MARCH 2023 - AudioFile
NPR's Ari Shapiro has real verbal skills. Not surprisingly, he narrates his memoir with practiced professionalism. His confident tone, lyrical cadence, and timbre all hint at his background as an a cappella singer while he was at Yale. He still sings with the Pink Martini and has performed cabaret with Alan Cumming. Happily, he occasionally croons a bar or two here. His personal and journalistic stories are eloquently told, and he doesn't spare himself self-parody. (He sweats excessively, he tells us, so radio works to his advantage.) While his media rise has been striking--including a stint at the White House and as a foreign correspondent--his gift is showing how ordinary folks do extraordinary things. It is the listener's good fortune that he shares them in this audiobook. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
03/13/2023
In this genial debut memoir-in-essays, NPR host and occasional Pink Martini singer Shapiro mixes reported vignettes with reflections on his own life. As one of a few Jewish children at his North Dakota elementary school and later one of the only openly gay students at his Oregon high school, Shapiro describes how his lifelong “otherness” and natural capacity for performance launched his career as a professional raconteur. In brisk and lucid prose, Shapiro recounts the ups and downs of his impressive résumé, including clandestinely traveling aboard Air Force One with President Obama, touring with Pink Martini, and grieving beside Orlando’s LGBTQ community while reporting on the 2016 Pulse nightclub shootings. Shapiro reflects on these “seemingly effortless achievements,” however, by acknowledging, “I am aware of how blessed and lucky I am. I have a job I love, I’m happily married, and millions of people pay attention to what I have to say. But the cliche end of that sentence would be, ‘And I do it all without breaking a sweat.’ Well... I sweat like a goddamn snowman in heat.” Shapiro’s style is engaging and unfussy, and his spotlighting of other people—mostly those whose stories he’s told on NPR—adds depth and empathy to the proceedings. Longtime listeners and first-time callers alike will delight in this collection. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
The Best Strangers in the World is a witty, poignant book that captures Ari Shapiro’s love for the unusual, his pursuit of the unexpected, and his delight at connection against the odds." — Ronan Farrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author of the New York Times bestsellers Catch and Kill and War on Peace
“Listening to—and now reading—Ari Shapiro is both revelatory and comforting. Revelatory in how he coaxes out and shapes a story, comforting that he is actually doing so. He is a beacon of idiosyncratic frankness and curiosity in an increasingly banal and complicit journalistic world. Here, though, it is he who is the story, and his scoop is letting us meet his true self: as good and kind and effortlessly brilliant a man as you could hope to meet. Every page exudes his utter positivity and made me long for another adventure with him.” — Alan Cumming, New York Times-bestselling author of Not My Father’s Son: A Family Memoir and Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life
"Personal and contemplative, but also funny and at times devastating, The Best Strangers in the World will instill a newfound appreciation for the hard work journalists do and a sense of awe for the scope of history they get to observe up close." — BookPage
“Ari Shapiro takes us with him from his boyhood in Fargo, North Dakota, to a globe-trotting journalistic career. The wonderful tale he tells is through the eyes of the people he has met as strangers and the stories of their humanity. Along the way there are lots of laughs and tears and important reflections that will change how readers see the world, too.” — Nina Totenberg, New York Times-bestselling author of Dinners with Ruth
"What makes Shapiro’s memoir so remarkable is its meta-reflection about his place in the world and his growth as a human being....He is contributing to a necessary public conversation, centering voices that make us beautifully, imperfectly human." — Jewish Book Council
“This book is the dinner party conversation you're always hoping to have—empathetic and erudite essays that circle the globe but find time to zero in on sparkling, tiny details. With his breathtakingly vast set of talents, interests, and experiences, Ari Shapiro is one of the most interesting people you’ll encounter. But his beguiling memoir invites the reader to look outward with him. Like a true journalist, he isn't the story. Rather, The Best Strangers in the World captures snapshots of our complex world and its endless capacity for beauty. Infused with queer magic, intellectual curiosity, and music, Shapiro’s writing voice, like his reporting and performing voices, greets you like an old friend and invites you into a space you never want to leave. — R. Eric Thomas, author of Here for It, or How to Save Your Soul in America
“The book keeps on giving, chapter after chapter, in turns humorous, introspective, or deeply serious, weaving together personal anecdotes, behind-the-scenes secrets, and heartbreaking profiles from war zones and refugee camps. Shapiro says he's built his radio career on ‘empathy, connection, and listening’— qualities that ring true in his writing as well." — Booklist (starred review)
“Shapiro’s confident, clear voice and self-deprecating humor, familiar to his many fans, translates well to the written word. His writing will resonate with many and is a treasure for biography readers. Highly recommended.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“This collection’s success is due to the author’s companionable, ever sincere tone, his willingness to be vulnerable, and his unwavering magnanimity. A clever and compulsively readable crowd pleaser.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Smart, humane and just a bit quirky, The Best Strangers in the World is exactly the kind of memoir one would expect from Ari Shapiro....The eclectic quality of [these] stories paints a vivid picture of his wide-ranging career and will leave readers and listeners eager to hear the many stories to come.” — Shelf Awareness
"In brisk and lucid prose, Shapiro recounts the ups and downs of his impressive résumé. … Shapiro’s style is engaging and unfussy, and his spotlighting of other people—mostly those whose stories he’s told on NPR—adds depth and empathy to the proceedings. Longtime listeners and first-time callers alike will delight in this collection." — Publishers Weekly
Ronan Farrow
A witty, poignant book that capture’s Ari Shapiro’s love for the unusual, his pursuit of the unexpected and his delight at connection against the odds.”
Library Journal - Audio
★ 06/10/2024
Shapiro (host of NPR's All Things Considered) provides insight into his work at NPR, singing in the band Pink Martini, and his formative years. Being one of the first "out" kids in high school sometimes put a target on his back, but his supportive family, friends, and confidence helped launch his success in work and life. Photographed marrying his college boyfriend in San Francisco in 2004 when then-mayor Gavin Newsom directed licenses to be issued to same-sex couples, he inadvertently became part of a story. Most chapters delve into his favorite features, giving listeners a larger window into the people he covered for NPR. An innate performer, his narration is exactly what listeners will be hoping for. Shapiro is a pro who makes his living telling stories on the radio, and this makes the audio format a clear winner over print. VERDICT A must-listen for fans of Shapiro's work on NPR and journalism memoirs. Purchase multiple copies (perhaps even forgoing the print), and put in the hands of sure-to-be-delighted patrons.—Christa Van Herreweghe
Library Journal
★ 02/01/2023
In this engaging memoir, Shapiro (host, NPR's All Things Considered) gives insight into both his personal and professional life. As the only Jewish child in his elementary school and the first openly gay student in high school, Shapiro learned to make connections and communicate among disparate groups of people. His innate curiosity and natural storytelling ability led to an internship and eventual career with NPR. He reveals the personal side of various assignments, including his time in the White House press corps and as an international correspondent based in London. He also discusses his personal life, including his side job as a singer with the band Pink Martini and his musical show with Alan Cumming. Shapiro never shies away from telling of his missteps and embarrassing moments. Throughout, Shapiro elegantly and compassionately shares the stories of people he's encountered and how their individual experiences connect with humanity as a whole. VERDICT Shapiro's confident, clear voice and self-deprecating humor, familiar to his many fans, translates well to the written word. His writing will resonate with many and is a treasure for biography readers. Highly recommended.—Anitra Gates
MARCH 2023 - AudioFile
NPR's Ari Shapiro has real verbal skills. Not surprisingly, he narrates his memoir with practiced professionalism. His confident tone, lyrical cadence, and timbre all hint at his background as an a cappella singer while he was at Yale. He still sings with the Pink Martini and has performed cabaret with Alan Cumming. Happily, he occasionally croons a bar or two here. His personal and journalistic stories are eloquently told, and he doesn't spare himself self-parody. (He sweats excessively, he tells us, so radio works to his advantage.) While his media rise has been striking--including a stint at the White House and as a foreign correspondent--his gift is showing how ordinary folks do extraordinary things. It is the listener's good fortune that he shares them in this audiobook. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2023-01-28
The longtime host of NPR’s All Things Considered offers a topical and sanguine memoir in essays.
“The best stories should surprise us,” writes Shapiro, “they should defy our expectations and veer in directions we weren’t expecting.” The author sets a high bar for himself, and he mostly succeeds. This work encompasses subjects ranging from Shapiro’s coming out when he was a teenager to his four years covering the White House. The opening piece is ostensibly about nature, but it serves as further introduction to Shapiro because it enumerates his driving, lifelong curiosity. “My parents raised me to believe that the more you learn about the world,” he writes, “the more interesting life becomes.” By extension, “the best journalists…enjoy the feeling of moving from ignorance or confusion to understanding.” This ethos has guided Shapiro throughout his two decades at NPR. Other essays delve into more personal territory, including “You Can’t See Schvitz on the Radio,” describing how the author sweats profusely. Throughout, Shapiro comes across as appealingly relatable and, like any human, fallible. A singer in the band Pink Martini since 2009, he relays entertaining vignettes about this unexpected turn. “Going on tour feels like a reality TV show where nobody gets kicked off,” he writes. The author’s sense of humor is also on full display. Of his appearance in a photograph taken the day he accidently interrupted a meeting that included Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2010, Shapiro compares himself to “a meerkat who wandered off the savanna into the Oval Office.” The organization of the essays feels random, which results in a lack of a flowing narrative arc. Still, the topics are varied and interesting enough to make the montage coalesce, and the writing is engaging. This collection’s success is due to the author’s companionable, ever sincere tone, his willingness to be vulnerable, and his unwavering magnanimity.
A clever and compulsively readable crowd pleaser.
