It has been a wild ride through an expansive literal universe this year and we had so much fun reading these books. As you can see, there’s something for everyone, so pick your favorite genre and support these authors and Earth Island Books by purchasing their books.
The Fire Still Burns : Music Inspired By The Post-Punk Message By David Gamage
‘The Fire Still Burns’ is a story of post-punk adventure, packed full of anecdotes, inspiration and tales from the road with an insightful narrative on what keeps these bands plugging away with such heart; gigging, touring, recording and playing in a rough and ready scene.
A follow-up to 2023’s ‘A Hardcore Heart’ and a must-read for all tuned-in punk-rockers and hardcore fans, especially if they’re forming a new band.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Raccoon Starts A Band by Alex CF
‘Raccoon Starts A Band’ is the long-awaited and superb sequel to Alex CF’s brilliant ‘Punks In The Willows’. A fully illustrated picture book, exploring the many genres of punk, and a semi autobiographical journey, overcoming self doubt and anxiety, and finding a passion for music, ideology and social justice! It’s all about music, creativity, direct action and above all – equality.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
A Country Fit For Heroes : DIY Punk In Eighties Britain By Ian Glasper
Primarily collecting the stories of over 140 UK punk bands from the eighties who only released EPs and demos, or only appeared on compilation LPs, ‘A Country Fit for Heroes: DIY punk in eighties Britain’ is a celebration of the obscure, a love letter to the UK’s punk underground.
With a foreword by Chris Berry, co-founder of No Future Records, this is an essential read for anyone with more than a passing interest in the UK’s grass roots punk scene.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
The Humanity Trigger By Mark Humanity
This book tells the rich story of the struggle against violence against animals in Ireland since records began but with an emphasis on the 200-year period between 1822 and 2022. It was in 1822 that the world’s first Law protecting some animal species from ‘unnecessary’ suffering was enacted. This began a process of actions, from the State and Civil society, designed to protect non-human animals from gratuitous violence from people. What exactly constitutes unnecessary and gratuitous violence has broadened over time.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Down The Punk Rock Highway By Jared Forman
Evoking and channelling the spirit of rebellion, energy and freedom that defines the punk rock movement, Down The Punk Rock Highway is a testament to the determination of the writers’ mission to detail and capture the scene, people and places that made punk rock what it was, is and can be over thirty-five years.
Whether you’re feeling nostalgic for the glory days of the eighties scene and want to revisit it, or just dipping your toes in the punk ocean for the first time and want to find out what it’s all about, you’ll find what you’re looking for as you venture down the punk rock highway. Music, history and everything in between can be found in these pages. So wave your family and friends goodbye, throw your cases in the trunk, and start your engine. It’s time to head down the Punk Rock Highway…
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
The Resurrection Of The Crazed By Paul Wainwright
Join the author as he journeys back to those mutant rockin’, venue wreckin’, snakebite sodden days of the Psychobilly/neo-Rockabilly scene of the 80’s. His fanzine ‘The Crazed’ was right there, reporting on the scene as it grew and writing about bands such as The Meteors, GuanaBatz, Demented Are Go, King Kurt, Long Tall Texans and Restless.
Travel back through those articles and interviews and revisit the experience. Enjoy noisy nights at The Klub Foot, mecca of all things Psychobilly, where many of these interviews were conducted after sweaty gigs. Read the bands own words, full of enthusiasm, excitement and optimism about what the future might hold, and discover what it was like to produce and edit a fanzine back then. The scene meant so much to so many and ‘The Crazed’ was there to document it
This book recaptures how it felt at the time.
After lying dormant for over 30 years ‘The Crazed’ has now been resurrected.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Running At The Edge Of Their World : The Suspect Device Fanzine Story
‘Running at the edge of their world : The Suspect Device fanzine story’ by Tony and Gaz Suspect is the behind-the-scenes story of one of the U.K.’s longest running, and best loved punk fanzines
From the typewriter set, cut and paste layouts, to the illicit night-time, photocopying, up to today’s comparatively slick output. The book is filled with stories right from the very beginning of the community they helped build and support, and still do.
It’s about the changes and challenges Tony and Gaz had to overcome, and the lifelong friendships created in the process.This book is about the Suspect Device fanzine, but it’s also about the punks who came together to create the scene based on the principles of DIY, friendship and co-operation.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Dear Smash Hits, We’re From Scotland! By Alastair MacDonald Jackson
Most books about music related topics focus on the major metropolitan centres of New York or London. Alastair MacDonald Jackson not only shifts the focus to a small country in northern Europe – Scotland -but hones in the music makers from the very peripheries of the place. With a focus on the production of music zines, where he brings his own experience into play, the book also looks at the concurrent journeys of cassette labels, independent recordings and women’s involvement in the development of the Scottish independent music scene, concluding with the recent resurgence in all things DIY.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
The Weight Of Sin By Ray Canham
A collection of stories both witty and horrific, brimming with stygian absurdity and unexpected twists, Weight of Sin will haunt your dreams long after you’ve finished reading the final page…
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Pig Iron By Jim X Dodge
Pig Iron is an action packed, dystopian tale set in perilous times where survival is hard to come by and trust and friends even harder to find. When the Regency takes over, led by the elusive Regent, people have only two choices, either join his army or be hunted by them. That is until Colin Chapel decides to give people a third choice: fight back!
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
The Bite By Jim X Dodge
An eclectic cast of characters makes The Bite a story that’s as deep and thoughtful as it is brutal.
The situations they get into, and occasionally out of, are as varied as the characters themselves. Once you dig your teeth into this story you won’t want to let go until you’ve chewed all the way through to the end.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
This Is My Everything By Christian Späth
Five young men in their early twenties, carrying backpacks and guitars, climbed onto the bus in Mendoza, Argentina, that was to take them over the Andes to Santiago de Chile, where they would play the last show of their South American tour, and then board a plane the day after back to their home country of Germany. In spite of the South American winter, the weather in Mendoza was bright and sunny. The ride was supposed to take six hours, after three of which they would cross the border to Chile at a post called Cristo Redentor, at more than 3000 meters above sea level. Not long after the bus had left the station, the weather started to change for the worse. It started raining, and as the road wound itself higher up the Andes, rain soon turned to snow, and before long, white drifts were growing larger on either side of the road. When they finally reached the border crossing, a long line of trucks and cars was standing ahead of them, not moving an inch…
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Domesticated Vol. 2 By James Domestic
In the second Domesticated instalment, East Anglian punk poet, James Domestic, is once again taking potshots at work, so-called-punk-rock, outdoor and indoor pursuits, aging, right wing lunatics, politics, feet, and himself. As if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also find his trademark surrealism, sarcasm, and quintessentially British whimsy applied to animals, emails, food, and the power of music, alongside his idiosyncratic illustrations, and photographs from his murky past.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Domesticated Vol. 3 By James Domestic
The third and final volume in James Domestic’s superb collection of punk poetry, street knowledge and random amusing meanderings.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Time For My Generation To DIE by E.D. Evans
E.D. Evans is a lifelong poet. Having spent time in both London and New York during Punk’s original heyday in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, Evans has always comfortably floated between those two worlds. She became deeply entrenched in New York’s East Village art scene that was so pervasive in the 1980s/90s, spending years performing spoken word poetry at venues such as The Nuyorican Poets Café, Brownies, and The Knitting Factory.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Old West By E. D. Evans
Journey through the Old West where time stands still and there is nothing to believe in, except silence.Take a solitary ramble through old ghost towns, abandoned mining towns and echoing expanses.Pack light, lonesome traveller. And should you pass me by, kindly tip your hat to a lady.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Mix Tapes and Photo Albums by Andrea Janov
Mix Tapes and Photo Albums, a narrative poetry collection that forms a poetic mix tape. This coming‐of‐age poetry collection told from the point of view of an adolescent girl, follows a group of teenagers who push the boundaries of their small town, explore relationships, and test where they fit in society. They find solace in their local punk rock scene, where philosophy is defined through three‐minute songs to a mosh pit of believers who wear bruises as trophies.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Three And A Half Minutes Of Fame By Alex Boucher
Alex Boucher is a writer and musician based near Colchester, Essex.
Keeping a journal during the 90s, he has a detailed archive of his experience as a drummer and performer in acts including Three And A Half Minutes, Travis Cut, NV and Jaff.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
The Dark Chronicles By James Christie
A Punk Rock Diary. No holds Barred. Tells it like it is. Fun. Humourous.
It’s a biography. It’s a diary. It’s a music history lesson. It’s all three things wrapped up and more. Added with savage, sarcasm, this is the story of a former punk as told from a non-Caucasian alternative point of view, his time involved in London’s punk rock scene and abroad throughout the entire 1990’s and up to the early Noughties. How there was, despite the fun and laughs, a more sinister side which is never mentioned, along with the hypocrisy and the occasional violence that tagged along with it. No holds barred.
Read the review HERE
Order the book HERE
Ten Poets Vol. 1
Ten Poets (Volume One) by Martin Appleby, Dawn Vincent, James Domestic, Amy Wragg, Leon The Poet, Mary Fucking Poppins, Ricci Read, Ricky Frost, Tonkabell & Jackie Montague.
Poetry is arguably in (another) period of renaissance right now – everyone and their dog is a poet; just check out Instagram or TikTok – but there’s plenty of really terrible poetry around, as there always has been.
We don’t want that stuff; we want the diamonds that sparkle in the dirt, those that are using poetry to connect with audiences, to say something about the human condition, to make people think, reflect, and maybe even laugh like drains (poetry on some level is entertainment, and only an inveterate snob would say otherwise).
The first in a series of books showcasing poets of all stripes and intended to act as a primer to check out their other work and/or book them to perform in your city, town, or village.
Thoughts Words Action 