Anthropocene. I've never heard that word before. But it means: 

Wow. I really loved this book! When Storygraph's Onboarding Reading Challenge had a prompt for reading your least read genre, I thought it would be short stories, or nonfiction. But it was essays. I didn't think I had any other essay books other than Virginia Woolf, and I didn't want to read those right now. But when I saw John Green's book, The Anthropocene Reviewed, was an essay book, I was intrigued, and excited to pick it up as an audiobook, which is narrated by John Green himself. Listening to authors reading their own book is always a delight, especially if it is their memoir or autobiography. I was surprised by how meta this book was, the way it referenced that this was an audiobook while I was listening to it, and some nature sounds as well. It made the audiobook experience very engaging! Some essays were very engaging and interesting, and John Green covers a lot of topics in here that I was very interested in, like shows, memories, grief, COVID-19, chronic illness, anxiety, and just a lot of other random little things that I've experienced or remembered that I was not expecting him to reference in this book. The other essays were a little too random for me, but overall, I related a lot to the topics that were discussed in this book. I also really liked the way that he rated the essays after talking about them. Listening to this book from a perspective where we are out of COVID-19 and listening to him talk about a 'new normal' made this book a totally new experience! And for that, I give The Anthropocene Reviewed 4.5 stars!

I don't much like John Green's fiction. I don't actively DISlike it, but it always seems to be a bit too light on the plot and characterization end and too heavy handed on the philosophical end. They're fine if not a bit heady, but John Green was made for nonfiction. We love his Crash Courses, his YouTube videos, his real life advocacy, and his podcasts. And this is that. Even down to its cadence and organization, this is just John Green having a highly consumable conversation with the reader that also helps them feel more encouraged about this life, even despite the many moments that suggest we should be panicking, even despite the occasional, poorly-veiled social advocacy moments.. He delivers a peacful philosophy despite it all. This is officially a new favorite book of mine. I need to go get a physical copy now.

While I don't include audiobook performance in my star rating of a book itself, I have the unique experience here of being able to critique the same person twice. Because John Green is an incredibly gifted speaker, and because I believe that audiobooks voiced by the author themselves have the potential to be the best of their kind, there's nothing about this narration that didn't hit the mark. I give John Green reading his own book the Anthropocene Reviewed... 5 stars.

I really enjoyed this audiobook - I felt like I learned more about the world and about the author and I definitely want to check out more of John Greens Books now!!

Particularly excellent as an audiobook!