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1982 in Music
[This post is part of a large project in which I am going through the popular music released in each year. Please see the note at the bottom of the post re: omissions and limitations.] Introduction If 1980 still mostly felt like the ‘70s, ‘81 was more of a trans [This post is part of…
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Monthly Reading Roundup: June 2026
Here are some of the highlights, and one notable low-light, from the past month of my reading life. Nine Raves Father Material (London Calling 3), by Alexis Hall (2026) Premise: Happily tucked into their committed unmarried life, Luc and Oliver consider big next steps Review: I was uncertain whether we needed another book in this…
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1981 in Music
[This post is part of a large project in which I am going through the popular music released in each year. Please see the note at the bottom of the post re: omissions and limitations.] Introduction If 1980 still mostly felt like the ‘70s, ‘81 was more of a transitional year. There was still ABBA…
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1980 in Music
[This post is part of a large project in which I am going through the popular music released in each year. Please see the note at the bottom of the post re: omissions and limitations.] Introduction As much as we love our round numbers, cultural transitions between decades are rarely as clean as we’d like…
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Monthly Reading Roundup: May 2026
Between some unexpected duds and a vacation on which I didn’t get a lot of reading done, May was probably my weakest reading month in the past few years. But there were still some notable reads along the way. Here are some of the highlights, and one notable low-light. Nine Eight Raves Son of Nobody,…
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Bookish Hall of Fame 2026: A Shakeup on Olympus
When I designed my Hall of Fame, I wanted to reserve a special place for the best of the best. And so I took the idea of a bookish Olympus, a dwelling place of my twelve literary gods. While there has been a bit of tweaking here and there over the years, for the most…
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Bookish Hall of Fame 2026: Biggest Rises and Falls
One of my favourite things about my Hall of Fame project is seeing how different books jump or stumble in my estimation from year to year. Here’s a list of the five biggest rises and the five deepest falls this year. (Note on ‘relative’ increases and decreases: The overall change is about the number in…
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Monthly Reading Roundup: April 2026
April ended up being a pretty good reading month for me, even with a few misses along the way. Here are some of the highlights, and one notable low-light. Nine Raves The Gospel according to Lazarus (aka The Lost Gospel of Lazarus), by Richard Zimler (2019) [RE-READ] Premise: After his being raised from the dead…
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The 2010s in Music: Decade Overview
I often say that there’s nothing less cool than what was popular ten years ago, and nothing cooler than what was popular twenty years ago. And because the 2010s, peak of Millennial culture that they were, are squarely in that ten-year window now, it’s easy to make fun of them and point out their foibles…
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Bookish Hall of Fame 2026: New Additions and Emeritus Titles
Every year when the dust settles and I take the time to update my bookish Hall of Fame, it’s always interesting to see which books from the previous year made the cut and slipped into my favourite 100 novels of all time. But that means I also have to say goodbye to the books that…
Matt's Books and Music
So many books, so many songs
Matt's Books and Music 