What Just Happened
Notes on a Long Year
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Narrated by:
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Charles Finch
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By:
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Charles Finch
About this listen
A BOSTON GLOBE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • With unwavering humanity and light-footed humor, this intimate account of the interminable year of 2020 offers commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic, protests for racial justice, the U.S. presidential election, and more, all with a miraculous dose of groundedness in head-spinning times.
"This book is so funny and so true. Charles Finch unpacks a year of plague, fear, shameless venality, and dizzying stupidity with an irrepressible wit and surgically precise cultural observations. I didn't know how badly I needed exactly this. Maybe you do too?"(Joe Hill, author of Heart-Shaped Box)
In March 2020, at the request of the Los Angeles Times, Charles Finch became a reluctant diarist: As California sheltered in place, he began to write daily notes about the odd ambient changes in his own life and in the lives around him. The result is What Just Happened.
In a warm, candid, welcoming voice, and in the tradition of Woolf and Orwell, Finch brings us into his own world: taking long evening walks near his home in LA, listening to music, and keeping virtual connections with friends across the country as they each experience the crisis. And drawing on his remarkable acuity as a cultural critic, he chronicles one endless year with delightful commentary on current events, and the things that distract him from current events: Murakami’s novels, reality television, the Beatles.
What Just Happened is a work of empathy and insight, at once of-the-moment and timeless—a gift from one of our culture's most original thinkers.
©2021 Charles Finch (P)2021 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
ONE OF THE BOSTON GLOBE'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
“Beautiful, bittersweet . . . he takes profound, frank, luxurious baths in the emotions of distaste and despair, which dominated during the pandemic. His memoir incisively suggests they reveal the depth of our love, actually, for other aspects of our world that we didn’t want to lose.”—Eve Fairbanks, The New York Times
"Articulate and engaging . . . What Just Happened: Notes on a Long Year is the journal you meant to write but were too busy dashing through self-checkout lanes or curled in the fetal position in front of Netflix to get anything down. Thankfully, Finch did. His keen-eyed account is vivid and witty. It will make you laugh despite the horrors . . . I am not enjoying the pandemic, but I did enjoy Finch's articulate take on life in the midst of it. Missing his friends and mourning the world as he knew it, Finch's account has a unifying effect in the same way that good literature affirms humanity by capturing a moment in time.”—Christine Brunkhorst, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Warmly conversational . . . [Finch's] sketches skillfully evoke their moment’s spiky, overstimulated atmosphere—especially the new, frightening friction of such everyday routines as grocery shopping or picking up a prescription."—Sophia Nguyen, The Washington Post
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Please Scream Inside Your Heart
- Breaking News and Nervous Breakdowns in the Year That Wouldn't End
- By: Dave Pell
- Narrated by: John Parsons, Peter Coyote, L. J. Ganser, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Please Scream Inside Your Heart is a time capsule; a real-time ride through the maddening hell that was the 2020 news cycle - when historic turmoil and media mania stretched American sanity, democracy, and toilet paper. Who better to examine this unhinged period in all of its twists and turns than news addict Dave Pell, a.k.a. the internet’s managing editor?
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Couldn’t stop listening!!
- By Rofar4 on 11-16-21
By: Dave Pell
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Wuhan Diary
- Dispatches from a Quarantined City
- By: Fang Fang, Michael Berry - translator
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 25, 2020, after the central government imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang began publishing an online diary. In the days and weeks that followed, Fang Fang’s nightly postings gave voice to the fears, frustrations, anger, and hope of millions of her fellow citizens, reflecting on the psychological impact of forced isolation, the role of the internet as both community lifeline and source of misinformation, and most tragically, the lives of neighbors and friends taken by the deadly virus.
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In-depth look at life under quarantine
- By Yan Chen on 06-18-20
By: Fang Fang, and others
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What It Takes
- The Way to the White House
- By: Richard Ben Cramer
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 54 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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An American Iliad in the guise of contemporary political reportage, What It Takes penetrates the mystery at the heart of all presidential campaigns: How do presumably ordinary people acquire that mixture of ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness that makes a true candidate? As he recounts the frenzied course of the 1988 presidential race, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Richard Ben Cramer comes up with the answers, in a book that is vast, exhaustively researched, exhilarating, and sometimes appalling in its revelations.
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Great political book
- By Hebern on 09-11-20
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A Very Punchable Face
- A Memoir
- By: Colin Jost
- Narrated by: Colin Jost
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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If there’s one trait that makes someone well-suited to comedy, it’s being able to take a punch - metaphorically and, occasionally, physically. Told with a healthy dose of self-deprecation, A Very Punchable Face reveals the brilliant mind behind some of the dumbest sketches on television, and lays bare the heart and humor of a hardworking guy - with a face you can’t help but want to punch.
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Amazing
- By Erin E. Kace on 07-27-20
By: Colin Jost
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Little Matches
- A Memoir of Finding Light in the Dark
- By: Maryanne O'Hara
- Narrated by: Maryanne O'Hara
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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When their only child was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) at the age of two, Maryanne O'Hara and her husband were told that Caitlin could live a long life or be dead in a matter of months. Thirty-one years later, Caitlin lost her battle with this devastating disease following an excruciating two-year wait on the transplant list and a last-minute race to locate a pair of healthy lungs. The sudden spiral of events left Maryanne in an existential crisis, searching to find an answer to the eternal question: Why we are here?
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I don't know who needs to read it...
- By H. Hill on 04-18-23
By: Maryanne O'Hara
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1 Dead in Attic
- After Katrina
- By: Chris Rose
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor - in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland. They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair.
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Still Makes Me Hurt
- By Gillian on 02-27-15
By: Chris Rose
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The Unspeakable
- And Other Subjects of Discussion
- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Meghan Daum
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide", Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital.
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Complaining about her dead mom.
- By Erik Hermansen on 11-23-14
By: Meghan Daum
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Broken Horses
- A Memoir
- By: Brandi Carlile
- Narrated by: Brandi Carlile
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Brandi Carlile was born into a musically gifted, impoverished family on the outskirts of Seattle and grew up in a constant state of change, moving from house to house, trailer to trailer, 14 times in as many years. Though imperfect in every way, her dysfunctional childhood was as beautiful as it was strange, and as nurturing as it was difficult. At the age of five, Brandi contracted bacterial meningitis, which almost took her life, leaving an indelible mark on her formative years and altering her journey into young adulthood.
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I have almost 2000 audible books and ...
- By M. Lynn on 04-22-21
By: Brandi Carlile
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Airhead
- The Imperfect Art of Making News
- By: Emily Maitlis
- Narrated by: Emily Maitlis
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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As anchor for the BBC's key political news programme, Newsnight, Emily Maitlis has interviewed some of the most powerful and controversial figures on the political scene. She plans each interview meticulously, knowing what she wants to ask and where she wants it to go, but as one of the most experienced journalists in her field she knows that no interview will ever go to plan....
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Amazing. Absolutely amazing
- By Amazon Customer on 08-29-23
By: Emily Maitlis
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Stronger
- Courage, Hope, and Humor in My Life with John McCain
- By: Cindy McCain
- Narrated by: Cindy McCain
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Cindy Hensley was just out of college when she met and fell in love with the celebrated Navy hero John McCain. They embarked on a thrilling life together that put her at the center of American politics for over four decades. Stronger, her moving and inspiring memoir, tells the story of her adventurous life with John for the first time.
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Not What I Expected
- By DAK04 on 05-22-21
By: Cindy McCain
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Spare
- By: Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
- Narrated by: Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on.
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Gutterball!
- By Jimmyjoejangles on 01-10-23
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The Invisible Heart
- An Economic Romance
- By: Russell D. Roberts
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The Invisible Heart takes a provocative look at business, economics, and regulation through the eyes of Sam Gordon and Laura Silver, teachers at the exclusive Edwards School in Washington, D.C. Sam lives and breathes capitalism. He thinks that most government regulation is unnecessary or even harmful. He believes that success in business is a virtue. He believes that our humanity flourishes under economic freedom. Laura prefers Wordsworth to the Wall Street Journal.
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One of Susie Bright's Misses
- By Anne in State College on 10-27-15
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Uprising
- Who the Hell Said You Can't Ditch and Switch? - The Awakening of Diamond and Silk
- By: Diamond and Silk
- Narrated by: Diamond and Silk
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Who are Diamond and Silk? Donald Trump’s biggest fans. A national treasure. A force of nature. A political awakening that can’t be stopped. And a natural antidepressant. Diamond and Silk are all that and more. The very sight and sound of these insightful and ebullient ladies lifts spirits and opens minds. Diamond and Silk are a unique phenomenon impossible to pigeonhole - or to control. And now they tell their own story for the first time.
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Great American Story! ** GET THIS BOOK**
- By kathy on 11-06-20
By: Diamond and Silk
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Forty Signs of Rain
- Science in the Capital, Book 1
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim, Kim Stanley Robinson
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of the classic Mars trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt returns with a riveting new trilogy of cutting-edge science, international politics, and the real-life ramifications of global warming as they are played out in our nation's capital - and in the daily lives of those at the center of the action. Hauntingly realistic, here is a novel of the near future that is inspired by scientific facts already making headlines. BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Kim Stanley Robinson.
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Its all
- By steve on 01-07-09
What listeners say about What Just Happened
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Thorn Lane
- 12-06-21
Can this be the same Charles Finch?
Can this be the same Charles Finch who writes the Charles Lennox mysteries? Hard to believe! This was a well-done essay about the year just passed. Parts were a bit repetitive and all the weed smoking -- why so many references to that? But it was a good reflection on 2020. I still can't believe it's the same guy, but my research tells me that it is. Who knew?
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- Rachel B
- 12-14-21
As only the author can…
I had a feeling this pandemic diary would be best appreciated in the voice of its author, and I was right. It was great to hear Finch’s humor, frustration, tenderness, anger. The book itself is alive with the vividness of his/our year of Covid, but this audiobook really made for a rare reading experience.
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- Ellen
- 06-25-23
Excellent Read
While the reality is still hard to relive, this is an excellent description of what is what like during the pandemic as we all tried to navigate the health issues, the political craziness and the social injustices. This book is an important piece of history.
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- Kris iwasaki
- 12-07-21
My sentiments exactly!
When Charles Finch started the recollection, he started on the exact day I decided to stay in for the duration. He brought forth the dread and loneliness felt by all of us but also the slowing down of everything…the look of a city when no one is around. His timeline made more sense in retrospect then while it was happening…thanks CF.
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1 person found this helpful
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- KKC
- 06-23-22
Interesting…
A year in the life of a dying nation… broken… selfish… and arrogant. No longer unified as one but fractured and disinteresting blaming the other. Charles Lennox does a good job at presenting what he didn’t set as his goal but accomplished it anyway.
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- Djean
- 11-30-21
Awful
The author used this book as a way to express his personal opinions by way of cherry-picked events and leftist media accounts. The only two things I agreed with were his love of Beatles and his hatred for Trump.
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2 people found this helpful