No comments about Means of Transit: A Slightly Embellished Memoir.

5 comments about Breaking News: A Stunning and Memorable Account of Reporting from Some of the Most Dangerous Places in the World.

1. Most of us will never know the inside of a war correspondent's job. We should be thankful that veteran war correspondent Martin Fletcher has provided that glimpse for us.
   
   Fletcher is currently serving as NBC Mideast News Bureau Chief in Tel Aviv.
   
   Fletcher has written beautifully, movingly and tragically of his 30-year career, covering the strife in Israel, Zaire, Afghanistan, Somalia, Rwanda, Kosovo, and other war torn areas of the world.
   
   At times, the descriptions are brutal, graphic.
   
   At times, Fletcher breaks your heart. But always, Fletcher tells it like it is.
   
   Fletcher began his career as a cameraman who had grown bored with his BBC desk job, and describes his constant yearning for more as living a life always on 'fast forward'.
   
   
   
   
   Fletcher's father, Georg, was a young lawyer in Vienna in 1938 who fled Austria with his wife after escaping from a Nazi jail. Martin was born in London and Georg changed his name to George and the family name from Fleischer to Fletcher. Very few in Fletcher's parents' families survived the Holocaust. Martin Fletcher writes in his introduction that:
   
   
   "I am proud to say that I have rarely interviewed a head of state or a chief executive officer. I don't care what the generals have to say...Nobody with a story to sell or a policy to spin interests me. What I care about are the people who pay the price, as my family did."
   
   
   And that is what he tells in Breaking News - the stories of people who have paid the price; most often, with their lives.
   
   Sometimes, those who paid the price were journalists. In August 1967, Fletcher and other journalists were in Cyprus:
   
   BEGIN EXCERPT:
   
   "...As it was August 7, the first day of renewed peace talks in Geneva and we needed to show what was happening on the ground, we said thank you and drove off. Nobody's going to shoot just when their leaders are sitting to talk, we thought. And we were right. Nobody shot. But we didn't think about land mines...
   
   
   ..."Ted, in the backseat with the camera and sound gear, looked out the window.
   
   
   "The main road along the coast of northern Cyprus has many gentle bends, with fields on both sides and occasional narrow slip lanes to the right that lead to villages on the slopes of the low Kyrenia mountain range...It is a beautiful drive, with cows grazing in green fields, sweet-smelling bushes with butterflies and birds, and ancient gnarled olive trees...Here Lawrence Durrell made his home and under a sweeping lemon tree in the village center wrote much of his famous book Bitter Lemons."
   
   
   ..."Simon drove slowly, no more than fifteen miles an hour. All three of us scanned the road for mines and peered into the bushes ahead for Turks...
   
   
   ..."This time there was no barbed wire, and there were no warning signs. Simon and I spotted the mounds pushing up on the tar road at exactly the same time, and we shouted almost in unison: 'Mines" They were about a foot apart, arranged in 3-2-3 formation, and stretched forward as far as I could see. Some were just bumps in the earth, others were in plain view...
   
   
   "Even at such slow speed, there was no time to jam on the brakes...
   
   ..."Here I'd like to describe how I felt, but I have no memory...[multiple cars went through the minefield]...
   
   "The yellow car at the back pulled out. 'What's up? Why'd you stop?' the New York Times guy yelled. He began to overtake the car in front, heading toward us and the mines. There is no word I know to describe that instant of sheer terror. The fucker was going to kill us all. Then the car stopped. ...
   
   ..."Then Ted opened his door and got out. He held up his arm and shouted a warning, telling them to get back. That's when Ted trod on the mine. It was a Bouncing Betty ...'an antipersonnel mine that, when you tread on it or hit a trip wire, leaps into the air and explodes at chest height. It can blow your head off'...."
   
   END EXCERPT
   
   You will not be able to put down this book.
   
   
   
   At the heart of photojournalism is the ability to capture humanity in its most human moments; in war, this often means death. Correspondents were told to take pictures as close to the subject as possible. In war, that often meant photographing people in the act of dying.
   
   Fletcher argues that a journalist should put aside, for the moment, the very human difficulty of 'exploiting victims in order to save them', as Fletcher writes, or of 'cozying up to the perpetrators.'
   
   As cruel and insensitive as that may seem, it can be necessary, simply to bring the story of cruelty to the public. And by bringing the story to the public, more lives can be saved.
   
   
   Of his experiences in Somalia, Fletcher writes that by 1993, the drugged-up teens chewed 'khat' the drug the Somali warlords supplied to the children to keep the children's crusade killing and dying, dying and killing.
   
   
   BEGIN EXCERPT:
   
   "The oldest boy looked maybe sixteen. They were all shiny with sweat and had yellow-green teeth from the constant mashing of khat. One had dirty white bandages seeping blood wrapped around his shoulder to cover a bullet wound...
   
   "...Twice on our journey gunfire broke out. Our boy-guards whipped their machine guns around to the source of the shooting while our driver trod on the gas, hurling us against the hard metal...
   
   END EXCERPT
   
   
   Here Fletcher arrives at one of the most gripping episodes in his entire book, the death of Fida Ibraham and the filming of it on camera - and of the moral dilemma one faces, Fletcher writes, that directs 'good people to do bad things for a good reason.'
   
   That issue is at the crux of the human dilemma in this type of journalism.
   
   To bring to light for all of the television watching world, Fletcher and his film crew - an assignment originated from Tom Brokaw - decided to film someone dying, to let the world know what it is like to die of starvation.
   
   Inside a hut in the village lay Fida Ibraham, who was a refugee from Baidoa and who had walked 120 miles to Mogadishu.
   
   
   BEGIN EXCERPT:
   
   "She had survived for four days, but now black flies buzzed around her bulging brown eyes, and her thin lips drew tight against her yellowing teeth as she cried. Her long bony fingers dug weakly at the worms under her dry and wrinkled skin, but she didn't have the strength, and her skinny arm dropped suddenly and dangled over the side of the broken wooden barrow Annette used to carry away the dying."
   
   ..."Yossi was crouching crablike by Fida's side, his wide-angle close to her face, so the world would see in close-up her pain, fear, and humiliation...Fida whined and gasped in pain as the aid workers lowered her carefully onto a blanket on the bare concrete floor and inserted an IV drip into her vein. Every bone stuck out. She looked like a box of matches. "
   
   END EXCERPT
   
   Fida had TB, malaria and scabies. Her father, Mohammed, sat by her side, her aunt sat at Fida's head and the cameraman, Yossi, kneeled by his camera. Annette fed Fida small drops of water from a spoon.
   
   
   BEGIN EXCERPT:
   
   "We were the voyeurs of death. It was hard. I knew we were abusing poor Fida, but I felt this was a scene the world should see and understand. If the viewer felt sick, good."
   
   
   END EXCERPT
   
   
   Fletcher's gripping account of his years as a war correspondent does not end with Somalia. He takes the reader to civil war torn Rwanda with the savage killing of the Hutus and the Tutsi, and then on to Kosovo.
   
   
   He ends his book with a brief discussion of why anyone, rationally - would choose such a career as his has been, and provides an answer that in this world obsessed with 'celebrity, wealth and success', he worked to tell the story of 'those left behind' of 'those who paid the price', and offering words from the Bard, echoed by Faulkner that he hopes his efforts will be counted as more than "'Life's but a walking shadow...it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'."
   
   Fletcher tells a powerful story we all should read. His memoir signifies much on the stage of world affairs.
   
   Intense, gripping, superb.



2. Hanging my boots up last year after my final trip to Afghanistan was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make in my life. It was done at the insistence of my daughter and my knees. I finally had to realize that I could be a liability to those around me in a war zone. With that in mind, I was quite intrigued when friends contacted me and asked if I would read and review Martin Fletcher's book, "Breaking News". Martin was starting his career with the Yom Kipper (October) War of 1973 just as I was ending my Navy Combat Camera days with the very same war. Martin's account of this war is "spot on"! I wish he had written about this many years ago when I got asked to leave a Political Science class in college for telling the professor he didn't know what he was talking about. When the professor asked me how I knew, I replied with the only answer I could give, "because I was there"! Where were you when I needed you, Martin!
   
   "Breaking News" is a MUST READ for anyone interested in international conflicts and what it is like to cover these conflicts as a cameraman and as a broadcast journalist. In his 35 year career, Martin Fletcher has pretty much seen it all, and this book is his very personal account of what life is like in the day to day world of the Foreign Correspondent. Part of what makes this book great is that it does not focus on world leaders, and "their" stories. It focuses on the day to day struggles of the average person caught in the middle of these conflicts. It gives an excellent account of the journalistic integrity of one man working in the trenches of so many conflicts, Martin Fletcher.
   
   I am always reluctant to give too much detail in a book review because I hate to give out "spoilers". Once again, I will just say, "READ THIS BOOK"! Martin takes us on a journey of adventure and personal growth from the October War of 1973 to the Coup in Cyprus just a year later, to the Rhodesian War that gave us what today is known as Zimbabwe. He gives an excellent account of life in Paris for news reporters and takes us to Algiers and Iran for an insider's look at the Hostage Crisis in Tehran. From there he takes us to Afghanistan and covering the Afghan/Soviet War. He gives us a very telling account of life in Israel during the first Gulf War with SCUD missiles falling in Tel Aviv.
   
   I could go on and on about his coverage of the Middle East, Somalia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Bosnia and numerous other places of conflict and genocide. But, once again I will simply point out that Martin's book is really about his own personal and professional growth. There is some humor here, but there is a huge amount of sorrow and pain. One does not do this kind of work for 35 years without it taking a toll on your soul.
   
   Martin closes his book with the following: And I can only hope that Shakespeare wasn't referring to storytellers like me when he wrote "Life is but a walking shadow...it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"! Rest assured that Martin's book is anything but this! It is a glimpse into one man's continent crossing dedicated life as a Foreign Correspondent, a glimpse into hell, and hopefully an offered understanding of "conflict" on the average person, as well as what covering such conflicts does to those who report them.
   
   Please...READ THIS BOOK "BREAKING NEWS"!



3. This is a very different, deeply-impressing account by a very special reporter - and if this book hadn't been thrust under my nose with the recommendation to read it, I would have assumed it was the usual set of star-turn anecdotes from someone who thought they were the star-turn. Not a bit of it. Unlike some, Fletcher is never, ever bigger than the news on which he reports.
   
   If this was only the most brilliant account of exceptional, award-winning TV war-reporting journalism, which, incidentally, it is - then that in itself that would be something. But it's much more than that; it's about the moral and ethical dilemmas that people like Fletcher face daily on our behalf in reporting serious news - and, refreshingly, nothing to do with the soulless ephemerals of providing 'entertaining' so-called, 'news' features between adverts.
   
   Fletcher is one of the last vestiges of conscience and soul in the digital age when it comes to serious news reporting. Breaking News is likely - and rightly - to be considered core-curriculum stuff for anyone considering serious journalism as a career - but it's also likely a must-read for anyone who wants to share Fletcher's personal 'take' - and the chance to share in his very human enlightenment - through his reporting of a truly extraordinary series of world events over 30 years.



4. An amazing, POWERFUL, insight into the world of Martin Fletcher. I read the book in two sittings, four days ago, and I am still thinking about it. He tells his story in a 'mostly' chronological order, leaving me breathless at the end. It's an incredible journey and I am so thankful he took the time to tell it!



5. I couldn't put this book down, and read it in one day. Martin Fletcher takes you where most reporters won't go, or can't go. You'll read of the intense competition between the networks, and what ranks as "go" or "no-go" story; which amounts to the number of people dying or killed as being newsworthy.
   
   Stories of fellow journalists who are killed and wounded (including his own first-person account), in attempts to bring the stories of war and its victims to our television screens. How Fletcher identifies with the suffering of the victims of war in Somalia and the "Ethnic-Cleansing" of the conflicts in Rwanda and Kosovo; with his own family's suffering in The Holocaust.
   
   From the Arab-Israeli Wars to the present Palestinian struggle, to personal interviews with a warlord, suicide bombers and refugees (one very touching story of a young girl). There'll be stories that will make you laugh, cry, and some that will anger you. But they are all presented within a very personal and moving context that almost makes you feel as if you're right there, experiencing Fletcher's witness of history in the making. And that indeed, this is a very dangerous and evil world in which
   live.

5 comments about Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch: Tales from a Bad Neighborhood.

1. Hollis Gillespie is a modern-day...I can't even come up with a comparison. She is hysterical, and above all things, honest; at times, poignant, painful. The books are essay format, much like her column in Atlanta's Creative Loafing: collections of musings, incidents, and anecdotes from her colorful life. Her books celebrate life, friendship, and dysfunction, out loud, in the midst of cold, hard reality, as if to say: Everybody is broken, but somehow, if you find the pieces of yourself in other broken people out there in the Big World, you'll still be dysfunctional, but you just might be all right.
   
   Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch, the psuedonym by which she is known in her edgy, crack neighborhood (the price was right), is about finding her place in the world, and buying her first home in an up-and-coming (although not nearly fast enough) intown neighborhood in South Atlanta. She introduces her best friends, Grant, Lary, and Daniel, and relates their eccentric misadventures and relationships. She is brutally honest about her itinerant past, the broken dreams and dysfunction of her parents, an alcoholic traveling trailer salesman (Dad) and a bomb-building rocket scientist/hippie artist (Mom), who carted her and her siblings all over the world. In Atlanta, as an adult, she finds family in her collection of misfit friends, settles down, buys her first home...and continues her outrageous tales of life in her second book, Confessions of a Recovering Slut & Other Love Stories. (Buy them together!)
   
   Sherri Caldwell, co-author, The Rebel Housewife Rules: To Heck With Domestic Bliss!



2. Ugh, she's friends w/ Sean Hannity's wife. Nuf said...



3. I couldn't put this book down for the 2.5 weeks it took for me to finish it-- I've read lots of biographies and autobiographies, but hardly any of them ever captivated me the way that Hollis' twisted madcap humor and sarcasm filled outlook on her own life experiences did. Some of the instances I can't relate to at all or simply can't imagine it, other ones I related to perfectly...though I bet with these book sales she indeed has found her own true home after all, truly making it all poetic justice.



4. People compare Hollis Gillespie to David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell and even Erma Bombeck, and I love all those writers, but I have to tell you, I love Hollis Gillespie even more. Do not expect any cutesy little acerbic observations all packaged in a palatable wrapping. This book is raw, funny, enlightening and delightful. It is also sad, maddening and heartbreaking at times. In the end, you don't want it to end, and that is the sign of a good book.



5. I loved this book, as you may have guessed from my rating... the author is alternately funny, touching, and insightful, sometimes all in the same sentence. A good read that you can pick up and put down without too much commitment- I like the vignette style which suits my "read a little before bed each night" style. Hollis had me laughing out loud more than once as I read this one... and that's unusual for me with a book. Funny stuff!

5 comments about The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories: Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me.

1. Don't get me wrong, I am no author. In fact, I am no astronaut either. Some things should be left to the pros. 'Don't write, Ralph. You'll bring shame on your family.' A pro said that and he was right.
   
   I bought this book hoping to gain some insight into the life of a great journalist, author and legend. What I got instead was a book written by a man desperate to remind us that, without him, there would be no journalist, author or legend. 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas would be nothing without its illustrations.' Balderdash. Reading this book is kind of like going to a family reunion and watching the less coordinated, less handsome, younger brother of the captain of the football team try to catch one of his passes. We all know he has no chance, and we try to be kind as he repeatedly falls on his face. Children are entitled to kindness. Ralph isn't a child so, in this case, let's be honest. This book is poorly written. It is particularly poorly written from a grammatical standpoint (and yeah, the fact that he's Welsh is no excuse). There are times when it is nearly impossible to figure out what the hell he is talking about! Better writing and better editing would have helped a lot.
   
   Of course this book wasn't all bad. In between patting himself on the back, or unnecessarily sounding off on his take on events like Watergate, there are some nuggets of worthwhile information in here. Too bad those nuggets aren't representative of the book as a whole.
   
   So, in the end, do buy this book but buy it used.



2. Ralph isn't the greatest writer ever born, but I've always enjoyed his books. This books is a great read. I gives a Ralph's eye view of Hunter. I would recommend it to anyone that has read at least 4 Thompson books... If you just read Vegas once because you liked the movie you might want to pass.



3. I'm going to miss the good doctor. Hunter S. Thompson, with his faithful English mad man gave us the ultimate in gonzo journalism. This is Ralph's side of the love/hate partnership they shared. For the most part, he does a good job. There are some rants and he pulls off some of his own scabs from life with Hunter. The artwork is first rate and of course, that is what Ralph does best. Still, all in all, it was a good read and I recommend it for anyone who has ever been the sidekick of a huge ego or savagely bludgeoned by the wierd that has gone pro.



4. Ralph Steadman gives and honest, insightful and funny glimps into the work he and Hunter S. Thompson did over the years.



5. If your a fan of Hunter I highly recommend this book. I'ts written by his best friend, not some second hand source of filtered information,
   so it's told how it is, how it was, and what really wend down on their adventures on the job.
   The book is also full of Ralph's Gonzo Art - some of the very pictures Hunter requested him to draw.
   I feel like I'm on Reading Rainbow right now, but this is a book I'm happy to have added to my collection.
   My prop's to Amazon for the best deal I could find on the internet, Thanks.
   So if you want to hear about Hunter from the man that was with him on his mission's and how that man was influenced and likewise, than this book is for you, I'ts well writted also. Peace.

5 comments about The Man Who Made Lists.

1. I was disappointed in this book because I wanted to know all about the creation of Roget's Thesaurus and the author spends less than 10 pages (actually more like 5 pages) on that topic. In fact, by the time the book gets around to this topic, it is very close to the end.



2. A good utilitarian biography about a figure in history whose contributions are little thought about today. Roget, who created the Thesaurus at a time when there was nothing close to it and the need was great, also invented the modern slide rule led major scientific societies, and contributed to the natural sciences. A good handling of an unusual man, and well worth the time to learn about the man. My only real complaint is that Kendall seems to apply a 21st century sense of judgement on Roget's relationships (and difficulties therein). This sense may be somewhat due to the lack of cited evidence when such opinions are interjected.
   
   Still, a recommended read for a word maven, list keeper, organizer, or just to fill in a hole in one's knowledge of the movers and shakers of the early days of what became modern science.



3. Interesting book abut the Peter Roget, the creator of the ubiquitous Thesaurus, but it is a dry read, jumps around. At times the book feels as if it were written by the Peter Roget it describes: emotionally absent the author simply narrates events in Roget's life.
   
   In the hands of a more skilled writer like Eric Larson this would have been a most excellent book. Like other reviewers have said, finishing it was a struggle, which I did out of interest purely in the subject matter.



4. I picked this one out because I loved The Professor and the Madman and thought the story of thesaurus-making might be similarly interesting.
   
   It's not.
   
   In fact, I bailed about 1/3 of the way through. The Man Who Made Lists turns out to be a fairly average biography with lots of amateur psychology and tales of young Roget's early life. His family was prone to depression and madness, his mother was clingy and lived her life through him (Behind every great man is a needy mother?) and etc. Pretty much the usual stuff, and not terribly well told. Oh, the prose is good enough, at least I didn't notice any glaring errors, but the author utterly failed to make me care at all about Roget or his list making.
   
   Pity.



5. Couldn't put the book down. Peter Roget's life was fascinating, there were many historical facts intertwined that made the book an even more interesting read.

5 comments about Eleni.

1. This is a very good book written by the son of a woman murdered while trying to escape to freedom with her children from a corrupt government. He wrote about it as an adult investigating what happened and including his memories. He is forgiving as his mother was desiring to do as she would have wished with no retaliating to those who had part in persecuting her.



2. Author Nicholas Gage tells the story of the Greek civil war and how it personally affected him and his family. Most notably this book describes how politics, fear, greed, and desperation combined to culminate in the brutal torture and execution of his mother, Eleni, for the crime of merely saving her children from starvation or forced separation.
   
   My brother highly recommended this book to me. I was a little put off by its length and the obscurity of its subject (I had never even heard about the Greek civil war), but as the story unfolded I found myself completely engrossed in it. The first 100 or so pages were just a little difficult absorb because of the necessary build-up of the scenario and the characters. I also struggled throughout the book to get a grasp of the numerous greek names of people and places. However, these were minor inconveniences to pay for the huge reward of learning about this incredible and disturbing experience.
   
   Nicholas Gage very eloquently describes the cruelty and injustice that war tends to inflict on so many innocent victims. Everyone could benefit from learning about this story that he has so vividly portrayed in Eleni.



3. I have owned this book for over 10 years. Every time I read it I thought of my maternal grandmother (that was her generation) and all the other brave Greek mothers before her and cried like a baby. I passed it onto my second husband who is not of Greek descent. He loved it and really liked the name Eleni. That was about 5 years ago (we've been together over 6).
   Our second daughter was just baptised Eleni in the Greek Orthodox church. It was the only name we could agree upon. My aunt & uncle came from Greece and told me a story of when my uncle was a little boy. He was injured by an unexploded bomb and was taken to a hospital in Athens. His grandmother went to visit him. She had been born and raised in Athens, although now living about an hour outside of the city, so she knew the short-cuts to the hospital. On her way to see her beloved grandson she was shot dead, mistaken for a man in disguise. This was at the beginning of the civil war. I had not heard this story before, and had no idea who my paternal grandmother was. Apparently, her name was Eleni. I wonder if this is why I was steered to this book and so moved by it? Ain't life funny?



4. There are few books on the Greek Civil war that erupted after 1945 between Communists and the rest of Greece. During the war some 158,000 or more people died, many at the hands of the Communists. Yet most books on the subject in English are still sympathetic to the Communists (seeRed Acropolis, Black Terror: The Greek Civil War And The Origins Of The Soviet-american Rivalry,1943-1949) and refuse to condemn the red terror and the mass killings. This book goes a slight way towards setting the record strait if only because it shows the story of one peasant woman in a small village known as Lia in the mountans of northern Greece. But the story of how the vilagers were used as slave labourers by the COmmunists, starved and finally tortured and murdered is a story of what befel all northern Greeks during the Communist insurgency. Westerners present this insurgency as 'romantic' as only westerners can present genocide as 'romantic'. But this sad and disgusting train of thought is finally shattered by this excellent and daring book that tells the story not only of Lia but of the peasants who lived there and Eleni and of course her son who survived and who has lived to return to Greece to tell the story.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



5. I'm generally not into reading, but I decided that I would give this one a shot, expecting it to be as good as Face/Off. Boy was I mistaken. Cage should stick to acting. Do you remember in Snake Eyes when he punched that guy in the face? Do you remember in Boy in Blue when he punched that guy in the face? I enjoyed those moments more than I enjoyed reading Cage's book, or reading anything for that matter.

5 comments about True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa.

1. Michael Finkel wrote this book in an effort to alter the popular opinion that he is a dishonest reporter who falsified his articles. He wrote with one objective in mind - to emerge as a talented author and honest human being. But was he able to do so? It's up to the readers to decide.
   
   What's the book about? As it turned out, a serial murderer used Mr. Finkel's identity to hide from the law. Luckily, the FBI did their job and caught the man. And when Mr. Finkel found out that his identity has been compromised for nearly a month, he saw an opportunity to use the story as a stepping stone toward redemption, toward purification of his own public character.
   
   The book is written well, but having read it, I wouldn't recommend it. For one thing, it does little to reveal something new about the character of the murderer. It simply affirms the man's deceitful nature. And I could care less about Finkel's correspondence with the murderer. There were times when I felt like I was reading a gnostic gospel- an account of lies between two corrupt men = the dishonest journalist and the two-faced murderer - what a pair.
   
   If anyone is interested in the story, the Internet is a perfect source about Longo's biography. Use it, don't waste your time with the book.
   
   - by Simon Cleveland



2. This book is about a murderer's theft of the author's identity to help him escape police apprehension. The author makes much of this fact,seeing himself as a victim, but an account I read of the actual murders has no mention of the author, nor does it need any for the purpose of telling its story.
   
   Nor is the author a very sympathetic character, having announced at the beginning of the book that he has been fired for fictionalizing a news story for the New York Times. (a practice becoming more and more popular, it seems)
   
   My main complaint, however, is that the book is just not that interesting unless you're fascinated by the inner workings of a journalist's mind.



3. Back in December 2001, a heinous act occured along the Oregon coast that would forever alter the lives of the people involved with it. Christian Longo, newly relocated to the area a few months back, savagely took the lives of the people closest to him, and then fled the country. The shock and horror of the crimes reverberated strongly through the community and the state. While in Mexico, Longo assumed the identity of disgraced NY Times reporter Michael Finkel. Thus, this unusual pairing of these two men was born, and the end result, this quite unusual recounting of the Longo murders in "True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa".
   
   Michael Finkel was once top of his game, reporting on serious stories with serious implications. However, due to frabrications made in an "child slavery" story, he quickly fell from grace, retreating to his life in Montana. No sooner than that happened, his phone rang, and a reporter calling from the Oregonian fills him in on the Longo story. Having nothing better to do with his time, Finkel contacts the now-captured Longo, who responds, creating a very strange, symbiotic relationship during the time Longo was awaiting trial for the murders.
   
   This whole book is quite amazing. From Finkel's complete, honest confession to his fabrications, to the letters that Longo writes to him, the story is quite the page turner. Finkel's writing style is uncluttered and easy to read. He builds his story well, from the introduction to the final, horrifying conclusion. Finkel's honesty is compelling; he cuts himself no slack for his fabrication. You must forgive him for his mistakes, and hopefully, he'll find himself back to writing.
   
   This story is chilling, in so many aspects. Longo, a merciless killer, sits on Oregon's death row, living with his crimes. You wonder how he does, but after reading Finkel's book, which provides an unusual insight into the distorted mind of a killer, more light is shed on this subject. In short, it's a great read.



4. A thoughtful, well written description of a horrendous crime that explores the psyche of the killer; the author's growing understanding of the killer's psyche as he gets to know him; and the author's own travails while all this is going on.



5. There were times throughout this CD when I wanted to just turn it off, but somehow I made it through. The events depicted are well worth knowing about, and Mr. Finkel can ply the skills of his trade when he wants to. The research and facts are all done quite well.
   
   But long before the story was finished, I had complete understanding of why the author had gotten in trouble at the NY Times. He can't see past his own shiny self-image. The same ego that caused a talented young reporter to throw his career away while attempting to make a name for himself is the driver of the hubris that bloats this book. We know he's being taken in by a lifelong con artist ages before he can admit it to himself.
   
   The author tried to build up suspense that would lead to a moment of truth at the climax of the story, but just like his fabricated articles for the newspaper, there was no truth to be told. We know not to trust a habitual liar, but apparently another habitual liar doesn't. I would get so frustrated with his naiveté while driving in my car listening that I'd yell at Finkel as if he was a pedestrian stopped in the middle of the street before me, trying to decide whether to continue crossing the road or head back to the curb he just came from!
   
   Despite the unique nature of this bizarre tale I can't recommend the book. I'm all for author involvement ala Ira Glass' "The New Kings of Nonfiction", but in this case you'd be better off reading someone else's coverage of the same material.

5 comments about Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number (The Americas).

1. Este libro es un resumen de un pais de tristeza. Anarchia, luchas, gobiernos coruptos, y la militaria- es lo mismo ahora en este pais bella y riqueza. Los maleducados hay un nivel de estupidez - ellos solo quieren el pavo, el dinero - la renta sin pensar de la gente.

   Tienes que leer este libro!




2. I won't give a synopsis of the book b/c everyone else has already done that for you. What I can say about this book is that it is an impetus. After you read it, you'll most likely be hungry for more information about this brutal time in a seemingly well-developed country. Questions to consider: Why the silence of the press, with the exception of Timerman's newspaper 'La Opinion' and the 'B.A. Herald?' How could someone treated so horribly come out of it okay? Why did this happen after Pinochet's regime and the Nazi regime? This is post WWII, so why? Where was the rest of the world? The book is splendid, the first chapter gut-wrenching and beautiful. You will love it as much as Elie Wiesel's 'Night.'



3. One of the most harrowing books I've ever read. An amazing entreaty against violence of both the left and the right, and a heartbreaking analysis of contemporary anti-Semitism. Comparable at some points perhaps to Koestler's Darkness at Noon, except that it deals with torture in a more direct (and horrifying, since it's nonfiction) way. I wish this were requiring reading in schools.



4. I used this book in my introduction to Latin America course as a supplementary text. The writing is moving and heartfelt while being historically and politically relevant. Most students read this book in one sitting finding it impossible to put down.



5. I read this book, here in Brazil, about 20 years ago.This book was writen by an argetinian and jew, about thirty years ago.This book is against Argetina's government, in late 1970 decade.This book isn't a communist's book, but a book against torture and other bad things.The main problem of this book is that we aren't in 1970 decade.Argentina's processo is over since 1983 and we must remember that in Argentina, there was less than 0.05% of murders that were did in "socialists paradises" such as China or former USSR.

5 comments about House of Happy Endings: A Memoir.

1. This memoir shows the triumph of life over madness. Leslie Garis does a great job, and a courageous one, sharing memories of her growing up years in a household governed by a father with mental illness. It shows the pain and anguish of all involved. And, in 2007, this father would have gotten good medicine and the family life would have been totally different. It is hard to believe a family can live beyond the pain. But, they all did.



2. I grew up in a home filled with children's series books such as Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey Twins and many others (not all of them series books, thank goodness). At the time, I thought author Laura Lee Hope was not just an author's name on the cover of Bobbsey Twins books but one that represented a single author, not a series of authors working for an organization. I thought of Laura as a kindly woman who sat down and thought of a new formulaic story for children, perhaps with a light shawl around her shoulders, sun streaming through the windows of her traditional home.
   
   Wrong! Instead, a group of various authors worked for Edward Stratemeyer to create many of those children's books. Stratemeyer was a shrewd man who hired writers to work for his syndicate, allowing him to maintain control and most of the profits.
   
   After reading the book, House of Happy Endings, written by Leslie Garis, I had a whole new perspective on the world of peaceful families, solid values and the sugar-coated world of those children's series books, ones populated with the names of Tom Swift, Baseball Joe, Dorothy Dale and the Bobbsey Twins. Our home had a fair number of these books, although I admit I found them a bit too formulaic for my tastes. Still, I have memories of those covers and the beaming faces and idyllic scenes that graced those covers.
   
   In the books I'd read, everything generally ended well and the children and adults went off to bed to dream happy dreams -never nightmares. I do feel compelled to warn potential readers of House of Happy Endings that if you have cherished memories of those books - as well as illusions of kindly authors spinning these lovely fantasy tales - ....you might want to avoid reading the book. But if you like wonderfully told memoirs that are both powerful and enlightening, I'd suggest you get a copy of this and sit down for a good read.
   
   Why? Because House of Happy Endings openly examines the life of one author, Leslie Garis, and her family and how their lives were seriously twisted by trying to live a life modeled on illusions of perfection like those reflected in the books. Leslie Garis's grandfather, Howard Garis, was the creator of the famed Uncle Wiggily books. He couldn't walk down the street without children clamoring for him to tell them stories about Uncle Wiggily and he'd often do just that. He was seen as a kindly gentleman who love children and eagerly looked forward to coming up with more tales to enchant them. The truth was far darker.
   
   Imagine being the son of the man who created Uncle Wiggily. The son of "the man who created Uncle Wiggily" was Roger Garis. Try to think about how that might impact your life. Intrigued? Then you'll want to pick up the book, House of Happy Endings, because Leslie Garis reveals exactly how intimidating it was for a budding writer (her father) to try to compete with the reputation of his own father. You'd think he'd want to avoid becoming anything but a writer but his father encouraged him to continue the family tradition even as his mother undermined him.
   
   By now it should be clear that the Garis household was definitely not one of life imitating art, of the sunny, cheerful Bobbsey Twins, but of a family struggling desperately to hold things together in the wake of impending crisis. Leslie Garis's father, Roger Garis, had terrible mood swings, drug addictions and the ill luck to be overshadowed by his famous father. She describes his struggles, mental breakdowns and odd behavior in an open, but also loving, style. I consider this book to be one of the best I've read in quite some time.
   
   At this point, you may be cringing and wondering why on earth anyone would ever want to pick up this book, one which tears apart the illusions anyone might hold about the beloved Bobbsey Twins and Uncle Wiggily and the authors behind them.
   
   Here's some quick reasons you should put this on your "to read" list of books:
   
   1. It reveals a piece of American social history, especially children's literature and book history, that is both personal and engaging. There are larger truths and insights here about what people wanted to read, the ideals they cherished and the type of books they bought for themselves and their children - especially in the 30s and 40s. Author Leslie Garis had rare access to some of the letters sent by those readers as well as the demands of the publishing company.
   
   Reading this allows one to get a "behind the scenes" looks at children's book series authors, their readers and the way the work was written and published. As a reader and a writer, I found it impossible to put down!
   
   2. The book is written with enough drama to be completely riveting but also a certain amount of restraint. This could easily have seemed like a "Mommy or Daddy Dearest" story but the author has the good sense to pull back from that and to simply reveal what life was like at The Dell, a family home bought with much hope and promise and one that was indeed expected to be a house of happy endings. Instead, life in that large home turned into a downward spiral and a steadily worsening nightmare. Leslie Garis was witness to it all and reconstructs the entire situation with amazing clarity.
   
   3. There is previously unrevealed information about the inside workings of the Stratemeyer syndicate. They really held dear the illusions they created, including the fact that there was one author named Laura Lee Hope who wrote The Bobbsey Twins. Even today, many unknowing readers assume that there was a single author who wrote all those books. I really enjoyed learning the truth as well as the impact that trying to keep secrets had on the Garis family. The Stratemeyers could be cruel, demanding and vengeful!
   
   4. The book is inspirational, although not in the way that many "inspirational" book fit that genre. It is a sideways kind of inspiration, one that can be intuited by reading the author's bio and learning that she went on to write New York Times Magazine profile of many authors, including John Fowles and Joan Didion and Georges Simenon.
   
   Before that, however, she had her own breakdown and struggles. For all readers of House of Happy Endings, one message could well be that life can be hard but resilience can be found even when all hope truly seems lost.
   
   5. Leslie Garis doesn't pull any punches. She describes the weaknesses of her father, grandfather, mother and grandmother in graphic detail. The family was like a turbulent cloud of dysfunction and yet there were happy moments and even touching ones. From hysterical fits to money troubles, Garis gives a first person account, first seen from the eyes of a child and then as the emerging woman she was becoming. No one was left untouched, from her brothers to Garis herself. All suffered from the family dynamics.
   
   Perhaps most touching of all is the plaintive question that opens the book but which I find to be an excellent summary of how Leslie Garis felt so much of the time, the question she seem to return to - time and again:
   
   "We were a nice family once, weren't we? "



3. House of Happy Endings: A Memoir
   
   Leslie Garis's memoir takes you from her childhood to adulthood describing her loss of innocence in discovering her family dynamics. It is also a story of two marriages, her grandparents and parents and how children are affected by these relationships. Garis has managed to combine the fun days of childhood with the reality of her Grandmother's and Father's depression and how it affected her and her brothers. A wonderful story that starts out with a life so full of hope before reality takes hold in the mind of a child.



4. This warm-hearted book describes the terrible strain of a father's mental illness on the entire family. This is a very talented writer who invites the reader to her childhood home, set in a picturesque New England town, and introduced us to her remarkable family.



5. I really enjoyed reading this true narrative. It was as interesting as any good fiction I have read. I read his grandfather's books as a child, and loved them. So hearing about their author was intriguing. Of course, the most intriguing aspect is the dysfunctional family that this author endured. Many of us have at least one person in our family that is somewhat unbalanced. Poor Mr. Garis had quite a few more than his share. Besides the good read, I guess the take home message is that if he can come out of that household alive and well, then the rest of us have a fighting chance.

3 comments about Israel Through My Lens: Sixty Years As a Photojournalist.

1. As a photographer, I loved this book. As good as the photographs are, the writing is even better. Great stories about working as a Time photographer in the Mid East, growing up in Europe during WWII, and wonderful vignettes about Israeli leaders. Highly recommended.



2. David Rubinger has laid it out as he saw it and lived it. This is a VERY personal book with little if anything held back. From his youth to the present, Rubinger gives a verbal as well as photographic picture of himself and the Sate of Israel growing up, maturing and "getting on". From his time in the British army to the horrific death of a woman he cared for deeply, this book tells it all. It is easy reading yet compelling. I was carried into a very personal environment and felt as if I were at each event, meeting each person, taking part in each "adventure". David Rubinger's life appears to be a string of wonderful and not-so-wonderful experiences. And you are right there. The country comes alive through the eyes and life of this exceptional man. I have read it twice and have given it as gifts to friends. Oh, yes, I highly recommend this book!!



3. I am an advanced amateur photographer who has been photographing for almost fifty years. On reading "Israel Through My Lens" there is an immediate connection between Mr. Rubingers experiences and those of any serious photographer/photojournalist. Through his remembrances the reader not only relives the history of Israel and the Middle East in the 20th century but also the very simple joy of being a photographer, getting the good shot. This is a simple story of his life and his relationships that have led to a brilliant career as a photojournalist. I enjoyed the book because I am able to feel his excitement in getting the picture. Rubinger is not a 'god' of photography, he is simply a talented photographer who clearly describes for the rest of us the fun and excitement of photography and photojournalism. All this while telling a wonderful personal story and national history.