This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life by Nigel Poor, Earlonne Woods

4.33 AVERAGE

megancosta4's review against another edition

5.0
challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced
zamreads's profile picture

zamreads's review against another edition

informative medium-paced
Admittedly I power skimmed as I was looking for excerpts to use in class... And it was definitely interesting! Informative. Always good to hear people telling their own stories.

rsteve388's review

5.0
adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
This was a sad, hard, truthful story about life in prison, it was beautiful and hopeful in places and was just so honest about what happens in and about the people affected by prison.  Amazing.  Well done. Loved it.  
morgangeorgiana's profile picture

morgangeorgiana's review against another edition

5.0
funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced
elisendemeter's profile picture

elisendemeter's review against another edition

4.5
emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

lilyaronovitz's review against another edition

4.0
As a listener of the podcast, this book isn't particularly surprising, or barrier-shattering, but I definitely do feel like I had a chance to more intimately connect to certain stories, and feel closer to both Nigel and Earlonne. The book reads very similarly to how the podcast sounds; it has the same casual banter, and I even read most of it in the hosts' respective voices. I felt that this book maintains the general lighthearted tone of the podcast, but because of the space that it allows to provide more context and do deeper dives, it also takes on a more serious tone at some points. Particularly, learning about Earlonne's own story and the various realities surrounding the podcast, that don't just have to do with the different curated stories that come out on audio each week, is much more of a realistic perspective on the topic of incarceration, and one that I was glad Nigel and Earlonne were able to explore through written medium. Overall, there's nothing that's not to love about the Ear Hustle team. They're incredibly empathetic, lovable, and fun hosts, and both this book and the podcast strike a really great balance on bringing an immense amount of humanity to a subject so inherently dehumanizing. This book is just an extension of the work they do on the podcast—so while I might recommend starting with the podcast as it's a little easier to get into—I don't think that you can go wrong with any medium of Ear Hustle, and absolutely love the work that they're doing.

jhol91's review against another edition

4.0
hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

jakelam2116's review against another edition

5.0
Love this book about one of my favorite podcasts. It's a fun behind-the-scenes look at the history and making of the groundbreaking podcast, with transcripts from noteworthy scenes from the pod mixed in. Highly recommend.

kalikin's review

4.5
medium-paced

alphabetsoup's review against another edition

5.0
emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced