A review by mkdeckster
The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis

“Dads are not always men, and dads are not always fathers. Dads are simply there to raise you as best they can with the lessons and failures that have carried them … with stories they might forget they've told you before but will share again all the same. They will entrust you with beautiful melodies that will conjure flashes of a time that seemed easier only because you no longer have to live in the moment of how hard it felt then.”

I think I read this book the right way: I waited until I was the only one home and I blasted the music to go along with every chapter, and when I finished I took a break to process and feel before diving into the next section. There were essays that made me cry and also essays that I had trouble connecting to, but altogether they painted such a vivid picture of Niko‘s various homes and selves. In this way she too is a dad, passing on her hardest stories and her favorite singles ❤️