The Top 2%: Or How the 2023 Christmas Newsletter Got Out of Hand

PEI-based author, humourist, and actor Randy Burrows has just released his debut book, The Top 2%: Or How the 2023 Christmas Newsletter Got Out of Hand, published via FriesenPress.

“The book is a 200-page memoir of sorts, chronicling my family’s adventures in 2023. It offers a personal and humorous reflection on parenting during and immediately following the pandemic, but it also serves as a time capsule for life on PEI at the time—with the Canada Games, Hurricane Fiona, and the inflation-spike crisis all getting coverage.”

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a PEI dad turns the annual Christmas newsletter into a 200-page memoir, the answer is The Top 2%.

Burrows offers a first-person, family reflection on parenting teens with The Top 2% — a sly but heartfelt time capsule of life on PEI in 2023, during the early days of the post-COVID normal. He interlaces personal misadventure with Island life in a way that’s specific but also universal—and, according to his kids, completely lacking rizz. Through mortgage renewals, youth sport, and family trips, he writes with humility, passion, and a dry, articulate wit. No cap.

The Top 2% is available internationally from online vendors. It is also available via Apple’s eBook platform, with distribution to physical bookstores coming soon. For updates, follow The Burrows Bench Press on Facebook.