27: A History of the 27 Club through the Lives of Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse

In the words of Ray, very interesting and very sad at the same time. The Doors were a group that was before it’s time.

My biggest challenge with this book is that a few of the members of the 27 club (Morison, Jones, Hendrix) I'd already read full books about and so the cursory histories provided here were redundant for me. Others (Joplin and Cobain) I haven't and so these brief biographies felt insufficient. And the final member (Winehouse) I just didn't feel as if she belonged. In fact I felt at times that Sounes was basically writing a biography of Amy Winehouse yet didn't have enough material and so chose to weave in these other (more important) rock stars as a way of stretching a magazine-article length story into a book (along with somehow validating his theory that Winehouse belongs in this elite category).Overall I was satisfied with this quick read but not blown away by it.

This was a very well researched and written account of rock's main stars who died at the age of 27. I have read many books about all of them and I thought I knew just about everything there is to know about each of them, but I was wrong. I was pleased to read the many details in this book that I had never known before. I think this book is one of the more truthful books you will find. The author really did his homework and provides his sources at the end of the book, along with a long list of other musicians who also died at the age of 27! If you're into rock star biographies, this book is for you!

A MUST read

Sad tales of amazing artists. Stretches for links that have no real connection but interesting tales nonethless. Far too much attention paid to Amy Winehouse who is by far the least impactful to rock history.