"Pete Buttigieg's Shortest Way Home: How One Mayor's Challenge Can Shape America's Future"

goddessmaat: Fascinating, beautifully written book.

Thoroughly enjoyed and will definitely recommend to anyone who has not read it.

I believe that in particular his chapter on the use of data to drive management decisions would have been of great use to some people I’ve worked with in the past.

United Kingdom on Jan 02, 2023

Ekta Singh: Similar to its author who suddenly broke on the national and international political scene like a fresh perspective...this book is the same. I actually want ti visit South Bend now.

India on Feb 14, 2021

Ulysses Grant Dietz: I read this on the heels of reading Chasten Buttigieg’s 2020 memoir, “I have something to tell you.” As I expected, these are two very different, but also very complementary, books. What most people who read “Mayor Pete’s” book from 2019 don’t understand is that, combined with his husband’s memoir, the two books are nothing less than an epic gay romance. Two very different young men, both from the Midwest, each of them troubled by something deeply personal but entirely different from the way it troubles the other. Both men are virtual tropes of a whole genre of popular fiction.

Pete Buttigieg, who could easily be my son, is a very good writer. The book is full of richly-textured content and yet not burdensomely long. It is remarkably well crafted, and by that I mean structured so as to deliver the maximum effect in exactly the way the author wishes. Even the boring parts—like “how to manage a mid-sized Indiana city”—are actually engaging; and there is tremendous pleasure in reading the words of a man who is literate and thoughtful and, at times, poetic.

This is, however, and totally opposite to his husband’s more recent memoir, a very...

United States on Oct 20, 2020

ladykit: If you thought you liked Mayor Pete before this read, you will love him after. Such a talented, thoughtful, kind person who is what the US sorely needs now.

Canada on Jun 04, 2020

Sue Lemon: I spent a long time over this. I started at the beginning, then dipped into different chapters out of order, then went back and read some chapters I’d read before. Then I started from the beginning again, and read all the way through. I also listened to Pete narrating his own story with the Audible version. I’m full of admiration for the things Pete’s achieved in his relatively short life time, and admit to having a huge (political) crush on him. I can see him going all the way to the top. I only wish we had someone of such high calibre here in the Australian political scene

Australia on Aug 18, 2019

SJ: Rarely have i read a non-fiction book at one go and though I have sometimes lost a whole night's sleep over a book, it was always to a thriller/crime/detective novel - i am surprised at myself to get so engrossed in a political autobiography of someone who isn't yet famous in his own country, let alone mine.

I got directed to this book through one of Mayor Pete's appearances in an American talk show where the host displayed the book. The mayor seemed to talk sense and though from a different country, with very different issues than mine, he seemed to be able to generate appreciation in me for things he said (and the way he said it) and somehow strike a chord in someone so far removed from issues he talked about (or maybe we are not really that removed, given the globalisation of thought processes and politics that transcends boundaries and finds commonality in many national discourses today).

After seeing some of his TV appearances, streamed online, i decided to give the book a chance. And despite difficulty of finding it here for almost a month (the first Amazon seller, after two weeks of booking, cancelled the order as there was no book in his stock) it finally...

India on Jun 24, 2019

Kevin Patrick: Like many, I was initially drawn to Mayor Pete's personal story and political acumen after watching him deftly handle questions on the CNN town hall. I wasn't sure what to expect of his book, since reading about the mayoral duties of mid-sized city isn't typically how I spend my free time. I initially began reading the hardcover edition, but then switched to the audio book so I could listen to it during my commute. Living in a city about the same size as South Bend with an industrial heritage, diverse population, and active political scene, I can relate quite a bit to the challenges he faces as mayor; I'm on my city's planning commission and have many friends that are involved in city government. I particularly enjoyed Mayor Pete's descriptions of the political powerbrokers of South Bend, as they reminded me a lot of some of the past and present characters we have here in Renton, WA. Renton faces most of the same issues that Mayor Pete has tackled during his time in office: downtown revitalization, infrastructure repair, spikes in violent crime, and the transition to a tech and service-based economy. Just as in South Bend, we are in the midst of converting one way streets in our...

United States on Apr 03, 2019