====== And the Band Played On ====== ===== Thoughts ===== Two things jumped out at me immediately when I started skimming this book: this book is much denser than I had expected, and the writing is incredibly captivating. Its 600-plus pages are positively packed with yet more stories that have been clearly excised from our schools' history courses. In fact, it's hard to shake the feeling that the 2011 film //Contagion// was deeply inspired by Shilts's reporting.