Maybe my Gen-X is showing, but I enjoyed this stroll down memory lane (kinda, I mean, you know, whatever). It's always interesting to look back at your youth/coming of age era through 20/20 hindsight, and Klosterman enables that nicely. I'm not sure that younger Millennials or Gen-Z'ers would enjoy this really, as it's kinda like a "you had to be there" type of thing, but for people my age or thereabouts, it's spot on.

This was somewhat interested but as someone who lived through the time it just feels like Klosterman doesn't quite hit the nail on the head. Nonetheless, it is a decent read.

I picked this book up because I thought it would be a nostalgic fluff piece. A book called The Nineties with that see through phone everyone wanted back then sounded like it would be a quick, easy read that reminded me of my younger days. Nostalgic it definitely was. Fluff piece, not so much. This was a very in depth analysis of things from the 90s from music and movies to politics. It reminded me of a lot of things from my youth, and I even learned a few things. It was, however, a bit dry and difficult to get through at times. This is the first book I've read by this author so I wasn't aware of his writing style. I have a pretty decent vocabulary but I frequently had to use the dictionary function on my Kindle. The frequent footnotes got a little old as well. I read some of them but gave up on them part way through. It was definitely a well researched book, but it wasn't what I expected it to be.

He looks at what made things famous at the time such as Nirvana and the movie Titanic, and reappraises what endures about their popularity and, as with other books, speculates how they will continue to be remembered. He talks about how some movie stories were so vintage for the mindset of the 90s that they could not have been made before, and would not work anytime since. Nostalgia plus great analytical insight: another Klosterman winner!

A thoughtful, question-raising influence at the 1990s. in particular I enjoyed reading about Body Count, the subject of my next book, and I've been thinking of the re-evaluation of Falling Down.

I will admit I approached this book tentatively. It had been a while since I had read Chuck Klosterman, and I thought that maybe I had outgrown his verbose Gen-X snark. Perhaps it just hits too close to home. The nineties, too, were a decade that, despite containing the bulk of my twenties (I was born a year before the author), a free, adventurous, exploring time, I embarrassingly toss this decade aside. Thinking about some of those boyfriends, those fashion choices, those concerts, and all of the damn magazines that I read, it felt like a decade I wanted to lock away somewhere. It was vaguely embarrassing to me. Still something drew me to the book, a chance to make sense of it all perhaps?

Klosterman gets it all. ALL. I could throw out a bunch of names and concepts that he refers to like a "We Didn't Start the Fire," part two, but seriously, it's all in there. Conceptually you might assume that the chapters would be arranged by music, sports, movies, politics, TV, etc., but instead, it's all woven together rather seamlessly. For the purposes of the book he defines the nineties less as being contained exactly during that time and more as beginning at the fall of the Berlin Wall and ending on 9/11. It works.

There's no point in discussing the specific events contained within. Suffice it to say, I came away with more closure than I expected. I heartily endorse this book.

As someone in my twenties during the 90’s, this was an interesting book about our Gen X decade. A decade that wasn’t really defined by anything monumental. Lots of trivia but sometimes this book would drag and I found myself skipping ahead

This book is pure nostalgia and I am here for every minute of it. When dealing with various generations, it is difficult to explain how life was like before accessible internet and GPS. Reboots of shows on streaming services makes it a tad bit easier for newer generations to understand the "plight" of a generation navigating life pre- and post- caller id on land lines vice cell phones. Klosterman does an amazing job of breaking it down for us all wanting to learn about that time... or relive it.

I kept putting down and picking this book back up so many times that I finally decided to quit. It just could not keep my interest. The essays felt like they lost focus and were too rambly for me.

Another insightful analysis of a time near and dear to me. I really enjoyed the nostalgia trip as well as learning things I honestly didn't remember about the decade.

This was such an interesting read. I particularly loved the essays/chapters on pop culture but was still very drawn into the more political chapters based on Klosterman’s writing style. I definitely recommend this to others and am glad I had a chance to learn more about this time period.

I graduated high school in 1995 and absolutely LOVED this book! It took me right back to my teen and young adult years and brought up all kinds of nostalgia. I actually had the exact phone on the cover of the book in my dorm room in college! My husband got annoyed at all the things I read out loud to him and/or texted him each day while reading this. If you were alive and even vaguely aware of your surroundings during the 90s, you'll love this! I've already purchased 2 copies of this book to give as birthday gifts to friends!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read a Klosterman (like, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs long time), so I was very excited for this book. The Nineties is a great blend of politics and pop culture with all of the 90s nostalgia. Topics range from the unforgettable (the impact of 90’s records sales/the deaths of Tupac and Kurt Cobain) to the more obscure - remember when Michael Jordan played baseball? Yeah, same.

I enjoyed the nostalgia, but these essays just seemed to meander at times and I lost interest. It was fun to revisit this decade, but something just seemed to be missing. I will still read more from this author in the future and would recommend this book if you are a child of the 80/90s.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

This book sort of just ambles on, without any real direction. Some of the anecdotes are amusing, and some of the anecdotes are lost in complicated language. I have been a fan of Chuck Klosterman and have read many of his book, but this is not his best one.

This is literary comfort food. Klosterman is in his element in describing the 90s. I am not sure if the book has a clear thesis, other than the author describing the events when he was a young adult to people who are younger. It reads as pleasant nostalgia for those of us who were there.

This was a mixture of nostalgia/memories and analysis/presentation of facts. Which makes sense, because as we get farther away from something, our memories aren’t quite as accurate as they used to be, and our present selves shape how we think about the past.

This was a fun mixture of pop culture, world events, politics, celebrity, and shared experiences. I found plenty of things I remembered as a child of the 90s, plus plenty I’m aware happened but I didn’t pay attention to at the time.

Things I wish had been mentioned: pop music like boy bands, Britney Spears and all the young females she was compared to, and teen magazine heartthrobs instead of just alternative and rap. Inflatable furniture, Lisa Frank, pogs, and other random 90s stuff that was larger in my sphere than the author’s.

All in all, this was a good read.

As a member of generation x, I loved Klosterman’s take on the nineties. Was an excellent mix of pop culture, politics, and technology.

Not my cup of tea or bag or jam, depending what generation you are.
You know what I remember about the nineties? Nothing. I feel no connection to Klosterman’s observation, no matter how astute they may be. It is hard to participate in navel gazing when it is someone else’s navel.
I will leave this study to people more deeply involved.

As someone who was born in 1980, and is currently obsessed with the generational divides, "The Nineties" was an immediate addition to my TBR pile. Because I was still pretty young throughout the decade, all of the information in the book was vaguely familiar, but I finally got to experience the decade as an adult and understand what the heck the world was dealing with. Absolutely fascinating and easy to ingest, Klosterman brings his trademark whip smart humor to a collection of facts that could otherwise be as boring as discussing Current Events in Mr. Hofferman's 8th grade history class. This is a must read for anyone who has any memory of the 90s whatsoever.

And just so you know, I had been a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio since BEFORE Growing Pains, and I felt personally attacked when "Titanic" came out and his star rose meteorically. Because that meant I had even less of a chance of marrying him.

Regular readers of Klosterman will enjoy this newest set of essays. I was ages 8-18 in the 1990s, so it was interesting to read about some things I definitely remembered and some I was too young for. While some of his takes on issues can get a bit too pedantic or philosophical, overall this was an interesting and enjoyable read.