Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyonce. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl

Yes, the dust jacket is bright pink, for better or worse, but the essays are all-encompassing, as the title suggests. Includes a range of writers, though accompanying portraiture may not be to taste. Each profile is written by a woman, with more than 100 in all. The subjects were chosen, as McDonnell says, both painstakingly and arbitrarily as she went about honouring “rock” as a verb, not a noun.

($40)