So Far Gone by Jess Walters

So Far Gone by Jess Walter

Read by Edoardo Ballerini

8 hours, 20 minutes

Published June 2025 by HarperCollins

Publisher's Summary: 

Rhys Kinnick has gone off the grid. At Thanksgiving a few years back, a fed-up Rhys punched his conspiracy-theorist son-in-law in the mouth, chucked his smartphone out a car window and fled for a cabin in the woods, with no one around except a pack of hungry raccoons.

Now Kinnick's old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father, a man with no internet and a car that barely runs, reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia?

With the help of his caustic ex-girlfriend, a bipolar retired detective, and his only friend (who happens to be furious with him), Kinnick heads off on a wild journey through cultural lunacy and the rubble of a life he thought he'd left behind. So Far Gone is a rollicking, razor-sharp, and moving road trip through a fractured nation, from a writer who has been called “a genius of the modern American moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

My Thoughts: 

I first started reading Jess Walter's work in 2010, when the publisher offered me Walter's The Financial Lives of Poets for review. I still newish to blogging and thrilled to accept almost any book that was offered to me, but I'd already learned not to have high hopes for books that were offered to bloggers with small followings. That book took me completely by surprise; I was impressed with Walter's ability to find humor in the roughest of times and his ability to make a really tough time readable and believable. 

I didn't hesitate, then, when I was offered his 2012 novel, Beautiful Ruins, for review, which became in big critical success. In 2020 I listened to his novel, The Cold Millions. Here's what I had to say about that: 

"We love some authors because we know what to expect from them. Walter is different; I love his books because they are all so different. And yet his writing only gets better and better."

Nothing has changed since then. Although the plot of this book is completely different from his other books, I think the writing here is better than ever. The characters are real people, the relationships feel real, and the nothing here that seems unbelievable. There are heroes, but no super heroes; there are villains, but they seem like people we've all seen on the news and social media lately.  are made that feel completely true to the character who makes them; no one here is perfect, but not all of them are ready to admit that; there is humor, grit, tension, and real emotion. 

And if all of that weren't enough to recommend this book, I highly recommend the audiobook version. Never pass on the audiobook when Edoardo Ballerini is reading it. 

Life: It Goes On - May 24

Happy Sunday! We have had so much rain in the past ten days that everything is growing like crazy and looking so lush and beautiful outside. Today is going to be a sunny, warm day, perfect for getting back outside and getting the final touches done in back. I still have some pieces of furniture to paint, some seeds to get planted, and some hosta to get transplanted. Then maybe there will be time to sit and enjoy what we've gotten done. Until I think of another project for out there, anyway! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Patrick Suskind's Perfume and got back to John Williams' Stoner. 

Watched: Lots of college baseball and softball, the first episode of season two of Running Point, and a couple more episodes of The Morning Show. 

Read: I started Peter Geye's A Lesser Light, which I'm really enjoying. Unfortunately, I'm also struggling to make myself pick up a book to read. 

Made: It's burger season so we've had burgers a couple of days this week (mostly because the Big Guy would eat burgers four times a week if I let him), salads, nachos, and pasta. The usual tings to have when you don't really feel like cooking. I hope I get my cooking mojo back one of these days!

Enjoyed: Dinner out with friends Thursday evening and an overnight stay from my brother and SIL on their way up to her hometown. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Finishing yard projects for the next couple of days and then I really need to get some work done in my office and downstairs. 

Thinking About: Mini-him and Miss C are moving into a house in a couple of months which has me thinking about what I can get out of my house that they might be able to use now that they'll have a third bedroom and a basement. 

Feeling: I wasn't feeling well yesterday and was so hoping that I wouldn't be sick all weekend. I'm happy to find that I'm feeling much better today and much more productive. 

Looking forward to: Another three-day weekend next weekend. 

Question of the week: For Memorial Day, do you visit the graveyards where your family members are buried? We will likely head to Lincoln tomorrow to put flowers on my parents' graves and then head to the cemetery where many of my ancestors were buried for nearly one hundred years. 

Life: It Goes On - May 17

Happy Sunday! It's sunny here this morning; but, for the third night in a row, severe thunderstorms are predicted for later. My potted plants and all of our outdoor furniture and up against the house for protection, where they'll stay until Tuesday when the last threat of storms has passed. I spent WAY too much on those plants to have them destroyed by hail this early in the season! I have managed to get most of the touch up painting done during the days, at least. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Michelle Obama's The Light We Carry. Now I'm back to Patrick Suskind's Perfume, which I'll finish this week. Next up, I'll finish John William's Stoner. 

Watched: A lot of NCAA softball and baseball. I also started season 2 of The Morning Show.

Read: Lili King's Heart The Lover, which is our book club selection for June. Now I've started Peter Geye's latest, A Lesser Light. Geye's books are favorites of mine, as well as the Big Guy. 

Made: Nothing notable. It's been another week of pasta, salads, and take out. 

Enjoyed: A relatively lazy week. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: On finishing up the outside painting and planting projects. Then it's on to doing some projects in the house in preparation for a bridal shower my sister and sister-in-law will be hosting here in early July. Nothing like an event to make you do the home projects you've been putting off! 

Thinking About: What it's going to take to get me to finish up all of the book reviews I have started! 

Feeling: Rested. 

Looking forward to: Two three-day weekends in a row coming up.

Question of the week: Do you have big plans for Memorial Day weekend? 

Run For The Hills by Kevin Wilson

For The Hills by Kevin Wilson

Read by Marin Ireland

7 hours, 22 minutes

Published May 2025 by HarperCollins

Publisher’s Summary: 

Ever since her dad left them twenty years ago, it’s been just Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. While it’s a bit lonely, she sometimes admits, and a less exciting life than what she imagined for herself, it’s mostly okay. Mostly.

Then one day Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half sister. Reuben—left behind by their dad thirty years ago—has hired a detective to track down their father and a string of other half siblings. And he wants Mad to leave her home and join him for the craziest kind of road trip imaginable to find them all.

As Mad and Rube—and eventually the others—share stories of their father, who behaved so differently in each life he created, they begin to question what he was looking for with every new incarnation. Who are they to one another? What kind of man will they find? And how will these new relationships change Mad’s previously solitary life on the farm?

Infused with deadpan wit, zany hijinks, and enormous heart, Run for the Hills is a sibling story like no other—a novel about a family forged under the most unlikely circumstances and united by hope in an unknown future.

My Thoughts: 

I read Kevin Wilson’s Nothing To See Here in 2020, having been convinced to read it, despite my belief that it was definitely not the kind of book I would enjoy. I was wrong. It was utterly unique and quirky, but also funny and full of heart. Needless to say, it took no convincing whatsoever to get me to read Run For The Hills, even before I knew what it was about. 

• Marin Ireland’s reading is fantastic, as always. 
• Maureen Corrigan on Wilson’s writing: ‘He'll start off with these goofy, almost sitcom-type contrived premises and from there create stories that knock you out with the force of their emotional truth.’She hit the nail on the head. The premise of this one is not quite as out there as was the premise of Nothing See Here, but it's still utterly unique. 
• I really grew to care about these characters, especially given that they are all carrying the scars of being the offspring of a man who just walked away from his life, and them, again and again. Each of them grows as the journey continues, but they always remain to who they were to begin with. 
• Wilson blends humor (that poor PT Cruiser takes the worst of it) and heart. He asks interesting questions. How would you react if someone came to you saying that they are your long lost sibling? What exactly is this patched together family going to do when they finally reach their father? How do you deal with facing a person who was supposed to love you forever, but walked away? Do you really want to know the answers he'll give once you find him? What becomes of this new family once their trip comes to an end? Are they really a family, just because they have the same father, a man each of them knows only vaguely? 

For the humor, the quirkiness, the realness of his characters, the questions that he raises, I won't hesitate to pick up Wilson's next book. Which I hope he's working on even as I type. 

Life: It Goes On - May 12

Happy...Tuesday?! It didn't feel like it at work today; but when I think that this is already almost 3 days late getting posted, it feels like the week is flying by. I hope all of the moms had a wonderful day and got to celebrate you at least a little bit. We had such a lovely weekend that we spent a good part of it outside, including dinner on Mother's Day. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I got half way through Niall Williams' This Is Happiness when my loan expired so I'm waiting now to see which will become available first, the audiobook or the physical book. So I started Michelle Obama's The Light We Carry. 

Watched: So many things! My book club and I went to see The Devil Wears Prada 2; while none of us thought it was as good as the original, we all agreed that we liked it. At home I watched Fine Me Falling, starring Harry Connick, Jr; Mr. Malcolm's List; and the finale of Masterpiece Theater's The Count of Monte Cristo. 

Read: I'm about half way through both Peggy by Rebecca Godfrey and Heart the Lover by Lily King. 

Made: Pastas, salads, grilled burger, grilled cheese. My ambition in the kitchen has been lacking; but at least we're getting to eat on the patio a lot lately. 

Enjoyed: Happy hour before the movie Tuesday; dinner out with friends Friday and dessert at their house on Saturday; and dinner with Mini-him and Miss C for Mother's Day. Oh, and a day off on Friday. I really need to start using my PTO! 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: I've got some projects to work on outside and created a new one for myself tonight when I decided to knock some loose paint off a bench before I moved it and then spent an hour talking off paint that was peeling. And now I have to either sand it or strip it and repaint it. Not on my agenda at all! But it did feel good to work with furniture again. 

Thinking About: The paltry turnout at my polling place today. I hope that means that most of the people in my area voted by mail or got there before me. We actually have some pretty important races and I would hate to think that people just can't be bothered to care about them. 

Feeling: After plenty of me time over the weekend, I'm feeling more productive the past couple of nights. Or maybe that's just my new mattress. Did I mention that we FINALLY got a mattress picked out and it was delivered on Mother's Day. I'm so happy to be done thinking about that. 

Looking forward to: A lot of outdoor time this week. 

Question of the week: Are you good about not finishing books that aren't working for you? I've started a couple lately that just weren't grabbing me and I'm trying other decide if I just give up on them or give them another chance.