The Best Pop Culture Books of 2024

Mean Girls, Judy Blume, stand-up comedy, the Blues Brothers, the tabloid 2000s, and Ted Lasso are among the subjects authors tackled this year. Our staff of pop culture authors picks their top reads.

We not only write books about pop culture; we also read them. We read them as colleagues and friends and curious fellow participants in the ritual of writing long and deep about culture, but also just because before we ever started writing these books, we loved reading them first.

With that in mind, we have decided to kick off what we hope will become an annual effort to name the best pop-culture books of the year. It’s increasingly notable that the few remaining publications that cover books pay short shrift to books about popular culture, which rarely make year-end lists. We have decided to step into the breach and honor the best books in our field. Here are the 15 books that expanded our horizons this year.

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