**** “SAMBA”, By Alma Guillermoprieto. <i> Vintage Books (paperback, $11)</i>

“Samba” is exactly what you hope for in a book about an unfamiliar pop style, because it places the music within a cultural context. Guillermoprieto, Newsweek’s Brazil correspondent in 1988, joined a famous samba school from one of Rio de Janeiro’s hillside slums during its preparations for the city’s fabled annual carnival. Adroitly balancing multiple roles as participant, observer and historian, she offers a compelling narrative that brings the social and human dimensions behind the music and costumes vividly to life.

Items in this periodic survey of pop-related books, videocassettes and laser discs are rated on a scale of one asterisk (poor) to five (a classic).