ALMOST EVERYTHING Notes on Hope

Much to the delight of many listeners, Anne Lamott's essay collections about life, love, religion, and writing, including the well-loved OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS and BIRD BY BIRD, have appeared frequently over the years. She is a friendly, wise, and wry commentator who only occasionally drifts into self-pity about life's many pitfalls. She is always worth one's attention. The same cannot be said of her narration of her newest collection, a worthwhile consideration of hope and despair. Lamott's quavering nasal voice comes close to whining, she ends most sentences on a vocal up-pitch, and often rushes right by the full-stop period that she herself wrote. The result is choppy and headlong. This time, stick with the print edition. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2018]