4 comments about Getting Better: Inside Alcoholics Anonymous.

1. Ms. Robertson's book is a comprehensive review of Alcoholics Anonymous and it's co-founder Bill Wilson. She gives a surprisingly objective history of Bill W.'s life, his joining with Bob Smith, the other co-founder of AA, and AA's evolution into, perhaps, the most sigificant spiritual program of the 20th century. The only negative aspect of the book is Ms. Robertson's compromising of the 12th Tradition of AA which is maintaining personal anonimity in press, radio and films. I strongly urge anyone in recovery from substance dependence as well as mental health professionals to read this book for greater knowledge of the famous founder of AA.



2. Nan Robertson's book is the most accurate I have ever read concerning Alcoholics Anonymous. She is devoted to AA, but more so to her research and her honest in writing. If I had to read one book concerning AA, this would be the one. Robert F. Hale



3. This book is well researched (including interviews with the widow of Bill W, co-founder of AA) and well written. It gives an honest history of the origins of AA without the trappings of saintliness often given to Bill Wilson from the works published by the AA general services office and some other sources. For examples, Bill's infidelities, neglecting family responsibilities to help fellow drunks, and "post-sobriety" experiments with LSD and other chemicals are mentioned. The history sections on AA are excellent as a result of this objectivity. The author also gives an excellent account of typical experience in in-patient rehab.

   The author's personal story is equally compelling, and touches on issues chemically dependant individuals face, including how alcohol addiction relates to other facets of life, including depression and physical illness.

   All in all, one of the better works on AA and the disease of alcoholism. As a well qualified member of AA, I have one message for other AA members concerned with the author "violating" the 11th tradition on anonimity: "get over it!". Bill Wilson was (and is) hardly "anonymous". If his widow didn't have a problem with this work neither should we.




4. Heard the taped version of GETTING BETTER by
   Nan Robertson, an inside look at Alcoholics
   Anonymous . . . I've often wondered about this
   group, but had seen little ever written about it--in
   part because of the anonymity factor.
   
   Somehow, Robertson (a Pulitzer Prize-winning
   reporter for THE NEW YORK TIMES) got permission
   to write the book . . . in it, she tells the story of how a failed
   stockbroker and a surgeon together found a way to stay
   sober--one day at a time.
   
   She also describes what happens at the actual meetings . . . and
   that is what I perhaps liked best about the book: its
   behind-the scenes view of these gatherings . . . the
   fact that Robertson actually attended many of these as
   a recovering alcoholic made her reporting all the more believable.
   
   I also liked how she summarized the message of message
   of AAA into these three key points: Be honest, change
   yourself and help others.
   
   GETTING BETTER was made even more enjoyable by Michael
   Learned's excellent narration.

No comments about Printer's Devil: The Life and Work of Frederic Warde.

5 comments about No News at Throat Lake.

1. Written in a spare, journalistic style, "No News" is easy to read and fun. What do Newt Gingrich, Meryl Streep and gypsies have in common? and what are they doing in a tiny Irish town? A refreshing change from the current "I bought a really great house in another country" genre, its more real-"I rented a dump because it seemed like a good idea". The ending will surprise you.

   A great companion to: "Round Ireland with a Fridge" and "Oh Come Ye Back to Ireland-Our First Year in County Clare".




2. Lawrence Donegan's book is one of the funniest I have read all year. He takes an everyday existence, so ordinary to the people he is writing about, and makes it interesting, enjoyable and comforting.
   Having spent many summers in this part of Donegal, I was instantly captivated by his affable style and innate journalistic inquisitions.
   Throw in a little Newt Gingrich, some decrepit, rain gathering cows and a vist from Meryl Streep and you have all the ingredients of a right rivetting read.



3. Donegan gives the reader a fun but narrow inside view to the charms and tribulations of rural Irish life. Great characters and interesting stories create the fuel for intense laughter as the city slicker to rural farmer/journalist adjusts and takes a liking to his new surroundings. Unfortunately, in the end, the writer finds himself lonely without discovering the underlying concern for humankind that is present in rural Ireland. A concern that does not exist in the world in which he decides to reenter. Definitely worth purchasing.



4. As others have agreed, I liked Donegan's straightforward style. Adding to the list of favorite bon mots below, I'm chuckling over his reaction to seeing his picture on the cover of the newspaper's he's joined: Narcissus' bedroom wall. And summing up some fearsome portraits in some Anglo-Irish manse as having the hair of Barbara Stanwyck and the face of Fred MacMurray.
   
   The end of the account does hit rather suddenly, as if Donegan wanted to duck out with as little damage as possible--again, not surprising in an Irish rural context to which he has, if imperfectly, adapted over his stint. I would have liked some nuts and bolts knowledge: how did he survive on what the paper paid him? Did he play any more golf, being a Scotsman who's written previously about the sport? Was he living rent-free in his (former? on-and-off?) girlfriend's family's shack? Wouldn't more of his London and Glaswegian pals look him up, or call him, or e-mail him? How did the Tribune fill its pages and meet its bills? Still, the charm of Donegan's year of discovery lies more in his admittedly artful arrangement of a slew of witticisms, anecdotes, and set-pieces. Newt Gingrich gets his deserved comeuppance, by the way.
   
   A light read, sure, but not without it worthwhile insights into Derry, Dublin, the memories of a former pop star, a funeral, and the realization into what opting out ultimately leads one to understand.



5. Not since "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Post Office" have I read a book that's made me laugh like this one. Donegan's witty observations are funny and incisive without being overly smug or condescending. He has a way of couching his opinions in a way that I could relate to(referring to his grandmother's musical taste as "aural carnage" was especially sharp).
   
   Bukowski has nothing on Donegan in the dry, witty social observations department. I look forward to future works from this talented writer.

1 comments about Dorothy Fuldheim: First First Lady of Television News.

1. Mote succeeds in weaving together elements from all areas of Fuldheim's life, her own books, her commentaries and her many television interviews as well as her many conversations with society's elite. Fuldheim's life represents a footnote in the history of broadcasting and it is in this area that Mote's book excels. Anyone looking for a good overview of television during its formative stages can find it by reading about how Fuldheim managed to get hired in an industry where experience was non-existent.

   ...I commend Patricia Mote for the manner in which she captured Dorothy Fuldheim.

   From a review in Ohio Writer by Ted Henry, news anchor at WEWS-TV Cleveland.

No comments about The Autobiography of S.S. McClure.

No comments about El Hombre que Inventó a Fidel. Cuba, Castro y el New York Times.

5 comments about Izzy: A Biography of I.F. Stone.

1. Professor Robert Cottrell's biography of I.F. Stone offers startling insights into the complex world of one of the 20th century's most captivating journalists. This book, obviously the result of years of dedicated research, says as much about I.F. Stone as it does about the author Cottrell. Not only does the book depict Stone as a central character in the radical left, but also it places Cottrell as one of our most significant biographers of left-wing intellectuals (also see Cottrell's other biographies about Roger Nash Baldwin, the founder of the ACLU, and Nicholas Comfort). A biography should be assiduously researched and fair-minded, coveying its subject's contributions and conflicts. Cottrell accomplishes this, but the biography goes beyond a factual depiction, in that it also conveys both its author's and its subject's passion for left-leaning ideals. This is a brave work about a brave man.



2. The Venona decrypts of Soviet cable prove beyond any doubt that I.F. Stone was a paid Communist spy. If you don't believe me, read the decrypts yourself (do a search here on "Venona"). He worked to spread propaganda in America for a brutal Soviet regime that killed tens of millions, and he was paid to do it. When he died, his family burned all his private papers to conceal the truth, but ultimately he was exposed by Venona in 1994.

   I read this book with morbid fascination at how the liberal media touted this guy as "a Gibraltar of journalistic integrity" and "The most honest reporter in America" even as he worked to destroy our country. It's sad that even today few people are aware of the truth about this evil man who hated our American democratic, free-market values but embraced the monstrous totalitarianism of the Soviets.




3. The review you have unstarred was delivered by me to offer a sampling of positive analyses about Izzy. I gave my own book 5 stars, not 0, as you have indicated.



4. Iggy Stone was a terrific jounalist,holding the powers that be feet to the fire,as it were.Howevere, his undying Stalinist sympathies and loyalities suggest a blind eye,which discolrs much of what he wrote, for me anyway. Whether or not he was a paid soviet agent[professor Cottrell dismisses this] or not,would we be as tolerant of his leanings if he were a Fascist? Think of Ezra Pound, his vitriolic and poisonous braodcasts,and hgow he has been tarnished.Or Lindbergh.To be preached to on moral responsibility from soemone who ignored the atrocities that were day to day life in the Soviet Union is bizzare,if not wilfully ignorant.We have a responsibility to satnd up for all victims, as Albert Camus said,not to be on the side of the exucutioners. Stone was not, despite all his acumen and style...



5. Anyone who has read Stone's account of the Korean War (as I did a few decades ago) cannot be surprised at what is implied--strongly implied--by the Venona transcripts, and that is that Stone was a mouthpiece for Comintern in the US. Everything he wrote in Hidden History is not just wrong, but despicable lies...and Soviet records confirm this. If Stone had been an independently-minded journalist with a different slant, there is no way he could have been so far off on the origins of the Korean War. The only explanation for his take on it was...surprise!...it was the view being promulgated by the Soviets/Chinese/North Koreans.
   
   To call this guy an independent journalist is like calling Rush Limbaugh a socialist. He was, if not a spy, an agent of communism. And if you missed the launches of NK missiles and their nuke test lately, you missed the fruits of Mr. Stone's labor.

No comments about Sophiatown: Coming of Age in South Africa.

3 comments about Remember to Laugh: Writing My Way Around the World.

1. Maggie Kilgore has led an amazing life that she shares with the reader. Written in a "chatty" and easy to read style, she will make you laugh and learn at the same time. Her escapades through historical events with her beloved colleagues in journalism are more than entertaining -- you feel like you are there. Don't miss this "must read" from one of the fun, female personalities in journalism of a bygone era.



2. I found this story to be very interesting and very entertaining. The author has had quite an exiting life as a journalist in the US and overseas. She has met and interviewed many prominent political figures. She's also a funny, compelling writer. I definitely recommend this book.



3. Reviewed by Mary Greenwood for Reader Views (11/06)
   
   The book "Remember to Laugh" is the true story of Maggie Kilgore's life as a reporter in Washington and a foreign correspondent in Vietnam. Coming from a newspaper family in Ohio, Kilgore started her career with the UPI (United Press International) and came on the Washington scene during the turbulent 1960's. After her stint as a foreign correspondent in Vietnam in the early 1970's, she worked as a financial consultant for the LA Times and later for the casino industry in Las Vegas. She started writing this memoir after a 30-year Vietnam reunion. Through her writing, Maggie Kilgore comes across as an energetic, adventurous, funny, independent and spunky reporter, who reminds me of Lois Lane.
   
   "Remember to Laugh" is full of funny anecdotes from a life lived in the early days of journalism where it was a man's world and women reporters were generally expected to write about domestic issues such as cookbooks or the society page. The "foreward" is written by Helen Thomas, who worked fifty years for UPI and was the first woman to run its White House Bureau. Thomas can still be seen at White House briefings where she continues to be a role model for women reporters. In Ms. Kilgore's own introduction, she says that her book's goal is to amuse and she accomplishes that goal. One of the funniest stories took place on a troop plane in Vietnam when the Captain asked her to sit with him in the cockpit. She refused but soon she found out that the reason for this invitation was that the men used the open back of the plane as a latrine and her presence hindered that practice. When she realized this, she went to sit with the captain.
   
   The most interesting part of the book for this reader was her two-year stint in Vietnam as a foreign correspondent. Her memories, and insider knowledge about the politicians and personalities, are the backdrop for the major stories of the Vietnam War. However, I would like to know more about the serious side of her beat and her personal opinions. I hope one day she will consider another book with a more serious focus.
   
   With the advent of the internet, computers and imbedded journalists, it is interesting to get the inside perspective from someone who has succeeded as a journalist during the major stories of the 1960's and 1970's through good old-fashioned reporting. I would recommend "Remember to Laugh" to anyone who wants to know more about women in journalism, or about Vietnam or about the history of the US in the 60's and 70's or anyone who anyone who just wants to laugh.

No comments about H.G. Wells: Desperately Mortal : A Biography.