This month’s book discussion is by Kyle Petersen, Assistant Editor of Jasper Magazine

Book Selection: from the 33 1/3 series, Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by Carl Wilson
(2nd edition subtitle: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste)

“An evergreen classic of music criticism–a love letter from a cerebral pop aesthete to the music he sincerely, almost sentimentally hates.” – Rob Sheffield

“A book pondering the aesthetics of Celine risks going wrong in about 3,000 different ways. Instead, this book goes deeply right.” -Sam Anderson, New York Magazine

“This erudite and eye-opening book attempts to explore not only Dion’s polarizing appeal but also the very concept of ‘taste.’ By the end, Wilson has set the blueprint for a kind of music criticism that might put less stock in defending its choices and more in depicting its enjoyment, with all its messiness and private soul tremors–to show what it is like for me to like it, and invite you to compare. In other words, let’s talk about love.” – Pitchfork, Our 60 Favorite Music Books

“OMG I’m SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!!!!!!” – Kyle Petersen, Assistant Editor of Jasper Magazine

Join us for another night of rich, erudite discussion and, if you’re (un-?)lucky, a drunken sing-along to “My Heart Will Go On.””

PS – If you want to ready even MORE after you have finished the book proper, you can check out the essays in the expanded edition or this little roundtable on NPR: http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2014/04/15/301440765/why-we-fight-about-pop-music