WARNING: This post is NSFW (Not Safe For Work) In the past eight years, I've reviewed plenty of amazing books, less-than-amazing books, really-kind-of-terrible books, and just-plain-meh books. The reading experience has been a mixed bag of awesomeness and problems, but there was always something in each book that kept me going, whether it was the likable-enough characters, the plot that hooked me, or the world-building that made me want to stay in that setting just a little while longer. But an inevitable part of any reader's life is the DNF pile -- the books they simply Did Not Finish. The books that were so ridiculous, or so problematic, or so put-down-able, that you simply can't stubborn your way through them. Normally, I don't give those books a second thought after I've returned them to the library or sold them back to Half Price, but you know what? It's time to give a shout out to my DNF pile -- at least the most recent/memorable ones from the adu
Of course this title caught my eye when I saw it on the library's New Books shelf. It's not only a tribute to the late Ziggy Stardust, but a history of LGBT music throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, from jazz and blues to disco to country to punk rock to hip hop. It's mostly U.S. and U.K. artists, but sprinkled throughout are stories of singers and bands from other parts of the world. It's a blend of music industry history and social and political history, and author Darryl W. Bullock often sprinkles in his own opinions of the artists and movements he discusses. My only criticism is that it's also sprinkled with proofreading errors, but the fascinating stories and information kept my attention anyway. Some interesting facts I hadn't known before: Brigham Morris Young, the son of the Mormon leader Brigham Young, was a well-known "female impersonator," performing as "Madam Pattirini" in the late 19th and early 20th c