I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I've been a Normal Gossip fan for years, so I was excited to read this deep dive into the world of gossip. And now that Kelsey is stepping down as host, I wish I had gotten it on audio to fill the Kelsey-shaped hole in my heart (the new hosts are great, I just hate change). It's a little bit academic, a little bit memoir...I would say it's not quite what I was expecting, but then I don't really know what I was expecting! It was also weird to read this while I was also reading Cue the Sun - there's a bit of crossover with the nature of reality tv and how humans are just primed to create stories.

It raises some interesting talking points - why do we consider gossip such a terrible thing when there are so many ways it can be used for good? And at what point does something *become* gossip? I've always loved the Normal Gossip approach - it's both low stakes and shockingly engrossing.

This was a perfect "desk book", in that it was easy to pick up and put down between helping kids find Elephant and Piggie. As a few others have noted, it does feel a *little* disjointed - I had chalked that up to the fact that I read it in fits and starts over a couple of months. It's entertaining, and I enjoyed it when I returned to it, but it wasn't something I was dying to get back to (unlike the podcast, which I save as a special treat!).

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“We gossip and we tell stories because that is how we each make sense of the world”

I love gossip, so much so that I’ve been deemed the “storyteller” amongst my friends and coworkers. That being said, I don’t know how I hadn’t heard of Kelsey McKinney or her podcast before this book.

“You Didn’t Hear This From Me” was equal parts personal and informative. McKinney did a great job creating that balance while also keeping the reader interested.

This is definitely a book that I will be revisiting and I can’t recommend it enough!

What a delightful book! Structured as a series of essays, "You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip," McKinney challenges the idea of gossip as mere vice, and really makes the reader think about the ways it can create understanding and deepen relationships. I loved the historical and literary examples throughout. The mix of cultural criticism, memoir, and journalism really worked for me, and made the book feel quite meaty and thought-provoking. I actually haven't listened to the "Normal Gossip" podcast but I'm aware of it, and you don't need to be a listener to enjoy this book. As a lapsed Catholic who was taught gossip is A SIN I particularly enjoyed that part of the book. A very unique, compelling read!

I love the Normal Gossip podcast. In fact, each Wednesday, I would look forward to Kelsey McKinney's podcast. And while I love gossip, and understand its importance, I think this book was too wordy and felt more like an undergraduate essay that was far too long than a well-researched book on gossip.

Kelsey McKinney has successfully combined an intellectual, historical, scientific, and personal exploration of gossip in You Didn’t Hear This from me. It’s packed full of gossip tidbits that guide you through the actual learning that makes the reading experience deeply enjoyable. Highly recommend.

✨ Review ✨ You Didn't Hear This From Me, written and narrated by Kelsey McKinney

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Audio, and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

This was such a fun reflection on gossip. Chapters ranged from talking about AI and if its able to gossip and tell stories to the function of gossip being preached as un-Christian (and thus can't be used to express discontent or inappropriate behavior of church leaders toward youth) to how gossip can function to help society. I appreciated the many ways in which she stretched my ideas of the meaning of “gossip” and how it functions in our society throughout this book.

While in many ways this book was thoughtful and challenged my understandings, it's also just full of fun. This is full of pop culture references key in millennial life -- from Mean Girls to Britney Spears and much, much more, and I wanted to cheer and laugh and have fun right alongside the author. So many of these topics I wanted to chat about with others as I listened, which to me is the marker of a great non-fiction read!

🎧 I love when authors narrate their own non-fiction reads, and her podcast background brings some of this fun chatter into the audiobook as she tells her stories.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: non-fiction, essays, pop culture, memoir
Length: 7 hours 14 minutes
Pub Date: Feb 11, 2025

Read this if you like:
⭕️ pop culture non fiction reads
⭕️ audiobooks by podcasters (on topics aligned with their podcast topic)
⭕️ gossiping with your friends
⭕️ taking down the patriarchy

I love the author’s podcast, Normal Gossip, so I was really excited for this book. I, like the author, went into this book with an expectation in mind of what the thesis would conclude. However I thought her more nuanced conclusions as to why we gossip were even more interesting. I also like the different facets of gossip that she addressed in the book. However, there were a few chapters where the book just completely lost me. I felt like I was being taken along in the current of the author’s stream of consciousness but if I missed anything, I was lost for a really long time. This was a little disappointing, since I was so excited for the book. However some chapters hit home perfectly for me. So it was a bit of a roller coaster but ultimately I’m glad I read the book.

What an interesting collection of essays on gossip, storytelling, and how we connect through language. This will be popular of course for fans of Normal Gossip, but I think it will also find a wider audience. Perfect for fans of Amanda Montell and Kate Kennedy.

I tried so hard to read this one, I even switched to audio. but the stories and thesis are too jumbled and disconnected I DNF.

I really enjoyed this book! It literally feels like sitting and gossipping with a friend, and the hot goss is the goss itself. I hadn't heard of Kelsey McKinney before, but will definitely be checking out her podcast as well.

If you've asked me for a podcast rec in the past two or three years, you know the first name out of my mouth was NORMAL GOSSIP. So of course I was THRILLED to receive an ARC of Kelsey's book of essays on gossip! I could hear her voice shine through as I read, and I loved the way she combined thorough research with anecdotes and insights. My favorite chapters were those that explored gossip in relation to religion — specifically Christianity — as well as fandom and reality TV. If you're a gossip fan (NORMAL or otherwise), definitely check this one out!

I’m a biiiiiggggg fan of Normal Gossip and enjoy rehashing episodes with my daughter and her roommate. I was looking forward to this one with great excitement. Unfortunately, this series of essays about gossip is a mixed bag and none were mind blowing. Fans of the podcast will have explored some of these ideas there. Good but not great.

This preview was gifted to me, so it doesn't fit into my profile as a middle school teacher interested in finding new books for my classroom . However, I found it to be a beautiful, dense meditation on the uses (and abuses) of gossip, with reference to classical literature, philosophy, current pop culture, and personal stories of McKinney's interactions with gossip, both personally and professionally. The book was the first I had read in a long time that asked me to think deeply about issues we generally take for granted. I an now interested in finding McKinney's first novel, God Spare the Girls.

Gossip is such an interesting concept to me. I love the psychology of stuff like that, too, so this was really interesting to me. This came across as very well-researched but also well-written---the writing was clear and easy to parse, the ideas were concise and well supported, etc. I am really excited to get this in at the branch, because I definitely think we could do a cool display with this book and a lot of patrons are going to love it.

I love normal gossip. I love this. Fascinating every minute of it i LOVED and couldn’t put it down. 10/10.

WHO WHAT WHERE: GOSSIP GOSSIP READ ALL ABOUT IT! Kelsey McKinney goes through history, culture, movies, experience to devour what makes good gossip a way of life.

MY THOUGHTS: This read like it was McKinney's university thesis paper-- and I loved it. It was well researched, well put together, and read like... really good gossip. This kept me thinking and learning, agreeing and even not agreeing with some parts-which makes for a good book club choice for any nonfic book clubs... (SHOULD I START ONE....jk I take 20 years to read a nonfic) Actually not this one! I devoured it-- my time limit on net galley might've helped with that.

I really enjoyed the part she was writing about celebrities and fandoms. Really interesting to think about the parasocial relationships we have with these people we only know a partial image of. How we sometimes think "oh my favorite celebrity would never do that!" but we don't really know! We don't know them- just know stories!

When I got my Yoga Teacher Certification I recall the teacher saying if we want to live by the Yogi way of life we shouldn't gossip... I guess I will never be a full yogi because how can we NOT gossip! Gossip isn't all bad, it's sharing information, survival, storytelling, passing tips and tricks along. It's not all bad!

I had highlighted a few notes that I really enjoyed for this one but my ARC had expired so I didn't get to save them for my review and I'm really wishing that I did haha.

VERY great read! If there's an audio for this one I will totally be listening to it as well at some point!
Thank you to Net Galley and Grand Central Publishing for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange of a review!

You Didn’t Hear This From Me blends memoir, pop culture analysis, and historical gossip, creating an engaging but somewhat disjointed read. While the book is easy to fly through, its structure lacks a strong connecting thread, making the chapters feel loosely connected rather than building on each other in a meaningful way.

Each chapter explores a different theme, with some sections feeling much stronger than others. The historical aspects, particularly Kelsey’s examination of how religion has shaped perceptions of gossip over time, stood out as especially compelling. The memoir elements also shine, as her voice and opinions bring a personal and engaging touch just like her podcast. However, the pop culture references and anecdotes are more hit-or-miss. While they are enjoyable for those familiar with the reality TV and internet scandals she covers, some feel excessive and overly reliant on cultural moments that will be a relic a few years from now.

As a fan of the Normal Gossip podcast, I appreciated Kelsey’s familiar and endearing narrative voice throughout the book. Listeners of her podcast will likely enjoy getting to know her better, but should adjust their expectations - this isn’t a book filled with juicy gossip or fresh, controversial takes. Instead, it often reiterates well-known arguments: gossip is villainized primarily when women engage in it, it developed as a survival mechanism for sharing information, and religious influences have historically shaped its negative perception. While these points are valid, the book’s niche focus results in some repetition, making it feel less groundbreaking than expected.

Overall, while this book has engaging moments, its lack of cohesion and reliance on well-known observations kept it from being a standout. I didn’t feel like there was anything incredibly new being explored in this and frequently found myself wondering, what am I as a reader supposed to take away from these chapters or this work as a whole? Fans of her podcast may find it entertaining, but those looking for a deeper, more structured analysis of gossip might come away wanting more.

This book had some highs and lows. The author had a lot to unpack from the way she and women/girls are treated in her evangelical upbringing and that was heavy at times in the book.
I enjoyed the Urban Legend chapter and wanted more of that. The background of the gossip and why we think the way we do or where stories could stem from. More of that if there is a follow up or for press tours.
I thought the gossip bit at the end was going to be a lot more than it was, maybe the audio held more of the expectations but reading it first thing in the morning felt a bit flat.

McKinney's book brings the thoughtfulness, insight, and humor of the Normal Gossip podcast and her journalism to a new format in a nonfiction book. She's able to provide both a historic perspective and contemporary examples through a lens that's maybe not unique but feels personable and identifiable. I think if you have enjoyed the podcast, her writing on Defector dot com, microhistories, and/or social commentary, this would be a solid read.

Kelsey McKinney explores different aspects of gossip through "You Didn't Hear This From Me".

I have enjoyed Kelsey's podcast for several years. I was excited to pick up this book. It is well written and explores different topics surrounding gossip. I enjoyed the essays while I was reading them. A lot of the essays I felt were more trying to get people to understand why we gossip and almost trying to persuade the reader that gossip wasn't bad. As someone who knows the importance of gossip, that didn't really work for me. I must not be the target audience. I also finished this book over a month ago and I couldn't tell you anything that I took away. So overall, enjoyable, but not one that has stuck with me.