No comments about The Biker Who Shot Me: Recollections of a Crime Reporter.

4 comments about Romantic Revolutionary: A Biography of John Reed.

1. This is the book the academy-award winning movie "Reds", starring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton, was based on. An epic (but true)love story, you finish reading it in awe at how much life was packed by these people in such a short time.



2. An epic tour-de-force which examines the fascinating life of John Reed, the only American to be buried in the Kremlin Wall. An ecclectic mix of personalities - from Lenin to Gertrude Stein, from Lincoln Steffens to Teddy Roosevelt - pass thru the tapestry which was Reed's life, each having their own unique impact on the art which remains. From his childhood in stoic Portland Oregon to his years in Harvard and New York to his coming of age in Mexico covering the Villa revolution, Reed absorbed experience and reflected his concept of justice and equality in his writing. Each stop along the way was preparation for Reed's ultimate mission - to report on the earth-shattering 1917 Russian Revolution. The book "Ten Days in October" is still the seminal work on the topic, and this book delves into the evolution of Reed from middle-class dabbler to full-blown Socialist commentator. Mr. Rosenstone does the man justice - well-documented, fair, and without overt "gushiness". An exceptional read.



3. The last full biography of Reed was published in 1967. The Lost Revolutionary was a Cold War attempt at character assassination. Apart from a psychoanalytical epilogue that dismisses his subject as naive, Rosenstone's account is remarkably fair. Reed, brought up in Babbit-style Oregon, was educated at Harvard and at 26 left Greenwich Village's burgeoning bohemia to cover the Mexican Revolution. His political awakening came just before he left for the land of Villa and Zapata, while covering a story on the Paterson silk strike. 'In Paterson,' writes the American biographer, 'Jack had smelled, tasted and felt the spirit of radicalism, and found it good.'
   
   After Mexico and reporting from the Western Front, came romance in the shape of Louise Bryant the sole justification for the title of the book. All this time Reed was writing articles, plays and stories, but for all his worldly experience, they were mediocre against the work of contemporaries such as O'Neil, Yeats and Pound. Reed's greatness would be established by reportage published only a year before his burial at the foot of the Kremlin. Ten Days That Shook The World not only illuminates the trials of revolution, but also shows up the caprice of the winds of change.



4. John Reed, Harvard Class of 1910, epitomized the best of the pre-World War I bourgeois radicals. Unlike the vast majority of his Class and class he cast his fate with the working people and oppressed of America at a time when the dominant left bourgeois movement- the Progressive movement- was busy applying band aids to the increasingly inequitable capitalist system. The radical movement is always in need, sometimes desperately in need, of intellectuals to tell its side of the story. Despite some exceptions, like Reed, the intellectuals then, as now, either stood on the sidelines or at most acted as `fellow travelers' to the movement. Reed on the contrary put all his energies into the movement. As a journalist he sought out all the radical hotspots of his time starting with his coverage of the Mexican Revolution, through the various workers' strikes of the 1910's in America culminating in his coverage of the heroic period of the Russian Revolution. His journalistic account of the Bolshevik seizure of power, Ten Days That Shook the World, stands even today as one of the best eyewitness accounts of that turbulent time in Russia.
   
   John Reed's political development also offers today's militant leftists an insight into how the swirl of events drives the best militants leftward. Reed started out in the typically Bohemian milieu of New York City's Greenwich Village and imbibed its avante guarde cultural offerings and its pretensions. However, as the United States lurched into participation into World War I he grew stronger as an anti-war advocate and placed himself on the line to oppose that war. This was the great dividing point in the radical movement of the time. This separated the dilettantes and mere reformists from serious revolutionaries. Not an unusual political development, but an important one.
   
   Under the influence of the Russian Revolution Reed led the left wing of the American Socialist Party on a program of opposition to the war and defense of the Bolshevik Revolution. When the left wing was forced out of the Socialist Party he formed a communist organization based on the centrally of the native American working class as the vanguard of the American Revolution. Opposed to that were left-wingers, mainly foreign born elements based on the various language federations of the old Socialist Party, who essentially wanted to act as cheerleaders for the Russian Revolution-and no much else. The result was the creation of two communist organizations that caused no end of problems both in America and in the Communist International. But the fights to lead the Socialist party leftward and later between the communist organizations are stories for another time, and worth separate space. Read this book for starters.

3 comments about LAST HOUSE: Reflections, Dreams, and Observations, 1943-1991.

1. I marveled at her honesty, such as resenting looking after an ageing father or her unsent, unsympathetic letter to an elderly friend, her frustration and rage at her own diminishing health and her observation that none of us is prepared for the inevitible process leading to death.



2. These autobiographical essays can be returned to again and again for the beauty of the writing and the startling frankness of the writer. The earlier essays explore the experiences that shaped her - trips to her beloved France, caring for an aging and difficult father, lifelong regret over an impulsive rejection of her sister, musings on literary characters, minor thieving, incidents that retain their emotional charge over decades.

   The second half of the book is a portrait of her own aging and increasing illness - her rages, fears and love of life. Whether baring her soul or keeping a whimsical distance, Fisher's writing has an immediacy that connects with the reader.




3. The great essayist Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher wrote this last volume, starting in 1943 and then in the 1990's, when Parkinson's Disease began to make it impossible for her to speak, as a sort of summary of her writings. This book gives a lot of insight into MFK Fisher's life when she returned to the US from Europe, married again after her first husband's death. Some of the writing is familiar, subjects visited before such as her life in Europe, and some is quite new, if all you've read are her classic essays in "Serve it Forth", for example.
   
   The Last House is one designed for her in Glen Ellen, California. In this house, she writes honestly of the ravages of age, incapacity, fright and regrets. It's brutally honest, as all her writing is. If you love the works of this author, this is a must-read.

No comments about REBECCA WEST: A Life.

No comments about O America.

5 comments about The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia.

1. I fear that my eyes will get a non-negligible STD every time I read the eXile. Worth the risk? Your call.



2. This book is a must read for anyone that desires understaning of russian societal mores. Mark Ames particularly does an absolutely wonderful job with his gloomy delivery explaining Moscow sex, drug and media scene throughout the 90s. I must warn you, this is not your typical narrative about what has transpired but an actual account of first hand experiences that he went through. It is not by any means pretty, but it was reality.
   
   The other half of the book is written by Taibbi, which has a drastically different approach to writing style. His is more 'conventional' with less biased opinions and oriented mostly around facts re politics and media. I personally prefer a dark account of the world from the eyes of Ames but this is a question of preference.
   
   This book is not for the faint of heart, it goes deep into the male psych and examines our primal instincts as they related to various vices such as sex and drugs. If you are a women, and get easily offended I suggest you passover this book for a new release by Dan Brown. Although, if you think you can withstand some unconventional wisdom as it pertains to the expat female scene you will throughoughly enjoy this.
   
   I think this book is a great read for anyone planning on traveling to russia and getting a 'beyond the surface' understanding on the people and their rationality. Having been to Russia numerously I think little has changed since the book was written.



3. You'll be disapopinted and wishing for more when this book ends. You will want to read more of the exploits of the eXile and its two fearless leaders, Ames and Taibbi, and fortunately you can at www.exile.ru. I learned about the eXile while reading Taibbi's book Spanking the Donkey about the 2004 election. Since discovering it, the eXile has been a tremendous way to pass the time at work. Despite finding much of what they describe of Russian life terrifying and disturbing it has not tempered my desire to visit the country as soon as possible.
   
   Also, if you enjoy the writing of Hunter S. Thompson you will definitely enjoy reading the exploits of Ames and Taibbi. They seem to be carrying the torch, albeit a dim one, into the twenty-first century. It is a sad commentary on our consolidated, witless, boring media that some of the most interesting reporting by young writers has to be found in an independent newspaper in Mosocow of all places! The eXile would probably not get published in our "land of the free."



4. I am a lawyer from las vegas, that traveled to moscow, russia, numerous times to host a business venture. After my first trip, i came across this book and was startled to realize that Ames is on the money with his description of Moscow. Anyone planning a trip to Moscow, must read this book. It is an easy read and really allows the reader to gleen an inside to the beauty behind the beast that is Moscow.



5. great read on the seminal newspaper the Exile. much recommended. DO NOT buy this book from the other sellers listed on the site. the fact that they are trying to make an unreal profit undermines what i believe to be the disgust the authors have for the u.s. itself. [...]
   
   the other sellers should be ashamed. it's people like you that make it easy to hate, as natural as it may come.

2 comments about The Soldier's Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle.

1. Written by award-winning author and historian Ray E. Boomhower, The Soldier's Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle is a biography for young adults about Ernie Pyle, columnist who wrote about the rigors of combat endured by ordinary G.I.'s during World War II. For his skillful and accurate reporting of a "worm's-eye view" of the war, Pyle received journalism's highest honor - a Pulitzer Prize - in 1944. Chapters cover Pyle's childhood, personality, friends, and retirement, but the main focus is on his career as a reporter at the front. Vintage black-and-white photographs on almost every page illustrate this absorbing life story of a distinguished newsman, especially recommended for middle and secondary school library collections.



2. Ernie Pyle, a nationally newspaper columnist for Washington, D.C. and New York City newspapers before the war became more famous for his Pulitzer Prize-winning work during World War II, especially in the European Theater. As one of the soldiers quoted in this biography said, "He was...our spokesman. It was not that his column told us things we did not know or feel, but the fact that we knew you folks at home could read it, and get to know and understand."
   
   This book is printed by the Indiana Historical Society Press because Pyle was originally from the small town of Dana, Indiana, near Terre Haute. The Indiana Historical Society has access to literally millions of Indiana-related historical photographs and that library of pictures is put to good use in this biography. Most of the photos aren't just the standard posed shots, but they show Pyle interacting with his favorite soldiers - the G.I. (Infantry). You can see his relaxed style and his curiousity about everything - including looking down the business end of a 155 mm gun, cooking on a Coleman stove in France, walking among the rubble of the hotel that he was in when a German shell hit it, talking with nurses, officers, and even washing his feet in his own helmet.
   
   The book is actually intended to be a biography for advanced middle school students or high school students to read, but it is excellent for any student of World War II history, no matter his or her age. At the end of the text, 3 of his complete, unedited columns are re-printed, including the sparse and moving "The Death of Captain Waskow".
   
   Strongly recommended.

No comments about Scottie the Daughter of: The Life of Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan Smith.

No comments about Good Life in Hard Times: San Francisco in the '20s and '30s.

3 comments about The Daring Nellie Bly: America's Star Reporter.

1. Reporter, millionaire, and advocate of the female worker, Nellie Bly was America's first female shock journalist. Christensen's biography examines Bly's life, climaxing with the worldwide trip that beat "Around the World In Eighty Days' " timeline. Readers of Christensen's "Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People", may find themselves disappointed by this newest biography. Lacking her customary woodcuts and inventive presentation, "Nellie Bly" is unappealingly static. The illustrations are either taken directly from photographs of Bly or present flat expressionless characters. Christensen sticks to the facts of Bly's life, but is not above softening them. Reporting that Bly, "successfully ran (her husband's) huge manufacturing company", Christensen fails to mention that Bly additionally drove the business to bankruptcy. Best used as a introductory source to Nellie's life, readers wishing to learn more about this fascinating person should consult the sources provided in the book's bibliography, notably Charles Fredeen's "Nellie Bly: Daredevil Reporter".



2. I loved the story of this amazing and courageous woman, Nellie Bly. As the School Library Journal says, quote: this terrific biography reads like an adventure story. (endquote) And that's absolutely true. It's a great read aloud. The illustrations remind me of old newspaper illustrations and I especially like the little details, the monkey for example. Booklist calls the illustrations quote: powerful and rich in color. (endquote) Despite an incredibly difficult childhood Nellie Bly perservered. She was not only courageous, she was compassionate and she was smart! She successfully ran her husband's million dollar company until a bunch of men employees embezzled so much they ran her out of business. Then at the age of 50 she was off to report on WWI. An amazing woman, and a book that's a wonderful tribute.



3. Bonnie Christensen, who gave us Woodie Guthrie, Breaking into Print, and countless other wonderful books, has done it again. In taking on both famous and obscure characters, she demonstrates the range of her world view. And her ability to present different forms and genres of art is only another example of her versatility. From wood engravings, to acrylics, to watercolors, there doesn't seem to be anything she can't do. And Nelly Bly shines mightily in this easy to read, but historically important work. Bravo!