Cool Town

“Delivers more than a love song to the music. Cool Town also serves up a textured portrait of a generation caught between baby and tech booms, wriggling under the thumb of the mainstream—in the pre-internet days when 'mainstream' was a discernible thing—and rummaging through thrift-store bins both literal and figurative in an effort to create something new.”—New York Times Book Review

“Hale’s rich, personal narrative draws readers in. . . . This colorfully rendered reverie will delight indie music fans.”—Publishers Weekly

“Captivating. . . . A deeply researched, highly engaging history of the Athens music scene.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“A carefully constructed history of how Athens, Georgia became a cultural hot spot. . . . A welcome history of an overlooked milieu, one that provides ample inspiration for art makers today.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Hale brings to this project the keen insights of. A talented historian and deep personal knowledge. . . . [Cool Town] is a rewarding read, with crackling prose that well matches such a captivating topic.”—Journal of Southern History

“The Athens Effect propagated a thrift-store, sexually fluid, avant-pop aesthetic that seemed more accessible than the extremes of punk or of successors such as goth. The fun of Cool Town is to hear where those elements came from, illuminated by Hale’s theories about why, and, most poignantly, what it means today.”—Bookforum

“Reconstructs the musical hotbed that birthed R.E.M., The B-52s, and Neutral Milk Hotel.”—The AV Club

“While the Athens buzz may have been manufactured, Athens is a very real place, and Hale writes with real passion about her formative years there.”—“The Currents Rock and Roll Book Club, Minnesota Public Radio”

“Both a historian and a participant in the music scene, Hale crafts a lively account of 1980s Athens: the artists, their stories, and the haunts they frequented, such as the Grit and the 40 Watt Club.”—Library Journal

“Hale offers a portrait of Athens that emphasizes fluidity, collectivity, and conviviality, conditions that were certainly framed by the relative homogeneity of the scene’s participants.”—Los Angeles Review of Books