Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. | 2013 | Rob Delaney | Buy |
| 2 | A Heart That Works | 2022 | Rob Delaney | Buy |
Rob Delaney’s non-fiction section spans two books published nearly a decade apart. The first, Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. (2013), is a collection of comic essays that captures his online comedic voice and covers topics including his battles with alcoholism, his family, and his comedy career. The book is characteristic of the celebrity essay collection genre popular in the early 2010s.
A Heart That Works (2022) is a wholly different kind of book: a short, direct memoir about the eighteen months his son Henry spent being treated for a brain tumour and the aftermath of his death. The book is raw and unsentimental, and has been widely read both by those who follow Delaney’s comedy work and those who came to the book through its reputation as an account of grief. Together the two books give a picture of Delaney’s range as a writer beyond his primary career as a performer.