Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Little Pieces of Hope:
Oh look, I’m smiling. Smiling is my favorite.
Quick synopsis:
A whole bunch of stuff to make you feel good about life.
Fact for Non-History People:
Ann Landers and Dear Abbey were twin sisters!
Fact for History Nerds:
The ruins of Pompeii were discovered in 1748.
My Take on Little Pieces of Hope:
Oh, boy. This is going to be one of the rambliest and tangentiest (trademark pending on those words) reviews of all time. You are officially warned.
Let’s start with extended disclaimer time! I came across Little Pieces of Hope by Todd Doughty from a very non-conventional way. See, Todd’s full-time job is a big-wig at Knopf Doubleday Books (and wait, I just googled and he got promoted! Go Todd!), which is part of Penguin Random House, the largest trade book publisher on Earth. (Tangent from disclaimer: I am still totally confused about how publishers and imprints work and who falls under what. I’d swear completely different companies use almost the same exact name but say they are different. Is this relevant? No, but I wanted to finally type this somewhere.)
Anyway, Todd would probably argue about how important he is, but the point is that when a wide-eyed and clueless new history nerd podcaster (me!) reached out about interviewing authors, Todd did something a lot of people don’t do anymore. He responded! Promptly! And kept responding! I can’t begin to explain the feeling of someone giving you a shot and I am forever grateful that he did. Along the way, I saw Todd had his own book based on his Instagram. The least I could do is give it a review, right?
Now you may be thinking, “But Brendan, what if you hated it? Wouldn’t you be burning a bridge and look like a huge jerk?” Yes, but I get overly excited and sometimes don’t think before I do something. It’s both a huge character flaw and a superpower. I pride myself on my reviews being the truth. If I don’t like it, I’ll tell you. There is something that saved my bacon, though. I loved the book.
Let me tell you how it warmed my cold, dead, book reviewer heart.
Little Pieces of Hope is based on Todd’s Instagram idea of listing things that give you, well, hope. There are also shorter thought pieces about the seasons, song playlist suggestions, and personal stories. There is a cynical oversimplification to call this just a bunch of lists. However, I can confirm that if you give yourself over to the conceit, there is “chicken soup for the soul” level catharsis. For example, there is a mere mention on one page of “a good plumber.” No explanation. However, in my head, I was immediately reminded of the plumber who was in my place two months ago who did amazing work, saved me a ton of money, and fixed at least 3 major problems I didn’t know I had along with the ones I knew were there. I also told at least 6 people how amazing this guy was and how it made my day to be able to trust someone to be awesome at their job. This is just one example. The book kept connecting things in my mind or made me time travel to memories I haven’t recalled in years. The best books transport you, and this one certainly did.
Now, back to that disclaimer. I am sure you may have assumed it was just my ego adding a whole bunch of material about myself. That is only partially true. I think this book is even more enjoyable when you know that Todd is the type of person who responds to strangers when he could easily not. This book is written by a person who practices what he preaches because I’ve seen it. Plus, when is the last time you read about an author’s love of Hostess cupcakes? Literary gold, people.
Verdict:
Be careful, you might just smile. Buy it here!
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