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You Didn’t Hear This From Me
(Mostly) True Notes on Gossip
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Formats and Prices
Price
$30.00Price
$39.00 CADFormat
Format:
- Hardcover $30.00 $39.00 CAD
- ebook $14.99 $19.99 CAD
- Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $24.99
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From the host of the Normal Gossip podcast, a delightfully insightful exploration of our obsession with gossip that weaves together journalism, cultural criticism, and memoir.
As the pandemic forced us to socialize at a distance, Kelsey McKinney was mourning the juicy updates and jaw-dropping stories she’d typically collect over drinks with friends—and from her hunger, the blockbuster Normal Gossip podcast was born. With listenership in the millions, Kelsey found herself thinking more critically about gossip as a form, and wanting to better understand the role it plays in our culture.
In You Didn’t Hear This From Me, McKinney explores the murkiness of everyday storytelling. Why is gossip considered a sin, and how can we better recognize when it’s being weaponized? Why do we think we’re entitled to every detail of a celebrity’s personal life? And how do we define “gossip,” anyway? As much as the book aims to treat gossip as a subject worthy of rigor, it also hopes to capture the heart of gossiping: how enchanting and fun it can be to lean over and whisper something a little salacious into your friend’s ear.
With wit and honesty, McKinney unmasks what we’re actually searching for when we demand to know the truth—and how much the truth really matters in the first place.
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“Gossip is the only cultural tradition I care about, and Kelsey McKinney has written its Bible. I cannot wait to gossip about this book with everyone I know for the rest of my life. KELSEY IS THE REAL GOSSIP GIRL XOXO”Samantha Irby, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wow, No Thank You. and Quietly Hostile.
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“A beautiful, expansive ode to the joy of information exchange. An ode that, like the practice of gossip itself, can be all at once inviting, tender, enlivening, and rich with humor, complexity, and an abundance of joys.”Hanif Abdurraqib, New York Times bestselling author of There's Always This Year
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“Come for Kelsey McKinney’s alluring voice, stay for her brilliant insights about words, secrets, gender, shame, pop culture, and technology. McKinney is not only our generation’s most beloved raconteuse, she is a rigorous and deeply thoughtful writer who can quote Emily Dickinson and Doja Cat on the same page and make a reader feel both delighted and challenged to come along for the ride. You Didn't Hear This From Me is cogent and sharp, and I will be whispering around town about it for a long time.”Amanda Montell, New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Magical Overthinking
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“YOU DIDN’T HEAR THIS FROM ME cements Kelsey McKinney’s status as one of the greatest storytellers of our time. She dishes out secrets, tidbits, fables, and epics with the wisdom of an edler and the zeal of someone who was there when it all went down.* Although McKinney grew up believing that gossip was a sin, she reveals how gossip may also bea form of prayer – reminding us of our imperfect humanity and helping us search for the truth. This book sparkles from start to finish and ends with a blind item so juicy you’ll need to put it down and text your best friend.Sabrina Imbler, award-winning author of How Far the Light Reaches
*(If anyone could have teleported to 2100 B.C.E. to ask Gilgamesh if he really smooched his best bro, it would be Kelsey. And conversely, if Kelsey were born around 2100 B.C.E., she would have absolutely inscribed gossip in tablets that people would still be fighting over today—this is her impact.)"
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"I tore through this like I was sprinting for gold at the Olympic games. I can't remember the last time I read a collection that made me wonder, deeply, about the bonds of friendship, social sciences, and the Real Housewives all in the span of a single page. True dynamite when it comes to examining the ways we yearn to yap while also remaining funny as hell; a remarkably potent combination. Nobody is cooler right now than Kelsey McKinney. This book stuns."Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things
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“I devoured this book like it was a series of 4-minute voice memos about someone Kelsey and I vaguely know. Her meditations gossip -- sometimes a powerful force for good, sometimes a sign of a diseased culture -- are, like the best gossip, so fun. RIP to the man killed by a walnut.”Blythe Roberson, bestselling author of America the Beautiful? and How to Date Men When You Hate Men
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"Sharp, incisive….McKinney provides meticulous research and offers some genuine insights in her attempt to elevate gossip to a worthy subject of study”Kirkus
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PRAISE FOR GOD SPARE THE GIRLSElle
“[A] tender, aching debut . . . where faith and betrayal are intertwined.” -
“McKinney is a strong and compelling storyteller and has crafted a captivating small town world full of gossip and intrigue. God Spare the Girls beautifully explores the challenges of young womanhood in the context of a religion that has its own very strict ideas about what it means to be a good daughter, sister, and wife."Associated Press
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"Kelsey McKinney’s debut is a timely exploration of the moral contradictions of contemporary Evangelical Christianity. But the accomplishment of this canny novel is in positing coming of age itself as a loss of faith—not only in the church, but in our parents, our family, and the world as we thought we understood it."Rumaan Alam, New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind and Rich and Pretty
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"Every family has its secrets. . . . God Spare the Girls is an exploration of individuality, family, religion, community, and how when one family secret is revealed, many more follow."Oprah Daily, 33 of the Best Beach Reads to Help You Escape
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“Totally brilliant. With the buoyant curiosity that makes her so beloved, Kelsey McKinney dishes an elegant treatise on gossip as an engine of both personal intimacy and cultural sea change. Incisive and vulnerable, gentle yet uncompromising, McKinney stakes a place among the best cultural critics of the age, without ever losing her sense of fun. I loved this book."Lindy West, New York Times bestselling author of Shit, Actually and Shrill
- On Sale
- Feb 11, 2025
- Page Count
- 288 pages
- Publisher
- Grand Central Publishing
- ISBN-13
- 9781538757406
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JOIN KELSEY MCKINNEY ON BOOK TOUR
February 2025
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The Town Hall w/Strand Bookstore
123 West 43rd St, New York, NY 10036
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Wilbur Theater w/Brookline Booksmith
246 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116
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Politics and Prose @ Lincoln Theater
1215 U ST NW, Washington DC 20009
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Seattle Arts and Lectures @ Town Hall
1119 8th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101
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Vroman’s @ Wilshire Ebell
Join us for a hilarious and gossipy evening with Kelsey McKinney discussing and reading her newest book!
4401 W 8th St, Los Angeles, CA 90005
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Texas Theater w/The Wild Detectives
231 Jefferson Blvd, Dallas, TX 75208
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Fillmore w/First Person Arts
Presale starts at 10AM local time. Presale code: STORY (not case sensitive)
29 E Allen St, Philadelphia, PA 19123
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March 2025
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Chicago Humanities Festival
2936 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60657
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Toronto Public Library
789 Yonge St, 2nd Floor, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8, Canada
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