A very focused memoir of a singular year in Robyn Hitchcock’s early life provides Ian Koss with insight on basement Happenings and more.

M*A*S*H creator Mike Farrell takes a rental Prius on a cross-country book tour and ruminates on the 2008 political climate. Carl F Gauze suspects it’s a Hummer with a Prius shell.

Veteran left-wing political journalist Bob Scheer has interviewed every elected U.S. President from Nixon to Clinton, and as his latest book shows, he’s done so with fairness and insight. So why hasn’t he managed to chat with George W.? Eric J. Iannelli takes a look at Scheer’s Playing President.

If you thought Raymond Chandler was hard-boiled, you’re in for quite a shock from the gritty reality of Matthew Stokoe’s gripping new book, High Life. Ian Koss needed a shower after writing this review.

Sex, political intrigue, and… ancient Greece? Carl F. Gauze explains why Daniel Chavarria’s The Eye of Cybele is perfect summer reading.

Editor Norman Kelly takes a hard look at this business of black music in Rhythm And Business, a series of essays on the economic place of blacks in the music industry. Carl F. Gauze does the math.

Intensely personal and disturbingly familiar, Sparrow L. Patterson’s debut novel, Synthetic Bi Products follows a tough teen bisexual girl from the suburbs of Chicago through an early ’90s downward spiral of sex, drugs, and shoplifting. Julio Diaz can relate.

Since its founding in 1994, Punk Planet has been one of the most intelligent and honest magazines around, focusing equally on punk rock and progressive politics. Now, Akashic Books has collected the magazine’s most interesting interviews as We Owe You Nothing. Anton Wagner offers an in-depth analysis.