3 New Odes to Pop Culture

Believe: The Untold Story Behind ‘Ted Lasso,’ the Show That Kicked Its Way into Our Hearts

Egner, television editor at the New York Times, debuts with a loving oral history of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso, in which an American football coach transforms the fortunes of a beleaguered English soccer team. Recollections from actors, producers, writers, and other personnel take readers behind the scenes. For instance, real-life English soccer manager Chris Powell discusses how he was brought in to make the actors’ gameplay look realistic, actor Hannah Waddingham recalls an emotional day filming a eulogy for her character’s father while her real-life father underwent open-heart surgery, and star Jason Sudeikis reflects on sticking by his commitment to a three-season arc for the title character even after the show became an unexpected hit. In interstitial chapters, Egner comments on the show’s influences (the second season’s father-son dynamics were deliberately modeled on those in the Star Wars franchise) and key episodes (he suggests character Nate Shelley’s redemption arc in season three’s “International Break” is a bit rushed, but representative of the show’s optimistic outlook). While Egner is willing to admit Lasso occasionally hit a bum note, the book’s tone is overall adulatory, celebrating the show’s uplifting message and rousing spirit. Fans will find plenty to cheer for. Agent: Rick Richter, Aevitas Creative Management. (Nov.)

Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music

Music journalist Sheffield (Turn Around Bright Eyes) offers a spirited tribute to “the messiest and most fascinating figure in pop music.” A fan of Taylor Swift since hearing “Our Song” in the summer of 2007, Sheffield documents her entry into the music industry at 11, her move to Nashville at 13, her high school “outcast days,” and the release of her eponymous debut album in 2006. Sheffield also charts Swift’s stylistic shifts from 2012’s Red (“the gaudiest mega-pop manifesto”) to the “stark goth-folk sound” and “brooding ballads” of 2020’s Folklore. He pins the key to Swift’s fame on her ability to verbalize the “melodramatic love and explosive flings and rude interruptions” of teenage girlhood, even as she manages to keep “her deepest mysteries to herself.” Readers will revel in the unrestrained delight with which Sheffield captures his subject, mixing a fan’s exuberance with a music critic’s nuanced analysis. Swifties won’t be able to put this down. (Nov.)

Life’s Short, Talk Fast: 15 Writers on Why We Can’t Stop Watching ‘Gilmore Girls’

In this heartfelt tribute to Gilmore Girls, contributors reflect on what the show has meant to them. Tracey Minkin suggests that literature’s prominent role in teenage protagonist Rory Gilmore’s coming-of-age mirrors how books shaped her own adolescence, writing that “the bookish read as we breathe. It’s part of our autonomic nervous system. To not read is unimaginable.” In “Everything Softens,” Rand Richards Cooper recounts how his “roughneck” brother-in-law, “whose path through life had been crooked and full of missteps,” watched “this ultimate girls’ show” while undergoing treatment for the lung cancer that would eventually kill him, finding comfort in the portrayal of the fictional Connecticut town of Stars Hollow as a haven for misfits. Elsewhere, Sanjena Sathian compares her experience growing up as a South Asian woman in a predominantly white town with Korean character Lane Kim’s upbringing in Stars Hollow, and expresses ambivalence about how the term Asian American flattens the diversity found among Asian ethnicities and nationalities: “What I share with Lane isn’t Eastern roots—it’s the self-consciousness with which we must react, respond, and relate to America, as outsiders to this country.” The personal meditations are as soul-stirring as the show itself and shed light on its broad appeal. Gilmore Girls devotees will relish this. (Nov.)