Call him EveryDad. But unlike EveryDad, Bob Brody was raised by two hearing-disabled parents. In Playing Catch with Strangers, Brody chronicles his never-ending struggle to attain something approximating adulthood. His collected essays present a mosaic of occasional successes and frequent failures; often-hapless attempts to be a good son, a good husband, a good father and, yes, a good son-in-law; and about his evolution, long overdue.

“Bob Brody’s Playing Catch with Strangers is a gem. Brody spent years honing his craft as a hard-working newspaper and magazine reporter. He has a reporter’s eye for detail and ear for a good story coupled with a writerly heart. This collection is filled with insights, wit, pithy observations, common sense and neighborly decency. This delightful and thought-provoking memoir proves that Brody has developed into a master of the short essay.”

—Dan Rather, former news anchor for the CBS Evening News

“Bob Brody is a modern-day E.B. White who writes about everyday life with clarity, honesty and humor.”

—Bob Guccione Jr., former editor of Spin

“A good man, Bob Brody is also an observant one. Nothing escapes his vision.”

—Philip Lopate, author of Inside My Head

“If you like to laugh or cry, but don’t get around to big, satisfying emotions as much as you’d like — rejoice! (in between laughing and crying, that is). Bob Brody is here!”

—Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts with Worry

“Brody offers us ringside seats to an engrossing journey through his life with unflinching honesty and quirky charm. Playing Catch with Strangers is full of wonder, regrets, and ultimately love.”

—Danielle Ofri, M.D., author of What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear and editor-in-chief of Bellevue Literary Review

“Bob Brody’s work is poignant, heartfelt, always good natured and earnestly funny. In a world swollen with snark, it’s refreshing every now and then to sit down with a writer so sincere.”      

—Joshua Greenman, opinion editor of The New York Daily News

“In Playing Catch with Strangers, Bob Brody honors his parents for confronting the struggles of being deaf—back when society still saw deafness largely as a stigma—and pays tribute to his father for ultimately becoming a hero to the deaf community nationwide.”    

—Robin Feder, executive director, Central Institute for the Deaf