1 comments about Tortured Noble: The Story of Leo Tolstoy (World Writers).

1. Count Leo Tolstoy was the most famous Russian writer of his day, and a man whose literary works have been the subject of major motion pictures and are still studied in university literature courses today. Perhaps best known to the general reading public are his acclaimed novels 'Anna Karenina' and 'War and Peace'. As an author, Tolstoy was able to infuse the lives of his aristocratic characters with qualities and quirks that are readily identified with by ordinary men and women. "Tortured Noble: The Story Of Leo Tolstoy" by freelance writer and literary critic Neil Heims is the biography of an outstanding talent who led a troubled personal live. Tolstoy was orphaned as a child, the brunt of competing ambitions by others, aspired to an ascetic life while sometimes crippled with self contempt. Somehow he was able to use all of his life experiences to create some of the most memorable fiction to ever come out of Russia and be acclaimed world wide. "Tortured Noble" is specifically recommended for highschool and community library Biography collections, and can be confidently recommended for college level supplemental reading lists for students of Tolstoy's literary works.

1 comments about Charles Kuralt's People.

1. Compiled and edited by Ralph Grizzle, Charles Kuralt's People is an anthology of newspaper columns written in 1956 by Charles Kuralt, who was then a print journalist with the Charlotte News. From a newspaper columnist, Kuralt went on to join the fledgling CBS network and became a household name in American television influenced culture. The timeless treasure that is his collected wisdom and recorded insights remains as fresh, eye-opening, and timely today, as it was nearly fifty years ago. An intellectually stimulating collection of insightful and occasionally poignant commentaries, Charles Kuralt's People is very highly recommended reading for students of the human condition in general, and legions of Charles Kuralt fans in particular.

No comments about A Man From Kansas: The Story of William Allen White.

2 comments about A Life in Print: Selections from the work of a reporter, columnist and editor.

1. A Life In Print is an anthology of columns from reporter, columnist, and editor James P. Gannon. Collected from the pages of The Wall Street Journal, The Des Moines Register, and The Detroit News, the author's heartfelt and candid opinions touch upon the highlights of his life, his passion for journalism, and his views of both America and the world. Flavored with Gannon's Midwestern charm and Irish hard-hitting honesty, A Life In Print is unafraid to level scathing criticsm against individuals or societies - whether decrying presidential canditate John Kerry's professed Catholicism when Kerry has repeatedly voted against pro-life platforms, or lamenting that the factionalized modern-day America is such a far cry away from the unified nation that came together and gave everything it had to support the war effort during World War II. Skillfully written, each short column offers a new slice of insight, both in the author and in the world that surrounds us all. An extremely readable book that captures one's attention in bite-sized morsels.



2. Jim Gannon's new book, "A Life in Print", is obviously written by a journalist. The inverted-pyramid style of crisply writing the lead sentence, followed by information that supports the lead, reflects a lifetime of honing skills to meet deadlines. This well-written and open-eyed retrospective into the lives and times he covered as a reporter offers the reader insight into the jagged edges of life that has softened in our post-September 11 memories of the previous generation.
   
   I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking glimpses of life of the average Joe, as well as the rich and powerful, that spanned 33 years capturing private and public moments in America's history.

1 comments about America Inside Out.

1. David Schoenbrun was one of the most distinguished print and television journalists of his generation. In this work he surveys fifty years of American history, from the Roosevelt to the Reagan Administrations. He was a correspondent in the Depression and through the Second World War, through Truman and Eisenhower administrations. With the coming into power of Kennedy he was transferred by CBS from Paris where he had long been Bureau Head of CBS to the biggest beat of all, Washington.
   Schoenbrun tells of dramatic meetings with leaders from DeGaulle and HoChiMinh in his early Paris days to Kennedy and Johnson later on. A patriotic American who fought in the second world war he found himself strongly criticized for his negative reports on the Vietnam War.
   In this work he sets out his journalistic credo which he learned from the great Edward R. Murrow.This means first of all studying and knowing one's subject thoroughly. And secondly, it means getting to all the sources, all the people that can provide key information on the subject. It also means expressing the truth of the situation no matter what authority or power it might offend.
   Schoenbrun is a good and fluent writer, who provides anecdotes of interest on every page. He confesses that he sometimes made the journalistic error of working to be a participant in the making of history, and not simply a reporter of it. For instance he tells how Chip Bohlen was appointed US Ambassador to Paris after he suggested this to President Kennedy. And he tells of how he vainly tried to convince the French about the futility of their efforts in Vietnam.
   Schoenbrun was a great supporter of the New Deal, and found himself opposing many Reagan policies which he thought were aimed at taking this apart.
   He is warm in his appreciation of professional colleagues like Murrow, Howard K. Smith and producer Don Hewitt. He is less so about Fred Friendly, and the latter- stage William Paley.
   Schoenbrun's book is not simply an excellent book of journalism it is a fascinating tour through half a century of American history.
   I very much enjoyed it.

4 comments about Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl (Women in Southern Culture).

1. Picture yourself in a SUV roving through out the countryside. You take in the view of the countryside but are in such a hurry to reach your destination to the point of not appreciating what you've seen. Kitty Oliver's autobiography is very similar to the above experience. She takes you through the roads, streets, detours and valleys of her life never stopping to give you a full appreciation of this native Floridian.

   As the first generation of Black students to integrate the University of Florida in Gainesville (1965)Oliver certainly has a story to tell. It is one of turbulent times and great transitions as she leaves the segregated community of her youth and enters into a whole new chapter in her life. Oliver shows us her fears, drive and hope that she has for the future that was denied her elders. Now it is up to her to make a difference.

   Kitty tells of her quest in finding her roots from the exploration of her Geechee background to her attempts to become a bridge to her estranged father's family. You meet up with a varied mix of people in her community (train workers, cooks, teachers,etc) who held things together even in their limited world. She also dispels the myth of the united Black community during segregation. You meet with Black people who are class conscious, want to keep the status quo and are insanely concerned about skin color. Her Jacksonville home reveals a diversity of Blacks who have their own opinions and mores that are not necessarily what one would want them to have.

   Such a coming of age story has great potential but Oliver lets us down. She takes us on an excursion of her stream of consciousness as we roam from one subject to another. Her thoughts appear disconnected and you do get confused as to how she gets into school in one moment and then is married in the next without anything in between. She rarely talks about her own family except to mention her biracial adopted daughter and son. What about her husband and the lives they shared together? Was it unable to survive in an integrated world?

   Oliver goes on and on about multi-culturalism as if she just discovered it. You get a sense that she doesn't fully appreciate who she is and at times you wonder how much she has assimilated (her word) in the white culture.

   Despite those flaws her work is an enjoyable read of one reminiscing about those FIRSTS who broke the racial barriers and ushered in a new era. Her story is one that should be read, reflected upon and appreciated for its one particular viewpoint of a time gone bye.




2. Kitty Oliver has taken a changing time in our country's history and shaped it into a time of growth, understanding and exploration of herself and the multifaceted world around her. Her writing makes you sigh out loud as she takes you with her through colorful, sometimes sad, sometimes funny memories of her life. A compilation of essays, this wonderful book easily moves from one tale to the next as Ms. Oliver admirably exposes her pain and joy for the world to see. Ms. Oliver's skill as a writer is, without question, astounding. With such a poetic style to her writing, this book will bring one last sigh to your lips as you close the book at its end, only wishing for more.



3. I hoped MULTICOLORED MEMORIES OF A BLACK SOUTHERN GIRL would continue past its 173 pages. I just finished the book, and I want more. Kitty Oliver's journey from a small Florida town to her travels around the world feel very real. "When a trip is over for me, however, I enjoy observing the way life falls back into place. The toothbrush slides into the cup waiting empty on the sink."
   Kitty's honest account of her childhood, her family, her personal encounters with integration and her journey to find "home" resonate with each description and heartfelt memory. I'm a fan of her writing and look forward to more, soon!



4. For those of us who "came of age" during the time Kitty Oliver remembers so poignantly, her story is a great affirmation of our hopes and fears. In both Race and Change in Hollywood, and Multicolored Memories, Kitty writes down what some people knew and no one else cared about. The reviewer for Publisher's Weekly may dismiss the feelings of black reader's who grew up in the 60's, but Kitty Oliver doesn't.

1 comments about All Said and Done.

1. ýAll Said and Doneý by Simone de Beauvoir is the final of five volumes of de Beauvoirýs autobiography, and is different from those that precede it, which basically progress on a chronological basis. This book is arranged thematically, and de Beauvoir picks up a theme or area of her life, addresses it for the 10 years that the book focuses on, 1962 to 1972. Early in the volume, she addresses books sheýs read, movies, theater productions, etc. A particularly interesting chapter focuses on the deaths of some of the people she has known, including Sartreýs mother and de Beauvoirýs close friend, Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti. While these sections have interesting moments, the brief time she spends on each book, movie, or production and the shortness of the sections isnýt a very engaging read. The discussion is really a gloss, and feels a little obligatory on de Beauvoirýs part.
   The book really picks up in pace and interest when de Beauvoir moves on to address the travels sheýs taken in these ten years toward the end of her life (she died in 1986). She first goes through trips she made for fun, with Sartre or on her own. Then she addresses trips they took for primarily political reasons, to Egypt, to Israel, to Russia, Estonia, etc. Sheýs always a very engaging travel writer as she has a deep knowledge of the places sheýs traveling, and, often ý especially on the political trips ý she and Sartre are given guides and access to things one might not be able to see on oneýs own.
   Toward the end of the book, she writes about her feelings about the Vietnam War, going into some detail about two tribunals that worldwide intelligentsia held to try the United States for war crimes in Vietnam, particularly for genocide (the United States was found guilty). De Beauvoir was very against Franceýs actions in Algeria, and she now turned her attention toward what she felt was a violation of the rights of the Vietnamese for self-determination to make a statement with her colleagues on their political situation.
   This book was illuminating of de Beauvoirýs character in a rather new way. Toward the end, she emerged to me as something of an ideologue, rather than a woman who was committed to certain principles that she addressed issue by issue. When the students took over the Sorbonne in the late 1960s, she supported their actions because it was to overthrow the status quo; the students wanted more control of their studies, they wanted to abolish the class system between students and faculty and they didnýt want to have to accept professorsý edicts. She seems, from this book, to believe that any system that is very long held should be overthrown on that point alone. She was disappointed when she and other editors at Les Temps moderne offered the rebellious students an opportunity to write for their political review and the student leaders turned them down because their publication had become an institution (it was too long standing). She does not comment on this.
   Also in the late 1960s, de Beauvoir and Sartre officially broke with the Soviet Union, which they had supported as part of the noncommunist left for some time, because of its actions in Czechoslovakia. While de Beauvoir constantly ridiculed the United States for its imperialism, up until this time, even after visiting Estonia and Lithuania after they were controlled by the U.S.S.R., she did not criticize the Soviet government. But after the Prague Spring was crushed, she and Sartre had to admit that they were not pleased with the ýthought-policeý actions of the Soviets and their interpretation of the communist party. She also laments that Marx is so disregarded in the U.S.S.R. by the time of this volume, that there is no longer any one there who can speak with authority on Marxist theory or philosophy.
   I really enjoyed this volume, for its differences with its sister volumes, and for what it reveals about de Beauvoir. I recommend it, and think it could certainly stand on its own.

No comments about Tracings: A Book of Partial Portraits.

No comments about Literary Journalism: A Biographical Dictionary of Writers and Editors.

5 comments about Trail Of Feathers: Searching for Philip True.

1. Trail of Feathers, by Robert Rivard, ranks up there with the best of so-called true crime literature - Capote's "In Cold Blood" and Mailer's "The Executioner's Song" come to mind. This book is really about searching for the essence of the man that was Philip True and will be an invaluable legacy for his son.
   
   I note most of the reviews have been written by Texans. I hope this book reaches a far wider national and international audience because the themes it touches upon are universal. Other reviewers have given a synopsis of the story - I will just say this book should be read by everyone interested in the conflicts between indigenous people and modernity and for those readers that just want to enjoy a really good read.



2. In a way, Philip True had the dream life of a reporter, in which after one's death a top editor leaves his comfy chair and tries to find the path of righteousness you led him to. It was a trail of feathers, from a leaky sleeping bag, that led Robert Rivard to the grisliest of all discoveries: the puffy, bloated and decomposing body of the man whose boss he had been and who had once deceived him, never even telling him by word or sign that he was headed once more for the Sierra Madre, in Western Mexico. But by this time we have found out some heartbreaking facts about poor old True, the man who had survived everything, from child abuse to being a hippie, and who had finally found happiness with a Mexican bride, Martha, who was pregnant when he went larking for one last investigative jaunt, and whose son, little Teo, was born way after True had already been killed by a pair of vengeful Mexican First Nations people of the Huilchol tribe.
   
   It's a tale that, to my knowledge has never been told before. How often do you listen to a man tell you what it's like to dig up the corpse of an employee--without tools, so that we become disgustedly fascinated with the mechanics of using one's bare hands as tools, while little by little corruption meets the air. Not only bodily corruption but a dismal disjunct between our two countries, the USA and Vicente Fox's Mexico.
   
   Just as shocking is the list of True's own secrets, for he confided only to one woman and to a therapist that he had been the victim of a rapacious mother who had fondled him sexually as a boy, and a father who had a secret BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN cigar box stuffed with Polaroid photos of himself enjoying sex with other men, and who was caught in bed with his own seven year old daughter, poor thing. No wonder Philip never really grew up, or so it seems.
   
   It's hard to believe that his killers are still out there, in the cavern of the Sierra Madre the Indians call the "Twisted Serpent." Rivard writes like lightning, and with furious vengeance he has targeted his prey with nooses of a thousand paragraphs long. This book should be required reading for all those who believe in investigative journalism. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, is it all worth it? The answer, as far as I can tell, is still blowing in the wind. A painful answer but one we should have tattooed to our arms like sailors their anchors and roses.



3. ...but she knows where you live. And if it's in another country, you better weigh your side of her scale with the most pesos. This is illustrated vividly south of the border, where much of Robert Rivard's new book, Trail of Feathers, takes place. In it, he recounts his physically and emotionally grueling foray into the remote canyons of Mexico in search of his vanished colleague, Philip True. True was a San Antonio Express-News correspondent who made the controversial decision to attempt a 10-day, solo foot trek through territory that would deter all but the most Spartan of adventurers.
   
   True had always been a model of self-sufficiency and stoicism throughout his rough life; paradoxically, he often relied, perhaps naively, on the inherent kindness of his fellow man to survive, and planned to camp with the primitive Huichol Indians who had inhabited the land for hundreds of years. His impetuous journey didn't exactly surprise his wife, who knew better than anyone of her husband's affinity for nature and the solace he took in hiking. But she secretly hoped that this would be his last dangerous hurrah into the wilderness before settling down to his new family.
   
   When word reached Rivard that True's return date had come and gone, the story evolved into a reporter-as-detective narrative. He saw it as his editorial duty to locate the whereabouts of his missing employee. Both men are spurred on by a journalist's idealism and relentless thirst for knowledge, and as we learn more about True's life and family secrets through Rivard's meticulous research, intriguing parallels emerge and the fate of the two becomes inextricably intertwined.
   
   The obstacles that spring up at every switchback on the trail of Rivard's surrealistic odyssey are formidable. Mysterious Huichols, brazenly corrupt authorities; crossing the border becomes akin to crossing through Alice's looking glass, which like a funhouse mirror, reflects back America's own democratic and judicial shortcomings and magnifies them into grotesque distortions. Retracing True's footprints, we feel as though we're stepping back in time, our gringo presence and notions of justice appearing increasingly anachronistic the less civilized the lands become.
   
   We learn about True's motivations through his enigmatic journal entries, and while we gain a deeper understanding of the complex man, the great insight as to why he left behind his family in their time of need remains frustratingly elusive. The "terrible beauty," as Yeats might say, of the harsh terrain that they have to contend with becomes almost like a character in the book as well, complicit in True's death. Rivard's search party eventually locates True's body in a shallow grave outside a Huichol camp, and the Mexican investigation begins. But CSI, this ain't. If you think the wheels of justice turn slowly in America, wait until you see them on a Mexican jalopy.
   
   Two suspects, an obsequious Huichol and his domineering friend, who reminded me of the killers in that most famous of true-crime novels by Capote, are soon apprehended, and deliver unrepentant confessions. Yet each time the case against them appears crystal clear, the waters are promptly muddied darker than the Rio Grande. Rumors of coercion surface, and soon international politics, bureaucratic red tape and nationalistic media are all further postponing justice.
   
   Mexicans see it as hypocritical that one lost American would receive such attention when locals go missing all the time without a trace, much less a trial. Ever-resentful of foreign intervention into their affairs, many of them view the writer's mission as just one Texan "trying to re-fight the battle of the Alamo," as Rivard memorably puts it.
   
   The more we begin to understand the psychology of the people that killed True, the more we begin to understand why the Mexican judicial system resists upsetting its stultifying lack of inertia. Miraculously, due to Rivard's perseverance, he and several other key players manage to not only achieve closure for True's widow, but also to throw some much-needed light on the withering judicial wasteland lying in the shadow of our own "Tree of Liberty," and write a riveting story in the process.



4. a riveting account of a troubled man looking for himself. The story behind the story is the author's and also boss, never ending search to find out who killed him. Rivard is truly the hero in this story.



5. In December, 1998, San Antonio Express-News reporter Philip True vanished during a solo backcountry trek in western Mexico, home of the reclusive Huichol Indians and the Chapalagana, the Twisted Serpent Canyon, a 150-mile long gash that twists and plunges through the heart of the Sierra Madre. Five days later his editor, Robert Rivard, was part of a small search party that, tracked a trail of feathers that had leaked from True's sleeping bag to find his hidden grave." "Trail of Feathers is the story of the search for True and of the quest to find his killers and bring them to justice. It is also the story of: Why had True taken such a dangerous trip, into such a raw, uncivilized wilderness, alone and without sufficient safety preparations, in the first place? I'm more of a "get to the meat of the story kind of reader". Too much background information in the beginning and too much droaning on about how corrupt the Mexican court system is.