Boys Keep Swinging: A Memoir

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And I was treated like one, getting what I wanted most of the time, whether it was toys, books, or attention. I’d watch them get ready for a school dance, tucking and untucking the fronts of their shirts, trying their best to mimic the styles they saw on MTV, which was beamed into our home courtesy of the new miracle of cable. As he grieves the loss of freedom, the loss of friends, Shears is also overcome by the realization that the city that never sleeps didn’t enter a stasis, time didn’t freeze while he was gone, and we witness the contrast between Jason Sellards and Jake Shears and the difficulty of his coexisting with feet in two different worlds. Candid and courageous, Shears's writing sings with the same powerful, spirited presence that he brings to his live performances. Scissor Sisters is a group that I discovered a few years ago when their music was recommended after I purchased some Mika music.

This is an enjoyable bio that sometimes reads like a racy diary, other times like a hard walk down memory lane.Now I have to listen to a whole new artist, that for some reason I missed out on at the height of their fame. In the bestselling tradition of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, Patti Smith's Just Kids, and Carrie Brownstein's Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, the lead singer of the multiplatinum-selling band Scissor Sisters explores his evolution as a young artist: coming of age in the Pacific Northwest and Arizona, his entry into New York City's electrifying, ever-changing music scene, and the Scissor Sisters' rise as they reached international fame in the early 2000s. From a young age he knew he wasn't like everyone else—he didn't like sports, he preferred the company of adults (particularly adult women) to his peers, and he had a talent for writing and telling stories.

Windi and Sheryl, my sisters from my dad’s second marriage, were nine and ten years older than I was, respectively, so by the time I was in kindergarten, their braces had come off to display sets of blinding white teeth. It’s inspiring to read how Shears overcame a lack of confidence, and wide-eyed wonder at the possibility of becoming a star, to seriously start making music that impacted on the charts across the world. Before hitting the stage as the lead singer of the iconic glam rock band Scissor Sisters, Jake Shears was Jason Sellards, a teenage boy in Arizona living a double life and unable to hide it any longer, resulting in a confusing and confining time in high school as his classmates bullied him and teachers showed little sympathy. While watching The Muppet Show with my sisters one evening, I turned to them and said that I was going to marry the episode’s guest host, Christopher Reeve. When a book has already been blurbed by the likes of Armistead Maupin and Sir Elton John and reviewed by Lambda Literary, there isn’t much that my two cents is going to add to the buzz.

era of the band and he talks openly about his immediate bond with Kylie Minogue, whom he’s worked with on and off for a period of years. I think a lot of us were odd and awkward in childhood and even if we didn't struggle with identity or sexuality we were nonetheless uncomfortable in our own skins. I made the mistake of putting it down for a couple weeks and by the time I was able to come back to it, I only got through a couple pages before realizing I was no longer interested. Before embarking on my time with the Author, I know nothing of who he is or what the overall theme of his journey was.