Hope and Other Punch Lines

By: Julie Buxbaum

Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie, Robbie Daymond, Julie Buxbaum

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times best-selling author of Tell Me Three Things and What to Say Next delivers a poignant and hopeful novel about resilience and reinvention, first love and lifelong friendship, the legacies of loss, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.

"A luminous, lovely story about a girl who builds a future from the ashes of her past." (KATHLEEN GLASGOW, New York Times best-selling author of Girl in Pieces)

Sometimes, looking to the past helps you find your future.

Abbi Hope Goldstein is like every other teenager, with a few smallish exceptions: Her famous alter ego, Baby Hope, is the subject of internet memes, she has asthma, and sometimes, people spontaneously burst into tears when they recognize her. Abbi has lived almost her entire life in the shadow of the terrorist attacks of September 11. On that fateful day, she was captured in what became an iconic photograph: In the picture, Abbi (aka "Baby Hope") wears a birthday crown and grasps a red balloon; just behind her, the South Tower of the World Trade Center is collapsing.

Now, 15 years later, Abbi is desperate for anonymity and decides to spend the summer before her 17th birthday incognito as a counselor at Knights Day Camp two towns away. She's psyched for eight weeks in the company of four-year-olds, none of whom have ever heard of Baby Hope.

Too bad Noah Stern, whose own world was irrevocably shattered on that terrible day, has a similar summer plan. Noah believes his meeting Baby Hope is fate. Abbi is sure it's a disaster. Soon, though, the two team up to ask difficult questions about the history behind the Baby Hope photo. But is either of them ready to hear the answers?

©2019 Julie Buxbaum (P)2019 Listening Library

Just Another Cliche

I couldn't even finish the book because the cliche was so strong with this one. but if that's your thing I would recommend this.

Sweet story despite tragedy

9/11/01. Everyone *thinks* they know Baby Hope, the one year old girl in a birthday crown carried out of one of the buildings holding a red balloon. But her real name is Abbi and she’s fifteen and can’t erase the unwanted notoriety. Noah wants, even needs, to know Abbi who may hold the key to his questions about that tragic day.

9/11 is one of those indelible dates etched in everyone’s mind. We remember exactly what we were doing we we heard about the twin towers. We recall the feeling in the pit of our stomachs. For me, it’s the day I was driving to the doctors, about to be diagnosed with breast cancer which is the same illness that killed Connie, the woman who saved Abbi, though Connie’s was likely caused by 9/11 Syndrome. Abbi has asthma from inhaling the fumes that day. She also is coughing up blood and thinks her days are numbered.

Julie Buxbaum was written another winner with HOPE AND OTHER PUNCHLINES with quick-witted, believable dialogue and a touching plot.

Both Abbi and Noah are great characters, socially awkward and suffering. Abbi’s friends have dropped her, her grandmother just moved in due to dementia and Abbi can’t escape her Baby Hope legacy. Noah’s father died a few days after he was born in the twin towers. Although his mother tells him otherwise, he believes the unnamed man in the photo is his father.

Buxbaum is an automatic preorder for me.

Terrible book

I tried to submit 1 star but the app was predestined to lock me into at least two. Terrible book and story. Don’t waste your time.