Humans

This is a book that I wish I could give to each of my friends and family. My heart has been touched, I’ve laughed, I’ve cried at the 400 or so amazing, tender stories presented here. Some folks might remember the work of Studs Terkel, an oral historian whose books of interviews with ordinary people telling of the Depression of the 1930s, on soldiering in our wars, and on working life were excerpted in Readers Digest and hit the bestseller lists in the 1970s-90s. These snapshots of regular people going about their lives and the words that accompany them are the closest thing I’ve seen to another body of work that celebrates our common humanity. Brandon started out telling the stories of people he met on the streets of New York City, and then was able to travel around the world to over forty different countries. His work’s been such a hit because it’s both surprising and comforting to enter the lives of strangers. Stylish people who are deserts inside, homeless people whose hopes rise high: no matter people’s faces, no matter their ages, no matter the country they’re in—no matter what people seem to be like from the outside, our insides are all the same: various degrees of love, fear, judgement, wonder, grief, certainty, hope, despair, confusion. Some of the stories I relate to so much; some make me sad or angry, others make me grateful for my own road taken. People talk about their pets, their relationships—or lack thereof—their joys, their sorrows; their childhoods, children, parents, schools, jobs; their opportunities and life losses. In this wide world, we’re each alone—and yet we’re all connected through shared experiences, through shared stories. All the friends we’ve known were just faces to us once, until we knew their stories. It’s curiously joyful—at the end of this awful year, in the season of love and new beginnings—to acknowledge that despite all the beliefs that divide us, we all have more in common than we fear in this fraught and changing world. The coffee-table size book is good to be dipped into at random, savored in pieces or gulped wholesale, however you care to; it’s just a bit heavy for arthritic hands. It’s on sale at many retailers and I highly recommend this glimpse into the common soul of humanity.

I loved reading stories from all the different people from New York and all the other countries. It gives you insight on what the person walking by you has experienced or thinks as well as someone half way around the world, without leaving your house. After reading the short story, you feel like you want to talk with that person and know more about them. Every person had something different to say which gave off a different emotion whether funny, cute, empathetic, or sad. I used to read the HONY posts on FB years ago but stopped using it, until I realized he was also on IG. So I was excited to finally have a book where I could read all of those posts I had missed. I believe the book has some stories that he never posted too. I loved the smell and feel of a new physical book because EVERYTHING I do is digital (ie. school). It's nice to keep the book for decades and to look back at it one day to see what people had experienced in this time and how they looked like. Buy The Book!

Many stories and many watery eye moments.

I ordered this book thinking it would sit out and maybe I'd read a page here and there whenever. I ended up devouring it cover-to-cover over the course of two nights. May of the stories were familiar. Some I had forgotten. But the way this was arranged was so incredibly striking. One one page would be a story and a photo. On the opposite page would be a story with maybe the same kind of theme, and a photo that would make me do a double take because the lighting and scenery looked like it was maybe the other half of the first photo - like they were taken in the same place, moments apart, of different people. But then I would see that they were taken half a world away from each other, with probably months or years in-between them. So even though the stories were familiar, and I had read many of them already, seeing them in this arrangement and in this medium was incredibly beautiful and gave me a profound sense of connection with the world. Some of the stories made me feel less alone. Some reminded me to keep things in perspective. Some made me ugly-cry and gave me a headache that I still have 3 days later. And I was very thankful for the last story, which helped me release all those feelings & tension so that I could finally put down the book & go to sleep at 3AM.

Stunning storytelling via photography. These are our stories, that resonate across the world.

Brandon Stanton ne déçoit pas ! Un grand livre superbe, des photos et histoires (en anglais) pleines d'émotions. Vis-à-vis d'Amazon, petit bémol à la réception : le livre avait visiblement été manipulé par quelqu'un qui avait les mains grasses, la couverture était un peu tachée... si j'avais pu je l'aurais acheté en librairie, mais il n'était pas disponible dans ma librairie habituelle malheureusement.

Happy to found a used one for a nice price here in Germany. I just started reading but I follow on Insta a while ago and cant wait to see new storys. Thanks for writing about all these good souls💙. Wish you all a blessed christmas time.

This book is physically beautiful to hold and read. It's printed on high quality stock and very well bound; it is also very well laid out. What surprised me the most was how inspiring and moving so many of the stories are. They range from single short sentences to multiple pages. Some are comical, many of poignant and touching, others give a perspective on life from a different geography, or age group, that just give you pause for thought. I read it in a few sittings, but it's also a great book to have on the coffee table so that people can just dip into it.

ADOREI LER O LIVRO FEZ REFLETIR MUITO