No comments about Women in American Journalism: A New History.

3 comments about Stopping the Presses: The Murder of Walter W. Liggett.

1. As a former Minnesotan, I was interested in this generally untold side of Minnesota history. I have lived in Minneapolis and loved it, but was shaken by these horrors that long preceeded my time there. I would have appreciated more specific addresses and names of businesses where events took place as it would have put the story in a more real context, but only for those familiar with the city. It is almost unbelievable to imagine the kind of opposition that existed to those publishing information which went contrary to the public image desired by those in power-both "legitimate" and underworld people. I'm glad Ms. Woodbury used her research skills to write this work. It does indeed exonerate her family, and her respect for her parents is well deserved, especially her telling of her mother's grace and dignity in coping with this tragedy.



2. Marda Woodbury's look at her own father's death is a gripping and well-researched look back at a tragedy and possibly a government cover-up. Woodbury does an excellent job of re-evaluating her father, Walter Liggett, and his death. Her father was an old-school muckraker in Minnesota and one of the most vocal opponents of then-governor Floyd Olson.

   Not being familiar with this particular case before I read the book, I was concerned that this would be some sort of apologistic, revisionist history. However, the more I researched the case, the more I found that Woodbury had given a fair assessment of the murder and of her father's career.

   The book is a case study in how political machines worked, a good look at the rise of gangland in the heart of the Midwest, and a really interesting history of Minnesota journalism in the 1930s. Liggett argues that her father was too good of an advesary, knew too much and couldn't be bribed - all fatal ingredients which spelled his demise.

   I wish Liggett would have explored her father's reputation as a blackmailer. While she makes several references to it, and while that was many the gripe of many of Liggett's contemporaries, she doesn't seem to do as thorough of a job in researching the claims of blackmailing as she does in other parts of the book. While that particular area isn't exhaustively explored, the book still seems to have objectivity and balance.

   Woodbury should be complimented for her well-documented research and her crafty ability to present this case in a new light, some half-a-century after it happened. She has done not only an admirable job in her role as a historian, but we also are given a first-hand account of what happened to the family and a look into the private dealings of Walter Liggett.




3. Marda Liggett Woodbury has done a first class job in researching and describing the life and death of her father, a leftist newspaper publisher who was murdered in front of her in 1935. But she does not simply write a sentimental account of her relationship with him, but delves deep into the history of a time and place. In addition, it tells the story of one man's decision to expose a deeply corrupt instituion, one whose faults he could no longer ignore. Attacking the very political party he had long supported, he exposed candidates ties to the Twin Cities's Irish and Jewish Mobs and vowed to bring down their most powerful Political Boss, Minnesota Governor Floyd Olsen. It was a crusade that would cost him his life. When he couldn't be intimidated, framed, or bribed, he was machine gunned to death before the terrified eyes of his wife and children. The shooter was identified as Isadore Blumenfield, alias "Kid Cann" the boss of Minneapolis's Jewish Mafia. I will leave you to find out the result of the trial by reading the book. In closing, as a religious conservative, I agree with virtually none of Walter Liggett's political stances, but in one regard I admire him. When the Liberal Party he supported became just another crooked political machine, he turned on them with a vengeance. For that, I wish there were more like him today.

No comments about Mark Twain.

5 comments about Lone Star: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Dan Rather.

1. If there's one thing I'd really like to read -- I'm serious, mind you -- it's an insightful, deeply researched Dan Rather biography. There's probably no more enigmatic or divisive figure in late 20th century American journalism.
   
   After inhaling Alan Weisman's thin and cursorily researched "Lone Star," I want that book more than ever.
   
   For your $25.95 you get maybe eight good, if really catty, stories of control-obsessed Dan's backstage politicking at CBS News -- usually about freezing out, or wrecking the careers of, other correspondents and producers he allegedly found disloyal or threatening. That stuff, if true, goes a long way to explaining Dan's own chilly, no-flowers exit from CBS in 2006. (Live by the sword, die by the sword.)
   
   But Weisman (an old CBS News off-air hand) creates no real insight. You want to know why Dan is who he is and you never find out. It's not enough to take the reader's money and then conclude, well, it's a mystery. I can do that on my own.
   
   Dan's professional conduct was clearly somehow cued by his modest Texas roots and the fish-out-of-water experience of landing among all those smirking Eastern journalism elites. But Weisman talks directly to nobody from Dan's early days; those pages are based almost entirely on clips ripped from Dan's own earlier memoirs, "I Remember" and "The Camera Never Blinks Twice," which Rather students will already know.
   
   Weisman develops no clear position on Dan. Was he a conscientious heir to Ed Murrow, an insecure egotist and air hog, a nonpareil street reporter, a vicious character assassin, or a Macbeth-scale tragic figure? Weisman ticks "all of the above," and gives us editorial dribs and drabs in support of all these facets and more, but a coherent portrait never emerges. Perhaps this is because Weisman's original sourcing is mostly interviews with high-ranking members of the smirking media elites themselves, past and present -- each with their own agenda and axes to grind. Weisman veers between defending Rather's motives and relating awful secondhand stories about him. He zips past the inevitable Nixon/Rather parallels, saying too much has already been said about them; well, maybe in the bars he hangs out at. But to many of the rest of us a twin-track psychological profile of the tortured, insecure, angry president and the tortured, terminally uncomfortable anchorman would be really interesting.
   
   Weisman isn't one for such detail, or a leisurely/scholarly discussion of anything, really. At only 221 pages of wide-spaced type, less 16 pages of unnecessary photos, "Lone Star" takes one medium-length plane flight to knock off. The author's broadcast newswriting background shows. In TV a serious script runs about ten sentences, so any book-length wordcount is a Herculean effort for a TV guy. But it feels more like a long magazine piece, only some accounts of crucial moments in Dan's career make no sense and would have been better edited at Esquire or Vanity Fair. How exactly did Dan relay his JFK-is-dead scoop to New York on November 22, 1963? What exactly was the sequence of events when Dan left the Evening News set in Miami in 1987? What exactly did Dan do during the four days it took to produce the fateful Memogate story in 2004? You can read "Lone Star"'s accounts very carefully and still be confused. There's far too little chronological detail -- basic reportage, ironically, is too often missing. As is Dan himself. He did not cooperate with this project. Probably wisely.
   
   Like Johnny Carson, Rather dominated broadcast television for a whole era but remained a tantalizing cipher. Nothing changes after "Lone Star." Bill Zehme's upcoming Carson bio should be revelatory, given Zehme's style and insight. Maybe he should tackle Dan next. Weisman leaves a lot of work to be done. Dan, if you read this -- wouldn't Zehme be the man?



2. Everybody knows the name of Dan Rather, the reporter who appeared on the radar screen at JFK's assassination and rose to CBS News favored son status reporting from Vietnam, the White House, hurricane lamp posts, the CBS News anchor chair and virtually every hot spot around the world, but most people have never heard of Alan Weisman, the author of "LONE STAR: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Dan Rather."
   
   For those in the broadcast news business, Alan Weisman -- hands down -- is the finest producer who ever walked the halls of CBS News. There is no contest here. Intelligent, industrious, creative, insightful, witty, thorough and totally uncompromising, over the years he probably irritated as many higher-ups as he created awestruck fans in the trenches.
   
   Weisman decided up front his book would be a professional-only work. He does not engage in petty gossip about Dan Rather. Instead he chooses to focus on more serious matters - on the man and the institution which he shaped and which in turn shaped him. It is a fascinating inside look, a view available only through the prism of an experienced insider.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone who wants to take the tour in the hands of a total professional.



3. Excellent glimse inside of the workings of CBS News and the legendary Dan Rather.



4. This book is a quick read. The author often refers to Rather's previous book entitled The Camera Never Blinks in addition to a Playboy interview. Most of the book is about the shenanigans that take place in network television and the egos and insecurities of those involved including the network announcers. I didn't find the book to be a keeper for my library.



5. For anyone who watched Dan Rather with any regularity, this is definitely an interesting and insightful book about the man and the behind-the-scenes workings of CBS. From growing up in Texas to covering Vietnam to his final days in the anchor chair, you get a look at Dan Rather the man versus Dan Rather the reporter/anchor, and not all of it is favorable. Weisman's account of things is pretty fair to all parties involved, shows multiple viewpoints and allows the reader to make their own judgements. Of particular interest is his accounts of what went on at CBS when the corporate structures were changed and how it affected Rather. The only real problem I have with this book is that it seems like it is really only giving a summary of Rather's life instead of a detailed account. Otherwise, I highly recommend it.

1 comments about Confessions of an American Media Man: What They Don't Tell You at Journalism School.

1. The Author of this book seems to have a hard time explaining what he is most proud of about his career in media. Yet he does so with a self effacement equal only to that of Ghandi. He wants to brag yet does not. I think it would have been better had he bragged. Anyway the book is very intersting and informative about how he managed to carve out a career in journalism for himself. Something that seems to be difficult yet he seems to have pulled it off without a hitch. He does have many legitimate successes that he should rightly be proud of yet he seems embarassed to toot his own horn. He is very happy to give the credit for his success to others whom he has admired and who had mentored him in his early years and even today. If you don't mind his awkwardness you'll get alot out of this book. Like he said they don't tell you what he does in school. I am glad he wrote this book because I know how you can unintentionally be blind to the bigger picture around you. Which is what makes this book good. An accurate description of the bigger picture and how not to get side tracked or misled into making the wrong decision. He also explains and rightly so how your integrity may be tested by that of others in situations where you need to keep it in mind that your integrity is what is important not getting a big scoop. He speaks a lot about how much character you have and how to rightly develope and use what you've got. All in all I am glad I bought this book because it shows me the side of journalism you often hear about but never get an example of. It also takes the focus off of what many journalists believe is the sacred cow and tells us what is most sacred about that cow and why it should be protected.

No comments about The Selected Letters of Mark Twain.

1 comments about Abode of Love: Growing Up in a Messianic Cult.

1. Part autobiography/family memoir and part religious inspection, ABODE OF LOVE: GROWING UP IN A MESSIANIC CULT tells of being raised at Agapemone, a cult whose religion embraced religious and sexual scandal that absorbed her family as her distant relatives down to her grandfather took 'spiritual' brides. The author and her sisters own the Arc of the Covenant, a Victorian church in London: her story of being raised in the cult, her family, and the influences of its teachings makes for a gripping story.

No comments about Take Me with You: A Memoir.

5 comments about I'll Be Damned If I'll Die in Oakland: A Sort of Travel Memoir.

1. A good travel writer should be perceptive enough to look beyond stereotypes. By maligning his birth city in his title, Mr. Martinez demonstrates his narrow mindedness.
   Like its neighbor across the bay, San Francisco, Oakland has sad and ugly neighborhoods, but it also has great beauty, including a lake with a bird sanctuary, "Necklace of Lights", and romantic gondola rides in the center of the city. The residential neighborhoods of Rockridge, Montclair, Crocker Highlands, Lakeside, Jack London Square and Claremont and the thriving shopping districts adjoining them make Oakland a highly desireable place to live. I could say more, but the point is to review the book.
   Gertrude Stein's famously misinterpreted "There is no there there" was said when she revisited the site of her family home, which had been razed.
   I would have more respect for Mr. Martinez as a travel writer if he were capable of intellectual and emotional growth amd expanding his limited view of the world.



2. What a delight! Al Martinez writes with an intimacy and clarity that allows the reader to share very personally in his adventures and misadventures. He combines a wry wit with a talent for painting word pictures that convey the sights and sounds of his travels. And not just his travels to foreign countries, but in a few touching vignettes, he invites the reader into scenes from his personal life journey. I fell in love with his intrepid wife, Cinelli, just from the marvelous conversations he records, where she zeroes in on him time after time with just the right words. What a sharp lady! "I'll Be Damned If I'll die in Oakland" is a memorable memoir. I thorougly enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it to the discriminating reader who savors language and words put to good use.



3. This is the most unconventional, surprising, funny, and revealing travel(?) book I've ever put my hands on -- an account of the author's personal encounters with the world's historic, oft-chronicled and visited places-- yes, and people -- with a perspective that no one but Martinez has dared introduce. Instead of Steinbeck's, "Travels with Charlie," this is Martinez' "Travels with Cinelli," his patient and forgiving wife, his children,and ultimately his grandchildren. Be prepared to stay up late to read this one, because it's hard to put aside. My wife kept ME up late when she was reading it because women will sympathize with and relate to "Cinelli" just as much as men will appreciate Martinez.



4. Don't buy this book... It contains delusional ramblings and resentments that insult the memory of the one who made Al Martinez a success.



5. He establishes early on that he doesn't hate Oakland and it proves a touchstone for him in many ways. Al has a way of writing a sentence with such vivid description that it makes you feel like you are part of the story. As a long-time fan I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book, and I laughed out loud many times, just as I often laugh at his bi-weekly columns in the LA-by god-Times.
   
   Don't expect it to be a formal, Fodor-guide-type travel memoir. It's as much fun for the reader as many of those trips must have been for the Martinez family. Read it for the style and the interesting characters you'll meet along the way. You won't be disappointed.

No comments about Kendall of the Picayune: Being His Adventures in New Orleans, on the Texan Santa Fe Expedition, in the Mexican War, and in the Colonization of the Texas Frontier.