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karinski's review
4.0
Seattle in the 90s, New York and the London music scene in the 00s, even two shout outs for the club I used to DJ at. I was always going to enjoy this.
mandylovestoread's review
5.0
So much to love about this book. I listened to it on audible, read by Jake Shears himself. I have been a fan of the Scissor Sister since they first made it big and had the pleasure of seeing Jake live 3 times this month when he was supporting Kylie Minogue on her Golden Tour in Australia. The man intrigued me and I wanted to learn more about him. This book is a no holds barred story of his life, from being a confused teenager to working any job possible in NYC in order to live his dream. His relationships, his family.. it is all laid bare and I did not want it to end.
laleha's review
4.0
So I’m an alumna of the infamous Mountain View High in Mesa, AZ. For us outcasts, MVHS was absolutely as awful as Jason paints it, but we had our own merry band of misfits, as he described. Jason’s “Courtney” is actually my BFF, who was friends with him. He was her friend, and we all hung out together sometimes, but he was my friend-of-a-friend. The three of us had one really memorable night together of dancing and fun, but I was a little older than them, “Courtney” became a mess battling addiction (I kept my distance through her worst; my brother was also an addict and I couldn’t subject myself to another addict right then for self-preservation), and Jason went back to Seattle.
Fun fact? “Courtney” has always stayed in touch with Jason through his moves and rise to fame, and through her I knew to be on the lookout for Scissor Sisters from their early days. She actually talked to him very recently and told me about this book. Jason was always a caring, funny, sassy thing, and I’m thrilled that’s never changed.
The book was entertaining given the personal backstory and my love for their debut album. That was my soundtrack for 2004, the most trying year of my life.
Is “Boys Keep Swinging” fluffy and silly? Yeah, but that’s Jason and fine by me. He’s funny and smart, and he’s a good writer.
Fun fact? “Courtney” has always stayed in touch with Jason through his moves and rise to fame, and through her I knew to be on the lookout for Scissor Sisters from their early days. She actually talked to him very recently and told me about this book. Jason was always a caring, funny, sassy thing, and I’m thrilled that’s never changed.
The book was entertaining given the personal backstory and my love for their debut album. That was my soundtrack for 2004, the most trying year of my life.
Is “Boys Keep Swinging” fluffy and silly? Yeah, but that’s Jason and fine by me. He’s funny and smart, and he’s a good writer.
davidwding's review
5.0
This book is a fun and fast-paced must-read for any Scissor Sisters fan. A whirlwind tour of Jake Shears' life up through Scissor Sisters' second album, the book gave a great deal of insight into the background of the band and the emotional context behind many of their songs.
nataliejaser's review
4.0
I read this book early thanks to #NetGalley. Boy, was it an adventure! It was funny and meaningful. I loved the glimpse of what life was like for Jake in New York in the 90's. Parts 1 and 2 covered childhood,high school, and college. Once the book transitioned to the Scissor Sisters, I felt there was a lot more name dropping than was quite needed. Aside from that I love this book.
the_novel_approach's review
5.0
“I knew in my heart that we were losing our lives as we knew them, but I also knew that the trade-off was going to be a singular experience that few people get.” – Jake Shears
Before there was Jake Shears and Scissor Sisters and kikis to be having, there was Jason Sellards, a self-professed born showman who, even as a kid, knew he was destined for greater things. Boys Keep Swinging is his story, and it’s a brilliant one that begins with his childhood in Mesa, Arizona, and eventually leads us to New York City—“the place that people went and fucking did something.” This is a story of drive, determination, and summoning the courage to live out loud.
Shears may be a born showman, but he’s nothing if not a natural born storyteller who picks at the threads of memory and weaves them into a compelling novel. With a voice that is by turns engaging and amiable, introspective and moving, passionate and unfailingly honest—even when he doesn’t come off well for it—he lays bare his journey from a precocious boy who always knew he was different, to a teenager coming to terms with his sexuality, and on into adulthood where he embraced his self-expression through writing, performing, go-go dancing, and, eventually, through music.
Action is the difference between those who dream of making art and those who then go on to make it. Shears was a one-man sexual revolution, dreaming big and tripping on the rush of conjuring his muse and realizing those dreams. He didn’t wait for opportunity to knock. He seized opportunity by the balls and made things happen, dancing on bartops to make some extra cash and struggling to fucking do something—to leave his mark on the world while grappling with an almost crippling self-loathing. Shears plucks up the names of people who were significant to his evolution and rise, and shares them with his readers, and, of course, as Scissor Sisters evolved from a concept to a major influencer on the indie rock scene, the list of celebrities he encountered along the way becomes all the more impressive. Yes, there’s some name dropping, but why wouldn’t there be? Shears worked hard, paid his dues and earned the right to brag about it a little—when Bono comes down from the mountain with advice for you, you listen and then pass it on. And as Scissor Sisters’ international star rose and peaked, we play witness in an intimate way to the rigorous schedule of touring and the steep emotional and physical toll it exacted on not only Shears but the band as a whole.
Raw and often poignant, Shears is unflinching as he recounts his struggles with loneliness in spite of a life full of people, with the weight of depression after realizing that he’d accomplished everything he’d set out to do, and with no greater mountain to conquer, that coming off the high of the success he’d yearned for and achieved was more a hurtling plummet back to reality than a gentle fall. 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.
Earnest and at times impish, Shears is an engaging narrator whose courage to pursue his passions led him to love and heartbreak. He shares the good, the bad, the ugly with us, and did something so many of us fail to do—he didn’t quit. You can’t spell success without suck, you’ve got to push through the difficult stuff, and Shears did that, which is what made this memoir possible. Shears lived fierce and hungry in his first thirty-nine years, became a star in his own right for it, and is once again inspired, has begun a new chapter in his life and is making more dreams come true. I’m now waiting for the next iteration of Jake Shears to appear in narrative form.
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. All I can say is that I was a little sad when I reached the end of this one. Shears leaves us on a note of melancholy and hope. Here’s to the next leg of his journey. May it be as passionate and fulfilling as the first.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach
Before there was Jake Shears and Scissor Sisters and kikis to be having, there was Jason Sellards, a self-professed born showman who, even as a kid, knew he was destined for greater things. Boys Keep Swinging is his story, and it’s a brilliant one that begins with his childhood in Mesa, Arizona, and eventually leads us to New York City—“the place that people went and fucking did something.” This is a story of drive, determination, and summoning the courage to live out loud.
Shears may be a born showman, but he’s nothing if not a natural born storyteller who picks at the threads of memory and weaves them into a compelling novel. With a voice that is by turns engaging and amiable, introspective and moving, passionate and unfailingly honest—even when he doesn’t come off well for it—he lays bare his journey from a precocious boy who always knew he was different, to a teenager coming to terms with his sexuality, and on into adulthood where he embraced his self-expression through writing, performing, go-go dancing, and, eventually, through music.
Action is the difference between those who dream of making art and those who then go on to make it. Shears was a one-man sexual revolution, dreaming big and tripping on the rush of conjuring his muse and realizing those dreams. He didn’t wait for opportunity to knock. He seized opportunity by the balls and made things happen, dancing on bartops to make some extra cash and struggling to fucking do something—to leave his mark on the world while grappling with an almost crippling self-loathing. Shears plucks up the names of people who were significant to his evolution and rise, and shares them with his readers, and, of course, as Scissor Sisters evolved from a concept to a major influencer on the indie rock scene, the list of celebrities he encountered along the way becomes all the more impressive. Yes, there’s some name dropping, but why wouldn’t there be? Shears worked hard, paid his dues and earned the right to brag about it a little—when Bono comes down from the mountain with advice for you, you listen and then pass it on. And as Scissor Sisters’ international star rose and peaked, we play witness in an intimate way to the rigorous schedule of touring and the steep emotional and physical toll it exacted on not only Shears but the band as a whole.
Raw and often poignant, Shears is unflinching as he recounts his struggles with loneliness in spite of a life full of people, with the weight of depression after realizing that he’d accomplished everything he’d set out to do, and with no greater mountain to conquer, that coming off the high of the success he’d yearned for and achieved was more a hurtling plummet back to reality than a gentle fall. 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.
Earnest and at times impish, Shears is an engaging narrator whose courage to pursue his passions led him to love and heartbreak. He shares the good, the bad, the ugly with us, and did something so many of us fail to do—he didn’t quit. You can’t spell success without suck, you’ve got to push through the difficult stuff, and Shears did that, which is what made this memoir possible. Shears lived fierce and hungry in his first thirty-nine years, became a star in his own right for it, and is once again inspired, has begun a new chapter in his life and is making more dreams come true. I’m now waiting for the next iteration of Jake Shears to appear in narrative form.
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. All I can say is that I was a little sad when I reached the end of this one. Shears leaves us on a note of melancholy and hope. Here’s to the next leg of his journey. May it be as passionate and fulfilling as the first.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach
constantine2020's review
4.0
Rating: 4.0/5.0
This memoir was very well written. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Jake Shears have had his ups and downs, success and setbacks but he remains the guy who recovers from those setbacks. In this memoir, he tells us about his life from childhood to adolescent. His sexuality and how he was able to cope with it at a young age. There is also a lot of his relationships with different people and how they affected his life and how he affected their lives, the jobs he had before Scissor Sisters. The rise of the band and his addiction problem and how he battled it.
I loved this book because it is very wild yet at the same time very emotional. Jake Shears have lived a wild fascinating life and turned that life on paper in a wonderful way. His writing is fun to read and I did not expect that from a rockstar. Now the only thing left is to turn this book into a movie!
The book will be released on 20th Feb 2018 and I was lucky to grab it from Netgalley in the read now section.
amrjal91's review
3.0
Very fun rock memoir covering the NYC scene(and a bit of London) in the early 2000s/late ‘90s. I’d recommend it even if you don’t necessarily like the scissor sisters. Filled with celebrity appearances and interactions. The first 100 pages might be a slog to some as it covers Jake’s childhood /upbringing. I definitely am interested in a second memoir /sequel