Grand

A Memoir

By: Sara Schaefer

Narrated by: Sara Schaefer

Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Emmy Award-winning writer Sara Schaefer’s hilariously honest memoir follows her “on this wild river descent into the Grand Canyon and her own secret family history. This is a Class 1000 Rapids of a memoir and I urge you to take the ride” (John Hodgman, author of Vacationland). Perfect for fans of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened.

When Sara Schaefer is in first grade, her father warns her to always tell the truth because one lie leads to another and soon you will find yourself in a hole you can’t escape. A few years later, the Schaefer family is completely upended when it’s revealed that their grand life is based on a lie. Her parents become pariahs in their upper middle class community and go from nonreligious people to devout church members. The idea of good and evil as binary, opposed forces is a lesson she never forgets.

The year she turns 40, Sara decides to take each member of her family on a one-on-one vacation culminating with a whitewater rafting journey through the Grand Canyon with her sister. The only problem is she’s terrified of rafting. Along the way, she grapples with unresolved grief over the death of her mother and the family scandal that changed the trajectory of her life.

“Funny, sweet, heartbreaking, vulnerable, and powerfully written” (Moshe Kasher, author of Kasher in the Rye), Grand is “a wise, funny acknowledgment that we are not always in control - and that growth is most likely to happen when we let go” (BookPage).

©2020 Sara Schaefer Productions Inc. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

A joy from start to finish.

This beautifully told story weaves together a bunch of other beautiful stories and leaves a tapestry of warm fuzzies, laughter, and tears of inspiration and hope. I’m honored to have heard her story and I think anyone would enjoy it thoroughly.

tarantula on-ramp

I originally began this book because of the tarantula on-ramp bit from the sample (made me cackle) and the theme of an adult sister trip in nature out of their comfort zones, something I'd like to do with my sister who also happens to be my best friend. Randomly stumbled across one of Sara's stand-up acts, thought she was hilarious and realized that it's the same person who wrote this, so I had to check it out. Glad I did. It was so much more than I expected. Experiences on the sister trek, interspersed with great stories of lighthearted and also heavy life stuff that I deeply related to. I'm very grateful for how blunt she is about the embarrassing stuff. Sara is a brilliant, humble, honest, and hilarious writer. She is now a role model of mine.

Hilariously, terrifyingly, Restoringly Real

Beautiful story full of practically every kind of heartache, laughter and joy. She’s SO funny and honest. Loved it!

Amazing!

I loved it, the stories were heartfelt and funny. I'm always amazed when an author is brave enough to put their life on display and share their triumphs and struggles with the world. The author does an incredible job with the narration, you can feel her emotions and the truth in her words. If you're a person you should listen to this book!

All the feels

I just finished listening to Sara’s memoir and holy moly, it was so freaking beautiful! What a gorgeously told story, so vivid, so genuine, so seamlessly woven, I had all of the feels. TRULY SPLENDID! Do yourself a favor and purchase the audiobook so you can hear the author herself take you on this unforgettable journey. You will be so glad you did!

great insight

loved book would recommend to anyone. every day life brought into a focus. Easy read

I loved this so much

This was needed for my sanity during COVID. Sara is funny, heartfelt, and it’s a beautiful woven story of pain, triumph, let downs, and all told with absolute honesty and a self awareness that feels like a sort of therapy. Sorry for the run-on sentence. I just loved this so very much. Please give it a listen.

A great memoir

I loved listening to this book. I heard about it on the L2L podcast and listened all day. Very well written.

GREAT STORY GREAT LISTEN

I have always loved listening to an author read their own material. They tell the story as they feel it. Hearing Sara read what she wrote is a thrill. She can be so funny at times, so deep at another and you will feel what she felt as she screams her way down the Colorado River on a raft. It is a sensitive, honest telling of her families' story, twisting and turning, both happy and sad times. Sara is a gifted writer and every bit of this shows up in her book. I downloaded GRAND as 5 AM this morning and never stopped. You will LOVE it!!

Very Grand Indeed

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I was completely unfamiliar with the author and her work in comedy before purchasing this title. The book is written masterfully with bright imagery. It runs the gamut of emotions from laughter to sorrow. It is 2 separate stories interwoven masterfully into one another. Sure it's about a rafting trip in the Grand Canyon, but it's also about a tumultuous childhood and an intense struggle with self-doubt. Sarah shares her life story in an incredibly honest and raw way. By the end of the book you'll either identify with her or feel like you know her.

The only reason I gave the title 3 stars is really just a personal preference. I do recommend the title so you can draw your own conclusions. My only complaints are that her religious/moral struggle feels incomplete by the end - like she never resolves it within herself - and it is literally the whitest story I've ever listened to. I listened Hillary's memoir, so that should tell you about how white this book is. Aside from not really having minority characters, it carries so many hallmarks of white coming of age, from her dad's white collar crime, to what his consequences were, to moving to New York, to white water rafting, to her musical influences...so white it's almost predictable. Otherwise great book, hope she finds even more success on the other side of 40.