35 books like Mad Men Carousel

We have long admired creators Jay Ward and Bill Scott, whose clever, pun-filled, irony-infused, supremely self-aware TV world is a delight to discover at any age.

Here, author Keith Scott (himself a voice artist and animation historian, and no relation to Bill) spins the story of Bullwinkle J. Moose, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, and their friends and fiends (Boris and Natasha) and also covers creations before, during, and after the Bullwinkle run.

We have also happily indulged in his fan’s eye for detail in 100 pages of end notes minutiae, including every punny episode title.

Rod Serling’s fantasy anthology (where he was narrator and chief writer) was a favorite of ours back then and still is. Despite a skimpy production budget, the show’s quality scripts, acting, and imaginative themes usually transcended the sparse settings.

Having seen most episodes several times, we still turn to Zicree’s handy book to refresh our memories of the show. This was one of the first of the “companion” books to document a memorable TV series, presenting each episode with cast and crew information, airdate, sample photo, the text of Serling’s intro and outro narration, plot summary and revealing analysis, and background details. The expanded 3rd edition (from 2018) also covers the various later revivals of the series.

Jennifer Keishin Armstrong (writer for such publications as Entertainment Weekly and New York magazine) has smartly chronicled the medium in single-show books (most famously Seinfeldia). Here, she does the same for a reach back to TV's defining days to focus on four pioneering industry women, on and off camera: Gertrude Berg, Hazel Scott, Irna Phillips, and Betty White.

We love Armstrong’s crisp narrative style, eye for behind-the-scenes moments, and respect for each character's strength and tenacity. While her "Invented Television" title is a deliberately bold thematic declaration, we think the subtitle “The Untold Story of Female Powerhouses” best captures the book's actual scope and success.

When we set out to start writing our TV history book, we didn’t know what we didn’t know about the topic. Fortunately, we found the first edition of this book. It was invaluable to us to describe and explain where radio and television came from and how they came to be as we knew them.

This one-volume book distills the author’s masterful earlier three-volume set on this topic. Barnouw blazed the trail for us by treating broadcasting as worthy of serious historical research and analysis while never failing to make the oft-complex tales engrossing and entertaining reading. The updated second revised edition (from 1990) brings the story up to the era of cable.

This memoir paints a vivid picture of the sixties due to its author's excellent writing style and his immersion into the important events of the era.

One of the key factors for me and many other young people at the time was the war in Vietnam, where Stone served as a reporter. Later, he was closely associated with the sixties counterculture, including the exploits of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, which he describes in this absorbing and fascinating book.

I found this book to be a compelling and eerie read. Evie Boyd leaves home to join a cult reminiscent of Charles Manson’s “family.”

Even if you’re largely unaware of the actions of Manson and his followers in the late sixties, you’d likely pick up on how closely the fictional storyline is modeled after the infamous group and its crimes. While Cline doesn’t recreate the events of the Manson cult, the trajectory the story follows is reminiscent of reality, especially when the girls break into a home—the calling card of Manson’s followers.

I really enjoy that while the story is very much linked to Manson and his family, Cline’s vivid writing style sets it apart.

Really hard to pick just one Pynchon for this list, as he is an all-around master of satire. But Inherent Vice is probably his LOL funniest, a stoner take on the detective genre set in the hippie world of 1970s southern California. The cinematic adaptation by Paul Thomas Anderson ain’t half bad, either. 

This sweet gem is like a salve for any food-loving reader’s soul. I devoured it on a stormy weekend, curled up on my couch with a cup of tea and it has stayed with me ever since. The story is set in the 1960s and written entirely in letters between an aspiring food writer in LA and a food columnist in the Puget Sound. Who knew that you couldn’t find garlic in the grocery store back in the 60s or that a simple gift of saffron would lead to a lasting friendship. Love & Saffron is a tender novel about friendship and how food connects us. I have literally given this book to all of my friends. It will warm your heart and leave you hungry for more. 

Longtime technology journalist John Markoff explores the origins of the Silicon Valley mythos in this engaging and insightful history of the early personal computer industry.

The book explores how the modern personal computer took shape amid the counterculture of the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and 1970s, where an eccentric cast of technology visionaries, hackers, and misfits began pushing the boundaries of human consciousness: embracing utopian ideals, experimenting with mind-expanding drugs, and exploring the still-uncharted possibilities of personal computing.

Markoff does a masterful job of connecting the dots between the Sixties counterculture and the revolutionary ethos that undergirded the early personal computing industry, making a convincing case that our present-day technology culture is deeply rooted in this transformative period in American culture. An entertaining and inspiring read.

It's 1969, Phyllis is married to a kind man, with two children and a large house in suburban London. Her domestic world is not far removed from a dutiful 50s housewife’s. Then a much younger man, dashing, selfish, and a family friend, kisses her in a dark garden, and her life explodes. She abandons her family and moves to a shabby flat in Ladbroke Grove. A new world opens to her – she meets people of colour, artists, activists, drinkers, and idealists. She experiences sexual freedom and romantic love. Phyllis’s teenage daughter joins her in her new life, and mother and daughter must work out a different kind of relationship. I found myself feeling furious with Phyllis at the same time as emphasising with her.