[BONUS] Jen Hatmaker Book Club ft. Here for It by R. Eric Thomas - Jen Hatmaker

[BONUS] Jen Hatmaker Book Club ft. Here for It by R. Eric Thomas

Bestselling author, R. Eric Thomas, wrote “Here for It” in 2020 and it continues to reverberate in the hearts and minds of readers because of its timely topics and riveting personal story—making it a perfect “revisit” for our book club community!  With humor and vulnerability, Eric shares about his memoir which is equal parts hilarity and heart–and what it took to write about his intersecting identities as a Black, queer, Christian man.

Join Jen and Eric as they traverse transforming the ordinary into the profoundly funny and insightful. 

Book Summary:

In his memoir of essays “Here for It,” Eric attempts to define what it means to be an “other” through his experience growing up in two very different worlds — the urban landscape of his parents home in Baltimore and then the wealthy, white suburb where he went to private school. He tries to figure out how to reconcile all of this, not just these two wildly different racial and class spaces, but also his Christian upbringing with his sexuality as a gay man; the exhaustion of code switching; accidentally finding internet fame; covering the 2016 election and all of that aftermath. Ultimately, he is seeking to answer whether the future is worth it when everything seems to be getting worse. He re-envisions what could be by placing himself at the center of his own story and sharing his experiences with us.

Books & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Here for It or How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas 

The Preacher’s Wife

Congratulations, The Best Is Over by R. Eric Thomas

Kings of Baltimore by R. Eric Thomas

Dickinson (TV Series) 

Better Things (TV Series) 

Episode Transcript

Hey guys, welcome back to the Jen Hatmaker Book Club podcast. This month we are reading Here for It or How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thomas, one of my favorite writers. You know this if you’ve been anywhere around me in the last five years. Heads up if you love pop culture references, The Preacher’s Wife particularly, you are going to love this. It makes you laugh. Also, it’s tender in a lot of places. It’s so relatable, it’s so human. It was certainly poignant in 2020 when it was first published, and it is a barn burner now. Eric told me that this is still his most-read book, and he has tagged on it about it every single week. I told him, it’s evergreen. 

Let me tell you about this writer. R. Eric Thomas has been on the show before. We adore him. But in case you haven’t had a chance to listen to any of those episodes, Eric is a novelist. He’s an essayist; he’s a playwright; he’s a pop culture guru and since writing “Here for It,” which is his debut memoir, he’s also written “Congratulations, The Best Is Over” and also a Y.A. novel that was named 2023’s Stonewall Honor Book called “Kings of Baltimore.” Eric is a television writer, which is super fun. He’s done Dickinson. He’s done Better Things over on Fox. He’s the long-running host of The Moth in Philadelphia, and he’s been published all over the internet. That’s not an exaggeration and he has a brand new column coming out, which we talk about. 

Let me give you a quick recap of the book to set up the context of our conversation today. In his memoir of essays “Here for It,” Eric defines what it means to be an “other” through his experience growing up in two very different worlds which where the urban landscape of his parent’s home in Baltimore and this wealthy, white suburb where he went to private school. He explores trying to figure out how to reconcile all of this, not just these two wildly different racial and class spaces, but also his Christian upbringing with his sexuality as a gay man; the exhaustion of code-switching; accidentally finding internet fame; covering the 2016 election and all of that aftermath. Ultimately, he is seeking to answer whether the future is worth it when everything seems to be getting worse by re-envisioning normal and placing himself at the center of his own story. It is full of humor. It is full of heart. It is joyful, funny, delightful, relatable, and tender. It’s every good thing about a memoir. I love him so much and I’m excited to talk to Eric about his writing process, and was equally excited to feature “Here for It” as the book of the month in the Jen Hatmaker Book Club.

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