In 2020, the world turned upside-down, and Grant was laid off. This was a problem, because Grant was the breadwinner at home; it was a second problem, because most health insurance in the US is tied to employment, and Grant had cancer—health insurance was a need-to-have, not a nice-to-have. And because it was 2020, his regular avenues of work had dried up...and the place he could get hired, right away, with health insurance also right away, was the postal service.

I have a thing about books about Jobs I Never Knew I Didn't Want. Don't want to *do* the job, but read about it? Yes please. Grant found that there were things he loved about the job and things that were interminable; I expect I would enjoy a lot of the same things and, well, be frustrated by a lot of the same things. (I don't drive, so the mail service would be a doubly unlikely job for me...but I do think I'd really, really enjoy the sort of non-rural route that involves a lot of walking. Well, I'd enjoy it once all the mail was sorted and I was out delivering it.)

A lot of your enjoyment of this book will probably depend on how well you connect with the voice and the worldview. This one wasn't really for me—too much enthusiasm about guns and hoo-rah attitude towards the US. There's quite a lot of "look at this great thing that the US does!" that is nice and all but is outdated even before the book is published because there's been a regime change between the writing of the book and the publication of the book, and, well. Not to get political in a book review, but whether the mail service is in the Constitution or not probably doesn't mean much to the current government. (And when Grant tells us earnestly that in 1776 it was hard to be represented by the government, I have to think that he means that it's gotten better for white men? There are plenty of citizens whose right to vote the government actively works to suppress, and Grant is very optimistic at times at how well his overtly racist colleagues got on with his POC colleagues.) Also rather wish he'd edited himself when he took pains to clarify that his one-upon-a-time-yoga-instructor-therapist's PhD was not one he respected (surely it would have been easier to just not mention the PhD?).

So...some hits and some misses. Again, I really enjoyed the part of the book that was, you know, about delivering the mail. (Side note: Cancer gets top billing in the book description, but it is a footnote in the book. There are good reasons for its footnote status, so that part's fine, but it probably shouldn't have made it into the book description either. Grant probably wasn't the one who wrote the copy, but just something to note!) I've never thought about rural vs. city routes before, or thought much about the work that goes into delivering the mail between the point when it arrives at the post office and the point when postal workers drive out in their loaded-up trucks (or, as it happens, personal cars—did not know that was a requirement for some of the roles). Grant ended up on a less rural route than he (or I) necessarily expected, thanks to the growing sprawl of suburbia, and while I was a bit sorry that there wasn't a bit more *rural* to it, that's obviously not something within his control for the book. Nice to read about something that is so far outside my wheelhouse, anyway.

Perhaps this isn't quite one for my hypothetical Jobs I Never Knew I Didn't Want list...but at least one for an (equally hypothetical) list of Jobs That Probably Aren't for Me but Isn't It Fun to Dream.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

We all lived through the covid pandemic, but losing your job March 2020 when you know you need health insurance in a hurry (cancer) and there aren't very many job prospects. I loved the authors writing style. "The idea that this was going to be a one-day-a-week job survived a grand total of ten minutes." (In regards to a mail truck) "It was an empty aluminum shell, and the acoustic experience of driving it was like riding inside an empty beer can bouncing free in the bed of a pickup truck along a washboard dirt road."

For many of us, the pandemic meant working from home or adopting a pet or reading a lot of books. But for Stephen Starring Grant, it meant going from white collar to blue and slinging a lot of mail. Carrying refrigerators and freezers across rivers on your back (being very thankful that the max parcel weight was 70 lbs and not higher). When egg prices skyrocketed, people ordered chicks through the mail ... sounds cute and adorable with all that peeping ... and withing days or weeks, you are slinging 50 lb bags of chicken feed.

Stephen Starring Grant lived through the Amazon/UPS/USPS turmoil. That sounded like a disaster to see first hand.

I feel like I learned a tremendous amount about the inner working and history of the US Postal Service. Very interesting perspective.

4.25 stars, rounding up to 5 stars. Usually I'm not a fan of a lot of swearing in books (or in general), but since this was a memoir (of sorts), it really didn't bother me. I'm not a democrat (and I'm really not a fan of the current 2025 political situation either), but the author definitely didn't vote for Trump.

A question for the author, will Alicia (wife and film producer) be working with you to turn Mailman into a movie?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for approving my request to read the advance read copy of Mailman in exchange for an honest review. Approx 304 pages, publication date is July 8, 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
I'm usually interested in the behind the scenes aspects of people's jobs so this book was intriguing. I enjoyed the stories of the people the author worked with and delivered to. I do feel like there was too much focus on politics.

A very entertaining and interesting book that was really fun to read. Grant loses his job and tries to do something completely different, be a rural mailman. At midlife a drastic career change is difficult but he is determined to make this work.
This was an honest account of the trials and tribulations that he encountered. Some very funny details made this book one that I would highly recommend.

This book was a fascinating look inside a rural mail carrier's job. Grant took this job during the Covid-19 pandemic when he found himself laid off from his white collar job. As someone who has lived on a rural mail route for most of her life, I appreciated learning just how difficult this job could be. I enjoyed not just learning of his experiences on the job, but also laughed many times at the anecdotes he shared.

A very entertaining read. Some of the final chapters meandered a bit and felt like an ending before an ending but overall I enjoyed it.

Stephen Grant's Mailman (Simon and Schuster 2025), a memoir about Grant's year as a mailman in the Appalachian Mountain region of eastern US, caught my attention first because this area is home to America's newest Vice President, J.D. Vance. He also wrote a wildly popular memoir about this area called Hillbilly Elegy which was made into a Netflix movie and vaulted Vance into a successful career and ultimately leadership of the United States. I didn't expect the same from Grant's personal history about accepting a job as mail carrier in this hilly rural area after loosing a cushy well-paid job because he needed insurance to cover health issues, but I was excited to read another writer's personal take on the geographic region of America that brings to mind hard-working, tough people who survive despite impossible odds. Mailman starts as a fascinating procedural in how Grant applied for, was accepted to, and then trained to be a postal carrier. The training is much more extensive than I imagined and through Grant's eyes, I gained a lot of respect for the process. Once he became official, he shares the camaraderie that existed among the carriers (at least, in this mountain area), the rules and regulations required of the individuals who visit every home in America (and the ones he broke), and how he and the rest developed community with their customers. Grant good-naturedly adapts to the requirements and shares stories of the people he meets and the events that mark his days. He touched on politics early in the book, but at first, just a pin prick that made me growl and read on. It seemed unnecessary to his stated goal for this story--"My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home".  If you read 200 books a year like I do, you realize lots of the current books mention politics in one way or another so I growled and read on.

Overall, Mailman is a comfortable story about an acculturated man meeting his rural cousins and finding a lot to like, so why did I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars? First, that politics things. The story didn’t benefit by those comments, nor other allusions to climate change, election interference, and 2nd amendment woes, especially since they always came from one side of the aisle and likely not shared by the Appalachian residents. If you agree with Grant, you'll quickly give back the star and I'm fine with that. For me, the pin prick soon became a Winkler pick (my newest toy, purchased for break up hard rocks and cold ice) stabbing into my shoulder. Second, Grant includes a lot of conversational swearing. For authenticity I suspect so this is simply a warning. I didn't ding it more than a quarter of a star because of that. Overall, this is an interesting read that helped me to better understand a part of the country I admit to not knowing enough about.

This special and unique book is a must-read! Grant is a superb writer, and the book transitions seamlessly from informing me about the inner workings of the USPS, to poetic descriptions of the Appalachian mountains, to postal delivery anecdotes that alternately made me gasp, smile, or laugh out loud. This book is sincerely patriotic* without being naive or extremist. It offers informed critique of some things about the USPS while recognizing the necessity and nobility of it. In doing so, Grant comments on the COVID pandemic, consumerism, and America as a whole. This book has the makings of a bestseller and maybe even a movie or miniseries. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the free eARC. I post this review with my honest opinions. This review is cross-posted on Goodreads, and will be posted on Amazon and Instagram within a week of the book’s publication.

*Don’t assume that means Grant is a fan of Trump; he is not

Content notes: in case you didn’t notice it in the description, this book discusses delivering sex toys. Some readers might be offended by the use of God’s name in vain and frequent profanity.

Mailman by Stephen Starring Grant is a thoughtful, funny, insightful look at one man's year as a US Postal Service mail carrier. Grant deftly debunks any myth that being a mail carrier is a skills-light job. It absolutely is not. He pays homage to what is a necessary service without being treacly. There were moments where the writing felt very much like Studs Terkel's "Working." It's filled with humor and insight. A very good read. Thank you to #netgalley and #simonandschuster for the opportunity to preview this book.