“Your job is to figure out who or what I’m talking about before I get to the end.”
Did you ever listen to Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story” radio show? I did. Growing up most of my childhood on overseas military bases, we had one American TV channel and one American radio channel. In high school, I tried most days to catch “The Rest of the Story.” Now, I enjoy Mike Rowe’s podcasts in the same genre, which he had now turned into a book. “The Way I Heard It” tells a short story about a person, place or event in a way that makes you really wonder who, what or where it might be about. I always feel really good when I can guess it right before the end.
As a listener of the podcast, I have been waiting to get a copy of his book. He described it as a collection of his podcasts, but with a commentary after each one explaining how he came to hear the story or how it ties to his life. I’ve been following Mike Rowe since his appearance on Dirty Jobs and we watched many episodes of Deadliest Catch while we lived up in Alaska.
The Way I Heard It could be read in a single setting or over several days or months. Each chapter is short and stands alone, although it would be good to read them in order as he ties some later stories to some earlier ones. I had heard many of the stories on the podcast, but really enjoyed reading his commentary about them. My favorite is of a woman who disappears and then they suspect her husband’s mistress and track her down, they find her impersonating the mistress but with no memory of who she really is … until she gets back home. Who is she? You’ll have to read the book and find out, but someone whose name you will recognize.
I would recommend The Way I Heard It for high school age readers and older. If you are a Mike Rowe fan, you will probably hear his voice in your head as you read the book.
What is your favorite “The Way I Heard It” story? Share in the comments!
Buy The Way I Heard It here (affiliate link).
