No comments about America's Mom : The Life, Lessons, and Legacy of Ann Landers.

No comments about Colored Memories: A Biographer's Quest for the Elusive Lester A. Walton.

5 comments about Nobody Said Not to Go: The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Emily Hahn.

1. What a demand Emily Hahn had for authentic experiences and stimulating people! Her parents must have had sleepless nights wondering how their daughteer could survive her current situation and what she would what do or say next. Thanks to author Ken Cuthbertson, who tempted me away from hiking in New Mexico to hang around the hotel finishing his book. He was able to describe a person with whom I would love to have dinner and hate to work. Now I'm ready to read anything he writes: John Gunther's biography, grocery lists, whatever.



2. While I don't necessarily agree that Emily Hahn has been forgotten (see, for instance, Prisoners in Paradise: American Women in the Wartime South Pacific) I do believe that a biography about her helps us to understand the complexities of women's lives in the 20th century. Ken Cuthbertson has done a competent job of outlining Hahn's life and his prose is just about as lively as her adventures. However, I think his historical analysis is weak, especially in the matter of feminism, which was so controversial during Hahn's lifetime. Putting her life in sharper perspective with the historical times would have made this a fuller biography. But for people who don't really care about that, they will certainly enjoy the retelling of Hahn's fast-paced life and may even be motivated to dig up some of Hahn's own books.



3. Ah, Emily! It is perhaps appropriate that Emily Hahn was friends with Chinese writer and Kuomintang spy Lin Yutang, who despite his dubious politics was a fantastic philosopher and writer. Among his best known works was "The Art of Living," and Emily Hahn could serve as the poster girl for the Western version of his ideals.

   Her mythology is well known, although not as well as it deserves to be: she elbowed her way into a male-only university department, lived alone in New York, and drove cross-country with a girlfriend in a time when such things Just Weren't Done. Once she'd exhausted the adventurous possibilities of North America, she struck out for Africa and then China.

   She was a bohemian in Shanghai, and her flat enjoyed visits from even a grubby, earnest young Mao Zedong and the ever-dapper Zhou Enlai. Unlike other China Hands, though, Hahn mainly shied from revolutionary company in favor of the decidedly bourgeois literati, led by handsome dandy poet Shao Xunmei. (Read "Shanghai Modern" for more on him.) Hahn became Shao's lover and later concubine, and together they launched the literary magazine Tianxia, "Under Heaven". Emily was also a fixture in the expatriate scene, writing for the New Yorker and known for showing up at Victor Sassoon's lavish parties with a pet baboon in tow, clad in diapers after a few unfortunate mishaps.

   She moved with the war to Chongqing, and from there to Hong Kong, where she began an indiscret affair and had an illegitimate child with the head of British Secret Services. She sat out the Japanese occupation, returned to the States after the war ended, and then moved with her lover to England.

   Emily Hahn was more a writer and professional character than a journalist. Her best works are autobiographical, and when she ventured into research the result was painfully propagandistic puff pieces.

   But that is the problem with this biography: Emily Hahn's life had already been documented with both care and color in her own writings, so Cuthbertson's account mostly rehashes Emily's own words in more prosaic terms. The main advantage is to find out the historical characters behind the fictional names, and to have a clearer chronology than Hahn's writing provides.

   The thing is, Emily Hahn didn't lead that interesting or colorful or significant a life, not compared to the many other young Americans lured to the East at the same time. Rather, she was so talented at describing people, places, events with a sharply bemused eye for the ironic idiosyncracy. That is what makes her intriguing.




4. I knew nothing about Emily Hahn and I picked this book up being intrigued by a synopsis. It is a very well written book about an extraordinary life. Emily (Mickey) Hahn broke every convention of her time: a woman who studied mining engineering in collage, a lone white woman in Africa in the early 1930's, a single woman in China, an American "married" to a Chinese as his concubine and a journalist caught in the Japanese invasion of that country. Hopefully, I have said enough to tickle the interest of would-be readers since I don't want to give away any more.

   This is a life story that reads like a novel. Why the Chinese portion of this book has not been made into a movie is a surprise to me. There is a cinematic quality of Ms. Hahn's life in China (which she wrote about herself) that cries out for filming. Ken Cuthbertson tells the story of this life without judgement calls does not clutter his book with useless facts. The book is illustrated with photographs spread throughout the chapters where they are needed. I could not recommend this book more highly.




5. Considering that Emily Hahn wrote 52 books and countless articles and short stories--her career at the New Yorker alone spanned 68 years--and generated plenty of controversy both in her personal life as well as her writing, it's amazing that few people have heard of this unique woman. She was born in 1905, when women's place was in the home, so she found plenty of ways to shock people. In fact, she enjoyed doing it. Hahn took words like "no," "can't," and "shouldn't" as a personal challenge to prove that she could and she would. Without a doubt, Hahn was a remarkable woman who was clearly ahead of her time. Cuthbertson's well-done autobiography of this exotic one-time Shanghai resident allows us to enjoy a wild romp through Hahn's life story.
   
   Even during girlhood, Hahn showed that a propensity to break rules and to write would shape her future. She majored in engineering, despite the unpopularity it caused her. After graduation, Hahn refused to marry. She had too many other things she wanted to do, and she freely admitted that she hated housework. After a stint as an engineer, Hahn worked as a waitress and then a tour guide in Santa Fe for a few years. In 1928, her parents bribed her to come back north and try again by offering to pay her way through graduate school. So, Hahn attended graduate school at Columbia University. While in New York, a friend asked her to cover a journalism assignment for him. Her career as a writer was launched.
   
   Always living on the edge, Emily's next project was a satirical "how to" handbook on the art of seduction--certainly a subject nice young ladies should know nothing about! Hahn then moved in with a male friend, Davey Loth, and bought a Capuchin monkey. She loved to amuse herself by watching people's reactions as she went around the city with "Punk" proudly perched on her shoulder.
   
   Despite seeming to be on the road to success, Hahn succumbed to the family propensity for depression and attempted suicide in 1929. That, however, was probably also on the list of requirements for an artistic temperament. To recover, Hahn decided to move to London with her former male roommate, Loth. Though she loved spending time in the British Museum reading room helping Loth with research for a book he was writing, she readily became bored with London and decided to visit her old friend Patrick Putnam, who was a Harvard-trained anthropologist now working in the Belgian Congo. Of course a young lady traveling alone to Africa raised many eyebrows, as did her shipboard drinking contests with Corsican soldiers. Once she arrived in Africa, the journey she endured to Patrick's village would have daunted even the heartiest male travelers.
   
   Emily remained in the Belgian Congo for nearly two years, learning Swahili and paying for her living expenses by working as a nursing assistant at the hospital in Patrick's village. Naturally, her African experiences led to a book, which she called Congo Solo: Misadventures Two Degrees North.
   
   After returning to London, Emily began an affair with the already-married Edwin Mayer --a founder of MGM Studios. When that relationship ended, she decided to put the past behind her by going abroad again. This time, she decided to try Shanghai, which was "the place to be" in the 1930s. Jobs were plentiful, and many foreigners were able to live a lifestyle they could only dream of back home. Shanghai was also China's cultural and intellectual center, which suited Hahn, as she became part one of the socially hip. One of the highlights of this period was the time she posed nude for Sir Victor Sassoon. Before the local gossips had finished wagging about this event, Hahn stunned everyone by beginning a relationship with a man who was not only married but Chinese. Interracial relationships were highly taboo, but Hahn felt drawn Sinmay Zau not only because he was forbidden, but because he was a poet, an intellectual, and a publisher. Unfortunately, he was also an opium addict, who initiated Emily's battle with the drug. Smoking opium, however, fit her concept of herself as an artist. She thought the drug was exotic, daring, and romantic.
   
   Despite her opium addiction, her busy social life, and her scandalous affair, Hahn managed to remain highly productive during these years. She wrote for local English language publications and The New Yorker, she taught, and she worked on her next book, Affair. One of the more interesting series of articles she created during this period concerned a Chinese gentleman called Pan Heh-ven, who was based on Zau. Through Zau, Hahn gained an intimate view of Shanghainese life that few other outsiders could observe, or would dare to participate in.
   
   Hahn enjoyed her notoriety, but to ensure that the gossips had enough material, she adopted Mr. Mills, a pet gibbon she often took around with her. The naughty Mr. Mills was not very popular with Hahn's neighbors, but she enjoyed the boost it gave her colorful persona.
   
   In the fall of 1937, the Japanese took over Shanghai, threatening to put an end to Hahn's exotic escapades. She had just begun to write a book on the infamous Soong sisters, which became her most recognized work. She was excited about the project as it would be a reason to kick her opium habit and to break off her relationship with Zau. Because of the political situation, however, Hahn decided to actually marry Zau. Since he already had a wife, she would become a concubine. This move actually turned out to be less insane than it appeared to outsiders. Among several reasons, this strange union turned beneficial for her later, as being married to a Chinese allowed her to avoid being interned during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.
   
   Following her "marriage" to Zau, Hahn went to Hong Kong to work on the Soong book, where she met 36-year-old British army intelligence officer Charles Boxer. Boxer was unhappily married to a wife who had been evacuated to Australia when he began an affair with Hahn. This was disgraceful enough behavior for an officer, but it became scandalous when he wanted to have a child with Emily. At age 35, Hahn assumed she might never get another chance, and she had been told by a Shanghai doctor that probably could not conceive. Since she had been told "no,"... well, by 1941 she was pregnant.
   
   Just imagine the rumor mill: a former opium addict, a Chinaman's concubine, who goes around with a gibbon on her shoulder and smoking cigars, refuses to leave Japanese occupied Hong Kong, and who was now pregnant by a married British officer! Inarguably, Hahn was living life fully and on her own terms.
   
   Hahn was teaching and writing in Hong Kong when baby Carola was born in October 1941. When the Japan attacked in December, it was too late to evacuate. After all the deprivations of war, Hahn returned to the States to discover that her bank account was flush with the royalties from The Soong Sisters and Mr. Pan. She was full of creative energy after her experiences. One of the first projects she completed was penning China to Me. Not everyone appreciated her honesty about her experiences or her views on China's political situation, but again she received mountains of publicity and provided ample fodder for drawing room gossips. She also became a regular contributor at The New Yorker. During this prolific outpouring, she was spinning out articles on a variety of subjects, earning $2,000 per article at a time when the average factory worker earned $1,700 per year. Not bad for a single mother who was only recently a half-starved, penniless refugee!
   
   After the Japanese surrender in 1945, Boxer made his way to New York and married Hahn, but naturally their marriage was anything but ordinary. After the wedding, the family of three made their home at Boxer's family estate in England. While Boxer felt at home as a "country gentleman," burying himself in his research and working at his dream job as a Professor of Portuguese History and Literature at King's College at U of London, Hahn rapidly grew bored. After giving birth to baby Amanda in October 1948, she accepted her dream job on the staff of The New Yorker. She seems to have invented the "commuter marriage" as she divided her time between the two continents for the rest of her life.
   
   For the next 40 years, Hahn indulged her natural curiosity by writing about everything, and she thrived on the stimulation of being a writer in New York City. In her work, as in her personal life, she sought to be unpredictable. In some ways her career was harmed because she moved so effortlessly, and frequently, among genres. As a result, editors did not know how to market her work and publishers seemed at a loss as to how to promote an Emily Hahn book, as her work could not be categorized. Readers, however, liked her eye for intriguing detail and her casual perspective on life in a convention-bound era. When she died in 1997, Hahn was 92 years old, still busily tapping out articles on her trusty typewriter.
   
   Cuthbertson has done a fine job researching Hahn's life and making her story come to life in the pages of "Nobody Said Not to Go." The book is easy to read and inspires readers to explore Hahn's work. Was she simply born to be outrageous? Did declaring herself an "artistic personality" give her a license to do as she pleased? Does she deserve to rank among the best writers of her generation? As Hahn's work has been largely forgotten, the tantalizing answers are happily left for us to discover.

5 comments about Here But Not Here: My Life with William Shawn and The New Yorker.

1. The man I met for lunch at La Caravelle had been going to the restaurant since I was a child. He remembered the days of the legendary chef Roger Fessaguet. He likes to dine in the corridor as you come in to the restaurant and he remembers the days where Lillian Ross and William Shawn liked to eat there too. He pointed out their table, the one in the corner. It was swell being there with him, a bit like going back in time. But what was even nicer than that was enjoying the old-fashioned solicitude of the restaurant and the new-fashioned food. No restaurant in New York has done a better job at bridging the old and the new. La Caravelle remembers the great old days of New York's French restaurants. Many of the captains working there were working in the old places. But the food is not fusty and it's not nostalgic. La Caravelle can certainly feed you the great old dishes like Quenelles de Brochet, light fish dumplings, but it can also give you modern dishes like cured salmon wrapped around mango. What did we eat? My friend began with Billibi, the creamy saffron-laced mussel soup. I stuck to a perfect platter of clams and oysters, then he had lamb. It wasn't on the menu, but they were happy to make it for him, and I had slowly roasted halibut: it was a silky piece of fish. I followed that with a slab of perfectly cooked rosy liver and a dish of lemon sorbet, and then Petit Fours. It was a wonderful meal. The service was swell, and that pink room is done up with big vases of red autumn leaves, so it's both festive and just lightly old-fashioned. Leaving I imagined that I saw Mr. Shawn sitting in the corner. He winked at me as I passed.



2. I looked forward to reading this book for some time but only recently had the chance but it was sad and disappointing. The disappointment came from the thin writing -- from a writer who has had such a rich a varied background. Endless repetitions of phrases (He said he was there and not there; he said I was his wife; I felt no guilt). Repetitions of situations, so on. This is a 20 page monologue carried on 20 times -- and with none of the details that one would like to hear from this very accomplished writer.

   What was it like working at the New Yorker all those years? What was it like to interview and work with people like John Huston, Francois Truffaut, Charlie Chaplin, Oona O'Neil, Frederico Fellini, so on.

   This book, this writer, needed an editor if anyone did.

   But a sequel would be welcome by me -- one that tells the other Lillian Ross story/memoir. This 'wife's lament' is, well, not a very poetic one and not one that commends Lillian Ross as a raconteur.




3. Poor Shawn! He seems to have had impeccable taste in everything save mistresses. The misbegotten issue of their liaison is this unique instance of a grotesque lapse in editorial judgement. I cannot imagine prose as wretched as this surviving his meticulous blue pencil from anyone sufficiently detached from him to be regarded as a writer worthy of regard on the basis solely of his work.



4. Lillian Ross was a talented even gifted writer. She comes across in this book as a intelligent charming and caring person. Yet the thrust of this book is a self conscious and self serving apologia for her life long 'relationship' with William Shawn.
   
   Bluntly put, she was his mistress -'the other woman' (just as an aside, why do you never hear of 'the other man'?). Mr Shawn, in a controlling and manipulative way, suborned her life in a way that is both appalling and pathetic. And as much as she rationalized it - and she spends many many pages doing just that, she seemed (on some level) to be aware of the basic inequality of their 'special' relationship.
   
   So, about the book? Mr Shawn comes across as a whining self centered egotist who somehow manages to always get his way. Ms. Ross' cavalier dismissal of his shabby treatment of his wife and children borders on the obscene. Who was Mr. Shawn? Brilliant, yes without a doubt. A gifted editor, the New Yorker magazine owes much to his dedication. But does a true genuis require such slavish devotion to his ever whim?
   
   There are some insightful moments in the book, Ernest Hemingway, Charlie Chaplin, John Huston (and others) were personal friends, the writers and editors - the behind the scenes folks that really made the New Yorker great - are covered in a slanted and biased sort of way - somehow one doubts that Mr Shawn singled handedly made them all as good as they were. And his 'enabling' talents surely came at a terrible cost, at least for Lillian Ross.
   
   Bottom line, this is a good book on some levels but one that I had some personal difficulty with. "Being a good little woman for her (married) man" doesn't appeal to me as a life choice regardless of the glowing personalities involved. In the end I felt no empathy for her, she was just a pathetic woman trying to justify her own self negation.



5. Okay, let's start by saying that I'm a big fan of the New Yorker and its legendary staff from the last century. Also a big fan of Lillian Ross's PICTURE. But this book will drive you to drink, do drugs, sit in your closed garage with the car running, whatever it takes to alter your consciousness. When she sticks to briefly writing about other people - Bogart, Hemingway, Chaplin, John Huston - she's on solid ground as always - brief, effective, perceptive. When she goes back to the subject of her book - her decades-long affair with William Shawn, editor of the New Yorker - she rambles, she avoids, she loses focus, structure and sense. She keeps going on about what an animal he was in bed - you look at the pictures of him in the book and decide for yourself - while everything else she writes about him makes him sound like a whining forlorn child-man who gnashes many teeth and wrings his hands with alarming frequency. She is absolutely in denial about how carrying on this weird affair affected her emotionally - everything is always so perfect and he's so wonderful - and in denial, I think, about just who this man was and what bizarre mind games he played. I did appreciate the paragraph about how fond he was of lifting his hat (hence the name of this review, taken directly from that paragraph). This book would be stunning if it were as honest and objective as the author's other book. It's not and the fact that her talent is involved in this elaborate unformed and tortured justification makes it unbearable.

5 comments about Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News.

1. I always knew that Tucker Carlson's dad was a major player in the right wing media/think tank world. So it's easy to see how Tucky's connections helped him. He's such a cutie! I'd love to pinch his ice cream cheeks! (I wonder if Arianna did!) And I'll bet he wouldn't have a comeback to *that*! What I *did not* know, is that Tucker comes from authorial royalty, if you will. His parents penned the classic: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff in Love: by Richard Carlson and Kristine Carlson. Obviously, Tucker hasn't fallen too far from the tree, as he doesn't sweat the small stuff in politics! The beauty of Tucky is that he doesn't question the status quo, or any quo at all. He knows that politics is for fun and profit, to be joked about in the DC/media echo chamber. And now we get a front row seat! Luckily, Tucky lets us in on the fun (not the big joke, that we don't get paid for *our* relative nonsense), that policy - or the personalities and sound bites that "front" real policy - shouldn't be taken seriously. Don't sweat the small stuff! In other words, if you've got enough bread, enjoy the circus! "My Adventures" is non-threatening, fluffy, and self-preserving, as cotton candy (light blue or pink, whatever!)! Tucky stays true to the current political era, where the son rides pop's coattails, but isn't so darn serious! Kudos!



2. I wanted to like Tucker Carlson's book. He has the opportunity to show the interesting side of politics. The truth is, the writing is horrible. I wouldn't waste the money on this book new. I'm sure there will be plenty of used available soon.



3. Tucker Carlsons genuine, affable nature comes to roost in this short, easy to read book. He tells a few funny stories & gives an inside peek into the cable news industry. For the price & time it takes to read, you can't go wrong



4. You can buy this book for a penny here on Amazon, which is far more than it's worth. Still, if you need to pick up a stocking stuffer for someone you really detest.....



5. I am a conservative and I just didnt like this book very much. The best part was the dirt on James Carvile, that was funny. Over all this was just a boring book.

5 comments about Writing Home: Collected Essays and Newspaper Columns.

1. "The sacred is in the ordinary. It is found in one's daily life - in friends, family, and neighbors; in one's own backyard."
   
   The above quote comes from a thank-you note Cindy La Ferle keeps in an "altar" above her kitchen sink. Its simple observation pretty much sums up the philosophy expounded in her book, Writing Home. A columnist for a Detroit area paper and freelance article writer, La Ferle writes about what she knows best - home - and how our home life shapes and colors who we are.
   
   My personal favorite essay is "Quit Picking on Barbie." The big-breasted fashion doll has been getting a bum rap for years... Most little girls just enjoy dressing her up and designing homes and careers for her. She doesn't scar our sense of femininity at all. Another column, "Recovering Perfectionist," stirs up many familiar emotions as well. Women do seem especially susceptible to perfectionistic behavior, La Ferle observes. Our "people-pleasing" impulses prevent us from attempting many worthwhile endeavors because we're afraid we won't be able to do them perfectly. We need to let go of this need to "be right or look good" all the time. In the humorous "Seeing Red" we learn about the pros and cons of being a redhead - or at least the Miss Clairol version of it.
   
   From "Baghdad and Banana Bread"- finding security from the horrors of the world in simple baking - to "The Lost Art of Loafing"- an art I really need to take advantage of this summer- Writing Home wisely reminds us that truly there is no place like home. -- Cindy Appel for the FEARLESS REVIEWS



2. Rebeccasreads highly recommends WRITING HOME as a lovely bouquet of womanly thoughts about things little & big, sad & funny, & topical to today's modern life.
   
   Cindy La Ferle's essays are grouped together by subject rather than eras: first she welcomes us into her House and Garden, & then introduces us to the muggy swamp of Child Care; to her Social Life (such as it is being a work-at-home-parent & spouse); to the philosophies of Kitchen Duty, & to her Creature Comforts.
   
   Then she gets as serious as she can about Work Ethics before opening the Family Album. She also shows us how she's Keeping Up Appearance & Keeping the Seasons, & as with all things, she gets Older and Wiser & into Soul Caring.
   
   Oh, & she's into organic produce, herbs, overnight retreats at a Jesuit monastery, walking with her women friends, & a life of prayer & peace. & she likes to laugh!
   
   WRITING HOME is for everywoman who thinks about her world, & would make a perfect reading group selection, & gift, no matter the season!



3. 
   Cracking open Cindy LaFerle's debut collection of columns and essays is the equivalent of chatting with your best friend at a coffeehouse. She talks about everything under the sun -- from the love of her deceased tabby cat to the ubiquitous mean mommy syndrome we all face at the PTA. Her steady, flowing writing lulls you into the comforts of her world. It's not all rosy, however. Her discussion of the Iraqi War or Martha Stewart's decline are timely issues to be taken seriously. Nonetheless, you feel you are in trusted hands with Ms. LaFerle. She won't let you down. In every one of her 294 pages, she never does.
   
   
   
   The book is a compilation of over a decade of newspaper columns in The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, Michigan) and essays which have appeared in notable magazines such as Readers' Digest and Better Homes and Gardens. Since her background mirriors that of many work from home mothers, she is a highly relatable writer both in intention and in content. Her tone is never preachy. It is truthful and without pretense.
   
   
   
   This nurturing scribe has stopped her column. Her local readers in Michigan must mourn the loss of their regular commentator. As she recently sent her only child off to college, she may have been concerned that her home life would not yield a full column's worth. She quotes Aldous Huxley at one point (page 64):
   
   
   
   "Everyone who knows how to read has it in their power to magnify themselves, to multiply the ways in which they exist, to make their life full, significant, and interesting."
   
   
   
   Cindy LaFerle does that with her writing. She magnifies her own world to make it our own. We can only hope she will be inspired to continue the quest with her pen. Her obvious talent to weave honest, yet striking tales is definitely something to write home about.



4. From the preface: "At a writers' retreat I attended several years ago, author Madeleine L'Engle posed a question, "Why do all of us want to share our stories?" Her answer affirmed what each of us knew but couldn't express as elegantly: "We share our stories because we have faith--faith the universe has meaning and that our little lives are not irrelevant." I found this profound and wanted to read deeper.
   
   Cindy has put together some wonderfully arranged thematic essays. The essays are funny, poignant and show a slice of life. The essays are fun reading them in book sequence or skipping around (Sorry Cindy. You probably wanted them read in the sequence published.). I enjoyed reading them.
   
   Cindy's writing style in this book is like a conversation between friends. There is a sense of humor mixed with plain down to earth speech and common everyday situations that anyone can relate to. Most essays are short, easy and fun to read.
   
   The Christian Science Monitor, Reader's Digest, Country Gardens, Writer's Digest, The Oakland Press and The Royal Oak Daily Tribune have all published Cindy's essays and columns. Cindy lives in her home town, Royal Oak, Michigan, with her family.
   
   I found this book easy and fun to read. I don't know when these essays were first published, but they just a relevant. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone wanting something entertaining to read. Since there a re a series of essays, there is no real need to rush, reading from cover to cover. You can pick up this book at anytime and read one or more of the essays when you have a few minutes to spare while relaxing. I would rate this book as a great read and worthy of consideration by readers.
   
   Bob Medak, Allbooks Reviews



5. This book of domestic essays by Michigan journalist Cindy LaFerle is a major delight. The rich topic of LaFerle's family life, from delivering newspapers on dark Sunday mornings with her son to remodeling her historic home and baking bread for peace, is comfort food without the calories. The essays pair especially well with a warm cup of tea on a cold afternoon. LaFerle's calm and compassionate humor will remind readers to be grateful for the many blessings of home.

5 comments about An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland.

1. It's a bit intimidating to write a review of a book by a book reviewer, but I have to try, as I loved this book so much! I have a long list of books to read in the future, and once one of them comes to the top, I sometimes have forgotten what it's going to be about, so this one came as a real treat. It tells of the author's childhood in Lorain, Ohio in the late 40s to the 60s, including his years at Oberlin. As an avid reader with many memories of the joy of childhood reading (although I was not as sophisticated in my tastes are Dirda!) it's always a treat to be brought back to the that wonderful feeling of having a pile of new books to read, from the library or thrift stores or the school book club! I enjoyed the list of books he had read through age 16 in an appendix. I felt better about my own youthful reading knowing we had both at least read a few of the same books, even the quite light Cheaper by the Dozen!

   An added treat for me is that although I didn't know this would be the case when I started the book, I got much insight into the land of my own early childhood---I was born in Elyria, next to Lorain, although we moved when I was 6, and my parents both went to Oberlin, a bit earlier than Dirda. Earlier in the day I started this book, my mother for some reason told me of a time my father bought me shoes at Januzzi's, a shoe store I'd never heard of before---reading later that day of the author's own trip to Januzzi's was one of my most amazing reading moments of my lifetime! Any author who can create a scene of place like Dirda did with the Lorain of his childhood is truly gifted.

   I am eager now to get my hands of Dirda's other book, Readings! Keep writing, Michael Dirda!!




2. As I am a near contemporary of the author in age, I found an uncanny mirroring of my life in his...similar touchstones of products, events, TV shows, etc. many of which I had long forgotten. But what was the key pleasure of reading about this otherwise common life (and I throw myself in that descriptor as well)was the impact that various books had on him...something I could also identify with as another lifelong avid reader.
   
   Dirda mentions book titles to show how they affected his imagination, his decisions, his way of looking at the world. For those who argue there is no concrete utility in reading and are satisfied that future generations are losing this habit, this book is the best argument to the contrary I know. Not that there is any solemnity to his story or any self-importance. His is a wry, affectionate tale of growing up in the straight-laced Midwest in the 50's. But it is his love of literature that irradiates his story. Recommended for those who want to remember why they love to read and how they got that way.



3. Everything Michael wrote in his book brought back so many boyhood memories for for my friend. It wasn't just the big things, it was the little things Dirda wrote about that brought smiles and tugged at the heart.



4. This is an extraordinary story of an ordinary life. From comic books, to the Hardy Boys to Faust to the French classics, we go on a ride through books with Mike Dirda. I also grew up in the Midwest at about the same time and I can identify with just about every page of the book. Extraordinary.



5. I read this book a year or two ago, but remembered it again recently while reading Wendy Werris's new memoir, An Alphabetical Life, because both reflect such a love of books. To people like Dirda and Werris - and me - books are nearly as important as eating, loving, breathing. And that affinity is so astutely reflected here in Michael Dirda's story of his childhood in Lorraine, Ohio. It's a midwest boyhood to the nth degree, albeit one of a kind of nerdy, bookish unathletic kid. I was a kid like Mike. I could relate. If you grew up in the fifties and sixties and loved books, then don't miss this one. It will take you back - to those dusty, second-hand bookstores you found with such joy, and to your folks yelling at you to "getcher nose outa that book and go outside for a while! It's a beautiful day, dammit!" Like that. Thanks for sharing your kidhood, Mike. - Tim Bazzett, author of Reed City Boy

5 comments about Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public.

1. ...The dust cover should be a clue that this book is trivial. Here is Koppel, wearing a leather jacket and holding a stick. If that photo interests you, you will love this book. It is filled with self-indulgent information about Koppel and his grandchildren. It would have been a better book, perhaps, had Koppel chosen to write about the leather jacket and the stick.
   Readers who are able to overlook Koppel's arrogance will find little insight into international events. First, these events are quite dated. Kosovo, Monica and Viagra are not fresh, riveting subjects. Secondly, Koppel doesn't have the time to give us thoughtful insight. He appears to be jotting down a few bedtime thoughts about his day. And so often his predictions and views of current events prove wrong.
   What I came away with is the realization that much of our daily news stories are fleeting, insignificant events. ...



2. My first thought in his first couple entries was that he was trying a little to hard to be funny ala Dennis Miller or Jay Leno. However, then I realized that he wasn't, he was just blurting out his thoughts from each day (and almost every day).

   I feel there was not much cohesion throughout the book. He spends a lot of time on the war in Kosovo, as that was a big event during that year. However, he puts in little tidbits about his growing up and his new house or something irrelevant. Even though it was meant to be his personal thoughts on various topics, I felt he should have organized the material a little bit.

   On the good side, it was interesting hearing about the difficulties of being a reporter during the war, and getting some of that insider information. Similarly, it was interesting hearing his perspective from having been around for a while in the journalism business.

   Overall, I made it through the whole book, but every once in a while while listening to it (Audio CD version), I would think, "Now why did he include that?" I feel this work could have been improved through some editting and some thoughtful exclusions or reorganization of the material.




3. Ted Koppel's Off Camera is a caring and informative view into just that, his thoughts and daily activities off camera. Mr Koppel provides us daily journal entries from the year 1999. From Monica to the strains of reporting from Kosovo. I loved reading this book.



4. Nightline anchor and legendary tele-journalist Ted Koppel set out on January 1, 1999 with an interesting idea. He would write one entry per day in a diary that would record the events in his own life and in the world around him.
   
   Admirable.
   
   Koppel's notes on the goings-on in 1999 seem oddly distant in this post-911 world of 2005. Was the last year of the century just passed really quite as innocent as it seems in this record of a journalist and his travels across the world? That was the biggest point of notice I came away with from this remarkable read: exactly how much our society and the greater world has altered in so small a time.
   
   That said, it is still worthwhile to read through Koppel's thoughts on the happenings of that year and to gain perspective on all that went on in a top-ranking network journalist's life. In those twelve months, Koppel traveled to at least four continents, met with dozens of noteworthies, and also managed to fit in time at home, where he tells us of the joys of something small like a redecorating project after having spent so many of the previous weeks in and out of war zones, jets, vans, and studios. Koppel is never shy about giving his opinion and sometimes I admired his views, at other times he frankly ticked me off. That's probably someplace in his job description.
   
   I've heard Ted Koppel is retiring soon, and I wonder if he intends to devote more time to writing once his days in front of the camera are done? If this book is any indication of what that output might be, then I hope so.



5. Ted Koppel is quite eloquent and has many interesting views but the audiobook (unabridged) lacks any deep and profound views or analysis. Nevertheless, well read and not boring. Good for long drives or plane flights, especially now that it is selling at a discount price.

No comments about Catarino Garza's Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border (American Encounters/Global Interactions).

2 comments about No Bottom: In Conversation with Barry Lopez.

1. What the author has tapped into here is a rich vein of thought, and an extraordinary quality of mind, that is this guy Barry Lopez. The very idea of a "hope-full literature" could seem to be merely goofy in this life and time; but when that hope is got-to the hard way, with fine intelligence and a sure voice in a devoted writing practice like Lopez's, a reader can begin to see the shape of our next evolutionary step.
   
   I met Lopez once for a brief few moments, but long enough to recognize a writer/personage for whom the real work (in Lewis Hyde's sense) is the larger life-task of shaping the world in a smarter, more delicate way. Lopez is a Figure of Outward in the form of a man who started out simply wanting to write, then did so with such powerful grace that he now has a footing from which he can exert some measure of influence upon the mind of man and thus the larger course of global events. We should want our world to be so directed--smartly, softly, emphatically--by such a man.
   
   Reading Newell to better read Lopez is a happy task we should all undertake, if a larger arc of the world is of any interest at all. Hope is a small fire that keeps us alive through the night. Newell and Lopez are what you should read beside that fire.



2. Embarassingly, I had very little knowledge of Barry Lopez and his written works until recently. Having read Mike Newell's terrific new book, "No Bottom," I feel like I have now been introduced to this important American writer in the most fascinating of ways. The book, a journal of conversations between the author and the subject, is a wonderful glimpse into the world around us, and the marriage between our beautiful "host orb" and us, the caretakers of it. Newell's writing style is comfortable and insightful, and he succeeds in highlighting the historic footprints of this towering literary figure. Barry Lopez admirers will love this book. "No Bottom" is an excellent read, and I highly recommend it to all.