Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul's Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life

What a gift this book is for fans of the RPDR empire -- especially for those who may not be deeply knowledgeable about qu**r history but sense that there are a lot of references they're missing while they enjoy the show. (To quote the philosopher: Oh *honey*.) If you have come to drag fandom via Mama Ru, this wonderfully written book will help you more deeply appreciate literally every component of the show, from Pit Crew to Untucked; if you're looking for a witty, highly readable, *incredibly* well-sourced popular history of drag (mostly Western / American, but that's okay too), you're going to devour the text quickly but keep the book close at hand for the incredibly rich set of references and links. You're going to own this book, and then you're going to own YouTube, and darling it's going to be FABULOUS. Go! (Edited because the "sensitivity filter" didn't like the five-letter word with the asterisks; yep, Amazon's vetting algorithm is apparently either really dumb or vaguely homphobic. Whatever.)

I’m a white, cis-het woman who found this book both a pleasure and heartbreaking. I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s in the suburbs of NYC and while I had a very progressive education, I was shocked at how much LGBTQ history I didn’t learn. Thank you to Messrs Tom and Lorenzo for their incredibly well-researched and lovingly, hilariously portrayed look at LGBTQ history through the lens of RuPaul’s Drag Race. I am grateful our current confinement gave me the time to enjoy this book and do a deeper dive into the many people that created so much of what influences our wider culture today.

I just finished reading this book, and sobbing my way through half of it. So much I didn’t know. As an LGBTQ ally who has lived through the worst of the AIDS epidemic, I’ve seen the bravery and humanity of the LGBTQ community first hand. But I had no idea of all the people who came before. And all the people yet to come. This is a beautifully researched book, and as a longtime “Bitter Kitten” I’ve stayed with TLo’s blog for years because the writing is so wonderful. This book is an extension of that. As a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, this book is also invaluable for explaining the structure and traditions of the show and the history behind them. Well done!

I've been reading Tom and Lorenzo's website for years, and enjoyed their first book "Everyone Wants to Be Me or Do Me", so I was primed to enjoy this book. I was blown away by this book! It so exceeded my expectations. I don't watch Ru Paul's Drag Race and worried that I wouldn't get a lot of references, and I have not found that to be a detriment to my experience. Various parts of the show are referenced as a way to set the stage for an in-depth, highly readable discussion of some of the pivotal figures in United States LGBTQ history. I have torn through this book over the past week, and cannot wait to share it with friends and family

Great broad overview with a good list of further reading/watching. If you wanted to understand at least in the surface level every horticultural reference in Drag Race this is the book to start with.

I've been a fan of RPDR since season 6, and this book not only does an amazing job of going over the show, but also what led in herstory to that one moment.From shade, reading, voguing, Pit Crew and so much more, I particularly loved learning so much history, which I'm glad the authors address right away: go look up all the people we talk about and learn as much as you can.I highly recommend this book to RPDR fans and anyone else.

This book is thoughtful, funny, poignant and flat-out wonderful. I have been reading and listening to TLo for many years and always read their recaps of Drag Race, along with all the other pop culture subjects they cover so well. Drag history is in very good hands here, and the reader is encouraged to go out and look up drag performers past and present. This is such a fierce community and deserves to be celebrated. Many thanks to Tom and Lorenzo for this deeply-felt and exuberant history.

While it does call for readers' use of their phones or tablets to go and look for videos and pictures, this book is so well written that the Queens in it come to life even without the digital help. It's witty, sensitively written and enlightening. The only reserve I have is that the book is, to no surprise, extremely USA oriented - barely mentioning groundbreaking Queens (and Kings) from the other side of the ocean. Nevertheless, it's a must-read for Drag Race fans, LGBTQ+ folks and supporters

Fantastic book if you want to learn about the history of LGBTQ+ culture and community in a lighthearted tone and with RPDR as a the main guide. Beware: it will take you a long time to finish it because you will want to stop and look for pictures and more info online! Perfect.

Livraison ultra rapide, livre en très bon état, parfait

This is really great. Really great. Drag race is basically a framing device to take a look into various facets of queer life over the last century and it’s really good. The authors say they want you to be googling as you go along while you’re reading this - and boy was I. I look forward to seeing what google ads serves up to me after this - because I learnt so much. Fascinating, clever and touching - and you’ll watch drag race with new eyes afterwards. And the first episode I watched afterwards had a literal Tom of Finland mention and I felt so in the know you wouldn’t believe it!

This is a stunning look at LGBTQ+ history, legends and icons through the lens of Ru Paul's Drag Race.The Mother of bringing Drag to the Mainstream, RuPaul pulls references from many historic performers througout the ages, and this book breaks them down.I read it slowly, looking up every reference as I went along and as a result, ended up with a Playlist of over 40 iconic performers and news moments. It's a stunning book, one I'd highly recommend to any fan of Drag Race or Drag in general, but I'd recommend it to anyone as an easy-to-read insight into LGBTQ+ history.One of my favourites this year.

This great book successfully weaves Drag Race narratives and interfaces with queer history. It is a MUST for any Drag Race fan, and those who want to locate key moments / figures in Herstory and how they’ve impacted upon the structure/matrix of the show.It’s bloody well written!