Paper Girl Audiobook By Beth Macy cover art

Paper Girl

A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

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Paper Girl

By: Beth Macy
Narrated by: Beth Macy
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An Instant National Bestseller • Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award • One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2025 • Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and Vanity Fair

"There couldn’t be a timelier book . . . searingly poignant, essential . . . Macy follows closely in the footsteps of . . . Barbara Ehrenreich and Tracy Kidder, combining memoir with reportage, a raft of sobering statistics and, most uniquely in our era, a willingness to engage in uncomfortable conversations." —The Washington Post

From one of our most acclaimed chroniclers of the forces eroding America’s social fabric, her most personal and powerful work: a reckoning with the changes that have rocked her own beloved small Ohio hometown

Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the ’70s and ’80s—certainly not for her family. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her role models. Though she left for college on a Pell Grant and then a faraway career in journalism, she still clung gratefully to the place that had helped raise her.

But as Macy’s mother’s health declined in 2020, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her town had dramatically hardened. Macy had grown up as the paper girl, delivering the local newspaper, which was the community’s civic glue. Now she found scant local news and precious little civic glue. Yes, much of the work that once supported the middle class had gone away, but that didn’t begin to cover the forces turning Urbana into a poorer and angrier place. Absenteeism soared in the schools and in the workplace as a mental health crisis gripped the small city. Some of her old friends now embraced conspiracies. In nearby Springfield, Macy watched as her ex-boyfriend—once the most liberal person she knew—became a lead voice of opposition against the Haitian immigrants, parroting false talking points throughout the 2024 presidential campaign.

This was not an assignment Beth Macy had ever imagined taking on, but after her mother’s death, she decided to figure out what happened to Urbana in the forty years since she’d left. The result is an astonishing book that, by taking us into the heart of one place, brings into focus our most urgent set of national issues.


Paper Girl is a gift of courage, empathy, and insight. Beth Macy has turned to face the darkness in her family and community, people she loves wholeheartedly, even the ones she sometimes struggles to like. And in facing the truth—in person, with respect—she has found sparks of human dignity that she has used to light a signal fire of warning but also of hope. Biographies & Memoirs Civics & Citizenship Dysfunctional Families Parenting & Families Politics & Government Relationships Thought-Provoking Inspiring Health Ohio
Insightful Social Commentary • Compelling Personal Stories • Pleasant Author Voice • Thorough Historical Context

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it is such a good book, but does the author have to read it herself? the narration does a disservice to the book.

reporting

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This book cuts right to the heart of the problems plaguing our great nation, including how the failures of government, education, and the media have resulted in the destruction of communities. This is one of the best books I read in 2025.

An essential tale of our times

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it's disturbing how many have been marginalised and now turn to conspiracy groups for self worth. we have all failed to recognize the need for compassion, basic education and commitment to the dream of democracy

the new america

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I also grew up in Ohio. It was an interesting study of how Americans, especially rural Americans attitudes have changed over the last several decades. The author provides a very personal view from her hometown.

Interesting read

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This book answered a lot of questions about what’s happening to my country… Without blaming pointing fingers, in an extremely thoughtful and well reported way. Excellent listen!

Rick solid reporting- Thats also thoughtful

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