Nichole Perkins is a podcaster that I had the privilege of listening to as per the recommendation of a friend. The episode she linked to me was on walking and how walking during the pandemic helped Nichole’s guest, Isaac Fitzgerald, at the time. I found the episode inspiring to listen to (even though I didn’t get to start walking after it). I live in a bit of a rough neighbourhood so walking around here feels similarly risky to Nichole’s fears expressed in that episode.
Suffice to say I ended up going through all of the episodes of This is Good For You. When I was done the last episode only a short while ago I found myself feeling lonely and sad, almost grieving the loss. But to my delight I found that Nichole had published a book right before her podcast ended. I immediately found myself an audiobook copy of it, so that I could hear her speak again.
The Memoir
Sometimes I Trip On How Happy We Could Be (a Prince line) is very much about Nichole’s personal experiences. I would describe the book as memoir-essays. She relives certain exciting, alienating and painful experiences from her life for us in these short segments. As she recounts those experiences, I found myself feeling curious and interested in her life.
During much of the listen I felt a warm camaraderie towards Nichole, like I was hanging out with a friend. Nichole is only a couple years older than I am and so we’re of a similar generation (the late Gen X’ers). We also have a similar penchant towards media, analysis and introversion. There’s a lot that gets uncovered about Nichole in this book that I hadn’t known from listening to her podcast.
Most of the themes in Sometimes I Trip.. revolve around growing up, but some do go into adult and sexual experiences. There are childhood stories, teen stories and adult stories all mixed up together, in neither chronological nor thematic order. I think I fell asleep during some of these, as I tend to do that when listening to podcasts or audiobooks late at night.
Overall, it’s an enjoyable book. Nothing struck me as completely out of the ordinary or amazing. I think the essay format of the pieces was a disservice to the stories as there’s less room to dig into it. If she had made it a linear story with some main themes, it could made it easier to maintain interest.
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Sometimes I Trip… you can do so at Bookshop.org or The Book Outlet (if in Canada). And if you’d like to support me, you can tip me over at Ko-fi.
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