3 comments about He Usually Lived with a Female: The Life of a California Newspaperman.

1. In this stirring tribute to his legendary father, Charles Harris (Brick) Garrigues, George Garrigues weaves a lifetime of Brick's remarkable letters with his (Brick's) novel/memoir, "Many a Glorious Morning," and writes the book his father only dreamed of writing. On the surface, we see Brick as a courageous newspaperman exposing city graft and corruption, and we see him as a lover, husband, father and liberal activist. Beneath the surface, though, we see him as a man and artist struggling to discover and express himself. He succeeds, brilliantly, in this book which illumes the combined joys and agonies of relationships between the sexes, fathers and sons and daughters, citizens and governments, and between a writer and his typewriter. We are also carried along through Brick's eclectic interests, ranging from history, politics, literature, music, to gardening, and beyond. And we are treated to the clarity and color of an earlier Southern California, as seen through the eyes of a sensitive child and adolescent who is destined to leave a rich legacy of words, ideas and love as revealed in these letters. Brick's son's memories and his painstaking and thorough research tie it all together. As the son most like his father, George Garrigues is a crusading journalist himself. He has done his father proud with this book. Don't miss it.



2. George Garrigues has established himself as a new and emerging historian of all things Los Angeles. He skips the well worn issues like the pueblos and Olvera Street and jumps right into the lesser known but eqally important parts of L.A. history like political corruption, racism, commercialism, crime, and many more. His website and his book will be read for many years to come!
   
   Joe Walker
   Contributing writer
   Famous American Crimes and Trials
   Greenwood Publishing Group



3. George Garrigues uses the medium of letters to depict a history of LA through a native's eyes. An emerging voice of California history, Garrigues brings the sides of LA to life, the down and gritty, and beyond the glamorized versions most of the world thinks is LA. Must read for all those who left their hearts in California. The Father and Son theme here beats the John Irving's take on the very same theme West-Coast style.

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2 comments about MILENA - The Story of a Remarkable Friendship.

1. Franz Kafka's great love, Milena Jesensky, was arrested in 1939 and sent to the Nazi concentration camp in Ravensbruck. There she met Margaret Buber-Neumann (author of this book), also a writer. A friendship developed and they made a pact: whoever survived would tell their story. Milena died in the camp three weeks before D-Day.The book is riveting: both in its depicting the pre-war life of Milena's family, her intellectual friends, and her relationship with Kafka as well as the horrors of camp.
   It is surprising that nobody made a film about those two remarkable women; I suppose Hollywood can not be bothered; they are too busy planning for the production of something along the lines of "The Rise and Fall of Janet Jackson's Nipple".



2. Milena Jesenka was an ethically principled Czech journalist who in 1939 was arrested and sent to the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck. There she met Margete Buber- Neumann another political prisoner. They became close friends, and determined to write a book about their experience when the war was over. Three weeks before D- Day Milena died. This book is the story of their friendship and of the life of Milena.
   It is a very moving work. And it also has a chapter on the relationship through which Milena became a part of world- literary history, her her relationship to Franz Kafka.

No comments about Politics of the Meiji Press: The Life of Fukuchi GenrIchiråO.

1 comments about "I'Ve Seen the Best of It": Memoirs.

1. As a staunch Cold War and extraordinarily connected political columnist in Washington for forty years, Joseph Alsop has many fascinating and amusing anecdotes to relate.

   Moreover, the issues of the period between 1945 and 1965 (the period of his greatest influence) were far more momentous than the mostly tittle-tattle of much of the last decade of Washington journalism: the Cold War, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the recurrent Berlin crises, the creation of NATO, SEATO and CENTO.

   Alsop's connections with the high and mighty (even family connections such as Eleanor Roosevelt or former Connecticut neighbor Dean Acheson sent to Groton as a boy on Alsop's father's recommendation), and others are astonishing. He had much "inside" knowledge of how the "greats" and "near greats" dealt with global issues.

   Alsop is also amusing and interesting about his WASP privileged background - his education at Groton and Harvard, the anticipated dress and social etiquette.

   Although Alsop's close friendship with JFK may have given him the most pleasure in writing this memoir, it is his experience in China during W.W.II, about which he writes at wonderful length, that is truly historic.

   In Chungking (China's war-time capital), Alsop played a central role in the corner of famous Flying Tigers' leader General Claire Chennault and T.V. Soong (sometime Foreign Minister and Chiang kai-Shek brother-in-law) in the great feud with the Stilwell-State-War Dept. - foreign correspondents over the proper political and military strategy for China. Alsop's accounts of what occured are memorable and truly valuable. (The heated feud persisted - so that long after Stilwell's death, Chennault was testifying before Congress that Stilwell was a traitor!).

   Alsop actually secretly drafted the demand for Stilwell's recall for the Chinese government! He was convinced that Stilwell harmed the American cause by his unconcealed contempt for Chiang, by a proposed Burmese campaign military strategy that would divert needed resources from the more potentially fruitful air war, an unwillingness to allocate sufficient supplies to Chennault (and later to those seeking to defend Eastern China, particularly the forward-most airfields), and too great an openness to the possibility of allying with the Communists.

   The China story is fascinating - in part because these are views that are in direct contradiction to most American accounts which are quite pro-Stilwell and anti-Chiang.

   The memoirs convey throughout the sadness implied by the book's title. Alsop was suffering from cancer at the time of writing - and had felt increasingly out of the mainstream of American journalism and political opinion in the early 1970s due to his more conservative views on the Vietnam War. (E.g., Alsop is mentioned mostly in derision by Vietnam correspondent, David Halberstam in his book, The Best And the Brightest, a view that seems to have been shared by other journalists in Vietnam).

   Alsop seems to have been of a rare breed - born into privilege, greatly enjoying his physical comfort(his man-servant astounded the Flying Tigers pilots) and yet who seems in his memoirs to be actually without any snobbery whatever and to have been irritated when he encountered it.

   Smart, loving the battle, very opinionated (the opposite of an "objective" journalist or even soldier), the memoir is highly enjoyable and recommended - even if to be read by some as the reminiscences of a great contrarian.

5 comments about Broadway Boogie Woogie: Damon Runyon and the Making of New York City Culture.

1. BROADWAY BOOGIE WOOGIE situates Runyon's stories and reportage in their New York, circa 1929-1946, context and tells us why Runyon's work still matters. The seriousness and skill that Schwarz used in earlier books to examine the writings of High Modernism (Conrad, Joyce, Woolf, Wallace Stevens) he uses here to illuminate the "wiseguy" world of BROADWAY BOOGIE WOOGIE. With insight and compassion Schwarz re-visits this world of gamblers, gangsters, swindlers, womanizers, and cheats and looks at America's ever present yearning to "take a walk on the wild side." The book should appeal to not only students and scholars in American Studies, 20th Century American History, Urban and Immigration History, Working-Class Studies, and American Literature, but also to anyone who simply loves New York.



2. Schwarz has written a fine book that captures the energy and excitment of high life and low life in Manhattan in the first half of the twentieth century. He discusses Damon Runyon's many short stories--including those that were incorporated in the musical "Guys and Dolls"--setting them in their historical context and drawing our attention to Runyon's gift for conveying speech in writing. Schwarz also discusses Runyon's life and his work as a reporter who covered many of the major events of the day, especially showcase trials like the Lindberg trial. If you liked "Seabiscuit," you; will like this book: as with "Seabiscuit," you will come away from Schwarz's book feeling that you have vacationed in the twenties and thirties and have been enriched by the experience.



3. "Broadway Boogie Woogie" is a fascinating read, both for anyone who finds New York City a fascinating city and for anyone with an interest in the origins of today's debate about how American journalism does and should shape the popular imagination. In "Broadway," Schwarz convincingly and vividly portrays an early-twentieth-century urban world of celebrity journalists and criminals, those who set the stage for that part of today's popular culture embodied in the celebrity cult phenomenon.
   At the same time, he paints a true story of "the American dream," embodied in Damon Runyon, a self-made man who used words--through his newspaper articles to his short stories--to pull himself out of humble beginnings to attain wealth and fame. But while Runyon took full advantage of the elevated status he reached in early 20th century society--somewhat in the tradition of William Randolph Heart--he never forgot where he came from: his wrote about humble men and women with a great deal of sympathy, sometimes even glorifying the lifestyles of the shadowy and desperate. Anyone who ever loved "Guys and Dolls" and "West Side Story" should read this book.



4. "Broadway Boogie Woogie" is a fascinating read, both for anyone who finds New York City a fascinating city and for anyone with an interest in the origins of today's debate about how American journalism does and should shape the popular imagination. In "Broadway," Schwarz convincingly and vividly portrays an early-twentieth-century urban world of celebrity journalists and criminals, those who set the stage for that part of today's popular culture embodied in the celebrity cult phenomenon.
   At the same time, he paints the true American Dream story of Damon Runyon, a man who used words--from his newspaper articles to his short stories--to pull himself out of humble beginnings to attain wealth and fame. But while Runyon took full advantage of the elevated status he reached in early 20th century society--somewhat in the tradition of William Randolph Heart--he never forgot where he came from: his highly entertaining stories about humble men and women were suffused with a great deal of sympathy and sometimes even glorified shadowy and desperate lives. Anyone who ever loved "Guys and Dolls" and "West Side Story" should read this book.



5. One of the most interesting parts of this book is Schwarz's examination of how Runyon created the special language of his 'Runyonese', of how he put together the language of vaudeville, of the radio, of the criminals slang, of New York City street talk, of Yiddish mamaloshen, to build an idiom all his own yet reflecting the energy and vibrancy of his special world of gamblers, sportspeople, Broadway characters , of all types.
   Schwarz is also interested in examining how Runyon contributed to the shaping of our image of New York City, of urban life in general.
   An outstanding study especially for those who know who Nicely- Nicely and Harry the Horse are.

5 comments about The Cat Who Covered the World: The Adventures Of Henrietta And Her Foreign Correspondent.

1. Wren's story nicely captures the hectic pace of his family's life and of the often exotic atmosphere of the far-flung places to which Wren's work as a journalist took them, along with their apparently indestructable cat Henrietta. Wren's description of the exhausting, time-consuming and frustrating paperwork that goes with the territory of traveling around the world with a cat is mind-boggling. Because the family willingly took on this added burden in order to keep Henrietta with them, it's clear that they loved her dearly and that she was without doubt an important member of the family. I cheered their efforts on her behalf (even though I look askance at allowing a cat to roam busy city streets or tropical landscapes where predators may lurk), but I would have liked to have read more about personal interaction between Henrietta and the family. We're told she curls up on the daughter's bed at night. But we don't hear her purr, we don't see her lick the girl's cheek or nuzzle her neck. Henrietta certainly comes off as independent, resourceful and resilient and I got a kick out of her, but with a little more detailed description of her interaction with the family, she would have seemed like a more loveable and huggable cat.



2. When my local bookclub picked this book for our monthly selection, I wasn't sure what to think. I mean, how much discussion can be generated by a cat book? Thankfully I am a die-hard cat fan, so at least I'll have some funny cat stories to share.

   The Cat Who Covered the World tells the true of story of New York Times Foreign Correspondent (and author), Christopher Wren, as he travels around the world with the family cat in tow. Not a born cat-lover, Chris took his time warming up to Henrietta. Eventually, however, she became an integral part of the family. And when Chris was dispatched to his first overseas assignment, Henrietta was sure to tag along. This book paints a sweet picture of a man just doing his job and the cat who made it bearable for 18 years.

   As for the book itself, it's cute. The writing is for the most part simple, but I did tend to get a bit confused when the author reminisces about certain political happenings in the countries he lived in. If you're not up on your foreign history, be forewarned! However, the story as a whole is good; the cat, Henrietta, is a very endearing and sweet character, and I see much of her in my own two cats; and the different countries discussed will allow the reader to do some armchair traveling of their own. I recommend this book as a quick weekend read, but I believe it was written solely for the cat lover. All others may not find it as endearing or sweet, or may not relate to the relationship between author and family pet.




3. Being a cat lover, I've read a few books about the mischievous trouble making creatures. My personal favorite is The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren. Wren, being a writer for the New York Times, travels the world with his family, including the cat.
   From Cairo, to Paris, to Beijing, there's not a place Henrietta, the cat, hasn't been. Henrietta is the most amazing cat I've ever heard of. She has very prototype catlike qualities, intelligent, resourceful, cunning, just to name a few. She's like super cat. Her qualities as I've just listed, are doubled compared to any normal cat. She even has a refined taste; she'll only eat certain kinds of fish and other meats, not like other cats that just eat whatever is in front of them.
   Wren's style of writing is very interesting. He's very descriptive, and seems to know exactly what word would fit where. It seems like he's memorized the dictionary. He uses a lot of bigger words that I couldn't even figure out from context, for example the word "eschatological", which has some thing to do with death and what happens after. I've never heard of that word in my life. You definitely need to be an experienced reader to read this. I love how he describes the actions of the cat, and the cat herself. Everything he says about her is catlike and very descriptive, giving people a clear picture in their minds.
   People can learn things from this book. Like how people in different countries treat cats, and their opinions and superstitions about them. One example of superstitions would be that I learned that some people in China think cat's eyes have magical features. I now know more about customs of people in different countries and their views on Americans and reporters.
   One thing the Wren's had to consistently go through were baggage checks and customs every time they entered a new country. This seemed to be a problem for Henrietta. In some countries they made her visit a vet and were very suspicious about her having foreign diseases. The veterinarians at these places would poke and prod at her as if she was a stuffed animal. In other places they would love her to death and let her go through without a problem.
   Wren adds a sense of humor to his book as well. I think that's one thing that made it so captivating. Knowing the behavior of cats is an important thing to have stored in the brain to understand some of the humor. If people have never owned a cat they may not understand why something would be funny. Such as in one part of the book he has the schedule of Henrietta in the morning. It talks about what a cat does in everyday life. People can't possibly understand the humor of the cat's schedule unless they've lived with a cat or an animal with the same kind of behavior.
   Overall Wren did a great job on this book. I would recommend The Cat Who Covered the World to any cat lover or cat owner. I only wish more people would write books like this about their cats.



4. I love this book , by Christopher Wren about his beloved cat Henreitta and their travled together as a news correspondent around the globe. It's a must read for any cat lover. It's funny in many parts, moving , touching and sad as well.
   I'd recomend it to anyone. It's am enjoyable read for adult and children as well. For anyone who lvoes there feline baby very much this is the book for you.



5. An absolutely delightful book. I enjoyed it so much, I passed it on to cat lover friends and have just received an e-mail telling me how much they enjoyed it.

3 comments about Nothing to Declare: A Memoir.

1. After seeing the film, 'American History X', I was hooked on finding out about what it's really like in a prison without the added drama of films. Taki gives an honest, undramatised description of his short time in prison for attempted drug smuggling. He explains the torment of being alone and not being able to walk around freely, 24 hours a day, as well the the disgusting conditions prisoners may put up with. It was certainly different to the the image that films like 'shawshank' gave. It showed the human side of prisoners as well as the goodness that the guards were capable of. It also gave interesting descriptions of the social code that inmates followed. For example the unspoken rule that a prisoner never uses the lavatory when the other prisoner is present, as this is 'home'. A recommended read to anyone interested in prison and the loyalty inmates share.



2. A great book, maybe a little slow at the end. If you like Taki, I highly reccomend this collection of his writings.



3. Not Reading Gaol.
   
   This is a wonderful book about Taki's period as a guest of Her Majesty. For those looking for prison memoirs, read "Nothing to Declare" and Jim Goad's "S**t Magnet" for contrasting tales told with amusement and panache. Throw in "manchild in the Promised Land" in you want another colourful voice.
   
   Reading Taki is like a good tennis game with an attractive partner, a warm summer afternoon in beautiful surroundings, and a perfect cocktail answer to the slur of Eurotrash. Taki is glamour without the glitz, wealth combined with anonymity, privilege and comfort without meterosexual softness, and manliness without burlesque or misogyny.
   
   An unapologetic elitist gentleman, ever giving communists and the spineless a fair punch in their clownish noses. Pure delight.

No comments about All in the Day's Work.

No comments about Theater of the Mind: Thee-Quarters of a Century of Radio Across Texas.