s Blue Moves LP. That book led a few years later to another—my On Elton John—which means I’ve now listened to every Elton song many times and read mountains of Elton interviews (but, no, I’m not planning a third Elton book)!
Elton John may be a feast more for the ears than the eyes, but his unique and elaborate costuming and showmanship, along with his collector’s approach to art and fashion, mean that a visual component is crucial to any complete appraisal of his cultural significance.
I was thrilled to be able to include a few of Terry O’Neill’s classic photographs in my book On Elton John, but O’Neill’s work really deserves the treatment it is given here—a lavish, gorgeous, often mesmerizing presentation of every great O’Neill shot of John and the people who filled his world.
An ideal accompaniment to the biographies and albums.
"Looking at Terry's photographs is like gazing through a window at the most extraordinary and exciting moments of my life." ELTON JOHN
Elton John and iconic photographer Terry O'Neill worked together for many years, taking in excess of 5,000 photographs. From intimate backstage shots to huge stadium concerts, the photographs in this book represent the very best of this archive, with most of the images being shown here for the first time.
O'Neill has drawn on his personal relationship with Elton John to write the book's introduction and captions.
"I'm so glad he was with us throughout the madness: in…
I am a hopeless photographer. But I have a passion for looking at photographs, for trying to understand how good ones work. They are not just momentary slices of life but structured artefacts, sometimes technically interesting, that in myriad ways reflect the society that produced them. I studied aspects of US cultural history at three universities. After devoting the first part of my academic career to American literature, in the second half – during which, supported by wonderful fellowships, I spent much time rooting in archives – I gave myself up to American photography. I have learnt much from each of the books I commend here.
Women photographers have all too often been overlooked or forgotten. (This happened to the subject of my own book choice, Helen Post.) But Helen Levitt – who really flourished from the 1940s through the 1960s and is now undergoing something of a renaissance – has always had devotees. Steichen invited her to contribute to The Family of Man and one of her most notable admirers, James Agee, the novelist, poet, film critic, and documentarian, was pleased to write the insightful essay to A Way of Seeing. Levitt’s quirky pictures of street life – especially those featuring children, often at play – document quite ordinary customs at a particular moment. Despite never seeming intrusive, they get up close, reveal the photographer’s rapport with her subjects, and present them, so to speak, on the level. Ultimately, these images are so expressive that they become universal, transcending the period in which they…
Taken over a number of years beginning in the early 1940s, the 51 photographs in this book -- many of them of children and of the poor, many taken in Harlem -- reveal the face of the city as it was and are an enduring image of existence as this artist sees it. The accompanying essay by James Agee is both a commentary on the pictures and an eloquent statement of the nature of the creative act and what it means or the art of photography.
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the world’s most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the book…
I love exploring the theme of family legacies and learning the stories, even if fictionalized, of our ancestors who helped build America for future generations. I explored this theme with my Ellis Island series, but truly it influences everything I write. It began with my interest in my own genealogy and my love of research. Along with writing my own books, I host a blog on historical fiction called Novel PASTimes and am co-founder of the Faith & Fellowship Book Festival with the aim of connecting readers with really good books.
This book is so well written. It draws the reader into the story quickly with rich historical details and compelling characters. In 1838 in England a young woman helps her father, a lighthouse keeper, rescue survivors of a shipwreck. A century later a young Irish woman is sent to America to have her baby while living with a relative who is a lighthouse keeper. The 1938 woman learns family history that takes us back to the previous story. I love stories of family legacies and mysteries that come to us from the past.
From The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home comes a historical novel inspired by true events, and the extraordinary female lighthouse keepers of the past two hundred years.
“They call me a heroine, but I am not deserving of such accolades. I am just an ordinary young woman who did her duty.”
1838: Northumberland, England. Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands has been Grace Darling’s home for all of her twenty-two years. When she and her father rescue shipwreck survivors in a furious storm, Grace becomes celebrated throughout England, the subject of poems, ballads, and…
