In his enthusiastic and hilarious memoir, Failure Is Not NOT an Option, true-crime podcaster Patrick Hinds (The Q Guide to NYC Pride) takes readers through his life by recounting (and embellishing) his failures with zeal. He starts with his " 'indoor kid' origin story" (spurred by the discovery of a human corpse on his route home from work), and moves through his high school and collegiate time on stage ("traveling competitive drama club--does it get any gayer?") before he attempts a more traditional career path, with disastrous results. With much humor, Hinds recounts the relatable banalities of life as well as more unattainable realities, such as when he collected Golden Girl Bea Arthur at the airport as an intern, and she hated him on sight; a home daycare catastrophe; and attending a celebrity-filled party where he tried to solve a "family mystery" of whether actress Glenn Close ever hooked up with his mom.
There's a beating heart underneath his stories--gratitude for every chance and for the people who take those chances with him: "For all the epic mistakes I've made in my life, one of the things I have managed to absolutely nail is surrounding myself with people who generally say 'yes' when I excitedly present them with my big ideas." Hinds's guiding ethos of wholeheartedly throwing yourself into every decision makes for a memoir of a joyful life--including both fiascos and triumphs, which he shares with no embarrassment--that doesn't fall victim to becoming a trite collection of instructive life lessons. --Kristen Coates, editor and freelance reviewer