If you're a trivia buff, a pop culture enthusiast, or just love a good road trip, "It Happened Right Here" is a great guidebook for your next adventure. From the birthplace of Apple Computer to the dorm room where Facebook was conceived, Epting's meticulous research transforms ordinary locations into portals to iconic moments in history. Whether you're a fan of classic TV series like "Breaking Bad" or more into recent hits like "Stranger Things," this book has something for everyone.

But Epting doesn't stop at revisiting his classics; he introduces new sites that have become cultural touchstones in recent years. Whether you want to visit the elevator where Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Solange made headlines or the Subway sandwich shop associated with Jussie Smollett, you'll find it all here.

I received an ARC of "It Happened Right Here" from the publisher, and I can't wait to hit the road and explore these iconic landmarks myself!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

A fascinating collection of information for any trivia fan, this book covers information ranging from where famous crimes took place, to where celebrities are their last meal, to the creation of the first Buffalo wing, this book has everything for enthusiasts ranging from the merely curious about pop icons, to the truly rabid enthusiast.

Highly entertaining collection of information, this is truly the "best of the best".

If you're like me, a dedicated traveler with a passion for pop culture, then Chris Epting's "It Happened Right Here: America’s Pop Culture Landmarks" is a treasure trove of entertainment. The pioneer of the pop culture road trip, has taken us on an epic journey across North America to relive the moments that have shaped our cultural landscape.

Epting's previous books like "James Dean Died Here," "Elvis Presley Passed Here," and "Led Zeppelin Crashed Here" became cult classics, and "It Happened Right Here" celebrates their 20th anniversary by compiling the best of the best from those classics while adding a variety of new and exciting destinations inspired by the pop culture of the 21st century.

Epting transforms ordinary locations into portals to iconic moments in history. It's a road map of pop culture sites, from the birthplace of Apple Computer to the garage where Facebook was conceived. Whether you're a fan of classic TV series like "Breaking Bad" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" or are more into the 21st-century phenomena like "Stranger Things," this book has it all.

The book's illustrated pages bring these landmarks to life, making you feel like you're right there, reliving these iconic moments. From the beautiful sites featured in "La La Land" to the quirky locations from "Napoleon Dynamite," Epting's meticulous research takes you on a whirlwind tour of pop culture's most significant events.

Epting hasn't just stopped at revisiting his classics; he's added new sites that have become cultural touchstones in recent years. Whether you want to visit the elevator where Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Solange made headlines or the dorm room that birthed Facebook, you'll find it here.

Epting's book isn't just a travel guide; it's a time machine that lets you step into the shoes of the icons and legends who have left their mark on American pop culture. It's an encyclopedia of weird, wonderful, shocking, and bizarre moments that have become a part of our collective memory.

So, if you're ready to embark on a journey that will take you to the heart of pop culture history, "It Happened Right Here" is your ticket. With Epting as your guide, you'll not only see these locations; you'll experience the magic that happened right there.

I think it's the perfect book to read when you are travelling and want to see something off the beaten track or with reference to pop culture.
Entertaining, informative.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This detailed and entertaining and at times morbid book takes us through a journey of pop culture in the U.S. The book has photos and addresses for movies, sports, famous and infamous incidents and tragedies. I found it interesting to see where movies were filmed (being a huge movie buff myself). This book is inspiring me to look up some of these sites when I travel I enjoyed that these facts are all contained in one guide. A really interesting read!
Thank you to Netgalley and Santa Monica Press for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

Even though Chris Epting has already published several dozen books dedicated to music and movie pop culture tourism, "It happened here" falls flat in clearly defining its subject matter beyond the title.

Epting is callous in placing tragedies like the 2012 Aurora Colorado shooting in to a looky-loo tourism book that features the Napoleon Dynamite house on the cover and dons the subtitle "America's pop culture landmarks."

If we really think it's necessary to outline the exact location of haneous events throughout history, I'd hope the people doing so were mindful about its presentation

"It Happened Right Here" features important places that have been featured in literature, movies, and television shows. It also includes important historical places. I liked being able to read about all these places and seeing where they were around the world. I do wish that the book had featured an index by state or region to know where these locations where geographically in case you were traveling to a specific location.

A few months ago (unfortunately a few too many months ago to remember exactly what it was) I checked up on a book that was determined to get any Brit to any post code for any unusual event. This is the same but for the US. So if you want to know where this was happening, where that crime was undertaken, where this went down, this is the book for you. How do you get to Area 51? It's very quickly found here, in the alphabetical system. Where some numpty creamed himself because he thought he was filming a double rainbow? Yup, that's here. Where Elvis had a military haircut and the entire world had a conniption? Indeedy. The building in the background of 'American Gothic' is a bit more high-brow, thankfully.

It's not a hundred per cent success – when you get large box-out sections, such as the life of Bob Dylan you wish in vain for the content to drop the alphabetical order and go chronological. Some of it is repetitive, telling us about the same Jim Morrison hotel room twice, for example. Sometimes it makes you read it twice to know what a building was then and what it might be now, which is the key for people making their pilgrimages. But from senatorial car crashes to openings of fast food franchises, all that America has to offer is in here, and this, collected and refined from multiple previous volumes, is a huge hit for certain trivia fans and modern culture students.

Interesting book - I appreciate the long list of items to explore.

The Robert Blake section is chapter four is far out of date, which is disappointing for a book published in 2023.
The Charles Manson section is also years out of date.
The John Hinkley section is out of date as well.
The Mark David Chapman article mentions his first parole board hearing. He has had 12.
The Ten O'clock Scholar item says it is now a video store parking lot - no longer true.

Too many mistakes and old, outdated information to recommend.

Update: The publisher has stated that these items will be corrected in an addendum for the current edition and will be addressed in future additions.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book turned out to be a lot different from what I was expecting, but I did still learn some interesting tidbits from reading it.

Like Chris Epting, I've always been interested in learning where a big event happened. There's just something about standing in the spot of a big cultural "happening" that is profound to me. I was a big fan of Epting's books in the early 2000s -- James Dean Died Here, Elvis Presley Passed Here, and Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here -- so I was happy to see that he finally came out with another book of this type, It Happened Right Here: America's Pop Culture Landmarks.

If you've ever wanted to find out exactly where big events in music, sports, history, etc. happened, this is your book. Want to know where the house made famous in the Brady Bunch is? Or the dorm room where Facebook was created? It's all in here. What's always most exciting about Epting's books for me is finding out things that happened where I lived. Who knew that I lived very close to where Babe Ruth might have hit baseball's longest ever home run?

If you're at all interested in pop culture, It Happened Right Here is a fascinating read. I strongly recommend any of Epting's books.

MY RATING - 4

2.5 stars! This book is absolutely packed with info and I wanted to love it but didn’t. It was so long that I ended up skimming through to certain sections that interested me more. It could make a good coffee table book. Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Author Chris Epting established a new genre in book publishing when a trio of titles in the early 2000s— James Dean Died The Locations of America’s Pop Culture Landmarks , Elvis Presley Passed Here , and Marilyn Monroe Dyed Here —were released to critical acclaim and introduced readers to a groundbreaking travel The pop culture road trip. Epting promptly followed these hugely popular and influential titles with two more legendary Led Zeppelin Crashed Here and Roadside Baseball .


A Booksense 76 pick at the time, James Dean Died Here was covered by such major news outlets as NPR’s "All Things Considered," USA Today , Los Angeles Times , and Publishers Weekly . Everyone from Ken Burns to The Sporting News to the New York Post expressed their love for Roadside Baseball , while Led Zeppelin Crashed Here was recommended for all public libraries by Library Journal and outlets from the Associated Press to Newsday encouraged any fan of rock and roll history to buy the book.


Now, in honor of the 20th anniversary of James Dean Died Here , Epting has produced It Happened Right America’s Pop Culture Landmarks , which collects the best of the best from all of Epting’s prior books, and then adds dozens and dozens of new sites, many of them based on the pop culture of the 21st century. It Happened Right Here once again takes you on a journey across North America to the exact locations where the most significant events in American popular culture took place. It’s a road map for pop culture sites, from Patty Hearst’s bank to the garage where Apple Computer was born. Fully updated, the book includes such new entries.

A very informative read. Really enjoyed learning about pop culture places.

Synopsis: (from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review)
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Packed with historical information, this travel guide explores the sites where pop culture history was made. With hundreds of photographs, this encyclopedic resource covers approximately 600 sites of the most famous and infamous pop culture events. The greatest landmarks from Americana, movies, music, tragedy, crime, television, and sports are included, such as where George Washington crossed the Delaware River; the diner in the film Diner; the site of the Planet of the Apes finale; the Hindenburg crash site; the Brady Bunch house; and the location of the 1980 Olympic “Miracle on Ice” hockey team victory. This offbeat travelogue provides the armchair traveller or road warrior tourist with all the information needed to visit America's pop culture sites of significance.

We love to travel and find history as we are there --- the Titanic Cemetery in Halifax. NS was an exciting adventure. In fact, we love all cemeteries as they have so many interesting stories and tragedies in them...just go through and look at all the women dying in their early 20s and you can pretty much guarantee to be child-birth-related. Or a grave where three siblings died in two days... Spanish fly.

This is great if you are into "famous" or infamous places - they are everywhere to be found. A wonderful: "what kind of different book do you have" read. Highly recommended to lovers of pop culture and history and travel...Graceland is one prime example of a place like that.

#shortbutsweetreviews

Overall really interesting but it felt a little disjointed. Maybe it was the galley copy I was reading but the sections felt all over the place.

A well organized and informative read. Each chapter has a theme and is organized alphabetically. You will also find all the information you need to be able to visit the pop culture landmarks.
It Happened Right Here covers all aspects of pop culture, even the infamous and gory. It is a risk, but a risk the author is successful in taking. Pop culture covers all aspects of our lives and Chris Epting makes sure we know that in this book,

A really interesting, educational read with that's of facts I didn't know.
A fun easy read and a great Travel guide.

As a Los Angeles native, I love that so many notable pop-culture and filming locations are so close by. Whenever I watch a movie and see something that I recognize, I'm always the first person that tries to find out where it was filmed. This book was completely filled to the brim with famous landmarks not only for film and television but for art and literature, celebrity homes, sports and more. The book is well organized by category. The only thing that I wish is that it was sorted by location instead of alphabetically. For instance if I'm visiting a certain place, I would like to see all the notable locations in that place so I can visit them in one go. I think this is more of a book for reference and knowledge about interesting places rather than a "tour guide". I did enjoy it thoroughly!

This was entertaining enough but a few things seemed redundant based on their placement in the book multiple times. While I'm only an eReader, I bet this would be better viewed as a hardcover.

I love learning where things happened and the back story of events so this fit the bill.

It Happened Right Here was a fun book to look through. I learned so many new things and found so many places I would love to visit. My only issue with the book was the way the places are listed in alphabetical order. I wish it had been by state or something easy to quickly locate. Otherwise a great book and perfect for my next road-trip!