Congratulations, The Best Is Over!

Essays

By: R. Eric Thomas

Narrated by: R. Eric Thomas

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The beloved author of Here for It returns with a collection of “funny and compulsively readable” (Vogue), “hilarious and incisive” (Time) essays about what happens after happily ever after.

“How is it possible that I liked this book even more than his last one? Phenomenal.”—Jenny Lawson, New York Times bestselling author of Broken (in the best possible way)

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, Garden & Gun, Real Simple

After going viral “reading” the chaotic political news, having one-too-many awkward social encounters, and coming to terms with his intersecting identities, R. Eric Thomas finally knew who he was and where he was going. He was living his best life.

But then everything changed.

In this collection of insightful and hilarious essays, Thomas moves back to his perpetually misunderstood hometown of Baltimore (a place he never wanted to return, even to be buried) and behaves completely out of character. They say you can’t go home again, but what if you and home have changed beyond recognition? From attending his twenty-year high school reunion and discovering another person’s face on his name badge, to splattering an urgent care room with blood à la The Shining, to being terrorized by a plague of gay frogs who’ve overtaken his backyard, Thomas provides the nitty, and sometimes the gritty, details of wrestling with the life he thought he’d left behind while trying to establish a new one.

With wit, heart, and hope for the future, Congratulations, The Best Is Over! is the not-so-gentle reminder we all need that even when life doesn’t go according to plan, we can still find our way back home.

just the best!!!

R. Eric is one of the only people I've trusted to talk me through the memories of March 2020 and the following years...I'm so glad I did.

seeing beauty

listening to this book was a delight, I had not a care in the world as I sat on the porch cackling with laughter, seeing beauty in overgrown lawns and frogs.

A dose of optimism in a title that suggests otherwise

Fantastic, warm, funny reading by the author. His happy memories sparkle and even his reckoning with darker days feels inspiring. He has a way of pointing out beauty even in struggle. I think the book title should have been, “It’s Called Hope.” I recommend this one and his first book.

so delightful, and relatable

I thoroughly enjoyed every story. The reading in his own voice was a gift and like having brunch with your favorite friend. Every time he would cajole himself for doing something ridiculous that no one could ever forgive him for, I would think but I do that. Heartfelt stories of life and love and career, homeownership and marriage. I look forward to listening to all the things he has written and writes in the future.

Life is life

Just loved his take on the ordinary occurrences of life. I am a cisgender heterosexual white middle aged woman but I found Eric’s perspectives and opinions so relatable and funny.