1 comments about A Sportswriter's Life: From the Desk of a New York Times Reporter.

1. great anecdotes and interesting observations about changes in the sports world, journalism, and American culture.

No comments about Dangerous People, Dangerous Places.

5 comments about Lake Effect.

1. Very interesting, perceptive, and often funny writing style. Cohen can write "thumbnail sketches" of people and sitations as well as anyone I've read lately. (His short riff on a summer of bad jobs is a good example, wherein he sums up his bad bosses in a sentence or two, and you still "get" what kind of people they are.) In short, highly recommended.



2. As a graduate of New Trier High School, I feel that this book did a wonderful job illustrating some of the feelings I had during High School. I thought Cohen's writing was captivating and entertaining, and I am very interested to read his other books. "Lake Effect" is a must read!



3. The book recounts the author's years growing up in the 1980s in Glencoe, a Chicago suburb, and subsequently his student years in New Orleans, but really centres on his best friend Jamie. It is evocative of the period and full of memorable imagery. Jamie is an extraordinary and delightful character, and the remarkable platonic friendship he and the author Rich enjoy is beautifully recounted. This is a book which repays careful reading, not one to be hurried. It reveals much insight, and while the end is far from negative, I experienced a feeling of great sadness and yet tremendous warmth as the book drew towards its conclusion. A thoroughly rewarding book, highly recommended.



4. Rich Cohen is a very-very good writer. This book is a bitter-sweet memoir of him growing up. I was surpized to find out what kind of kid he was. As usual, Rich is superb at making his characters so alive that they seem a part of your past also. Here is proof that one doesn't have to be from the Midwest or from the 70s to enjoy the book! It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye, except it's good to know that the kid turned out all-right in real life. Reading this book was a pure delight, although it is sad at times.



5. Rich Cohen's 'Lake Effect' is great literature for me for a number of reasons:
   
   . It unassumingly transported me to Glencoe Illinois, the town in which i grew up and the town in which I came of age - at the same ages Cohen covers in the story.
   
   . The story focuses on Cohen's friends, and yet conveys the author's deepest feelings and concerns without his wearing them on his sleeve.
   
   . I couldn't put the book down! It was a great read! And at the end of the book I came away with a feeling that I'd been carried on a ride through Cohen's most intimate teen-aged years, years that, for me, had been critical towards forming my own self-definition.
   
   . He conveyed a clear picture of the folks on whom he focused in the book's text.
   
   
   I highly recommend this beautiful book to all, and envy them the journey on which they'll be setting out. It won't be a lengthy one - I finished the book within three days, partially because, as noted above, I just couldn't put it down. But I assure potential readers that the trip along the author's route will be a memorable and pleasant one.

1 comments about Have a Seat, Please.

1. The first half of this book consists of a multitude of "human interest" stories regarding condemned Texans walking the "last mile."

   The second half of the book, though, is a soapbox for overbearing anti-death penalty rhetoric.

   If you think you can tolerate the second half of the book, the first half of the book is worth it.

No comments about The First Flowering: Bruce Rogers at the Riverside Press 1896-1912.

5 comments about How I Came Into My Inheritance: and Other True Stories.

1. Dorothy Gallagher's trim memoir, "How I Came into My Inheritance," reminds readers that autobiographical writing can indeed be morbidly funny and acidic in its portrait of family life. Never once stopping to worry about the level of acid in these wonderfully crafted stories about her Russian-Jewish immigrant family, Gallagher at one glorifies and criticizes the conflicts, expectations and ambitions her parents' generation manifest after having arrived in the promised land, the United States.

   Gallagher rebels against her family's orthodox ideology, not of being Jewish, but of complete devotion to communism. She notes that "a photograph of Lenin hung on the attic wall (I used to think it was my grandfather)." Perpetually a disappointment to her cantankerous father and her sarcastic and manipulative mother, Gallagher fights to reconcile her "evidently selfish and frivolous nature" with her parents' zealous dedication to "the Struggle for a Better World [emphasis is the author's]." Despite Gallagher's evident creative, discursive personality, nothing she can do measures up to her mother's morally rigid standards. Thus, readers observe Gallagher as a disappointment to her parents and at odds with herself.

   Not once does the author lapse into self-pity. Instead, her chaotic, sarcasm-laden life becomes grist for a vocation which at least sounds respectable, that of being a writer. Her account of her evolution as a writer is the highlight of the memoir. She rubs shoulders with such luminaries as Bruce Jay Friedman and Mario Puzo while pounding out bilge for pulp magazines. As she hones her skills, she dismisses her later books with a self-deprecatory wave. Her willingness to mock her own self-presumed failures -- as a daughter, as a wife, as a worker -- makes one wonder how much of her parents' lack of approbation she absorbed during her childhood.

   Dorothy Gallagher would dismiss sympathy for her life as misplaced sentiment. Instead, she writes her memoir with enough tartness to make any reader's mouth pucker. Her relatives are rough-and-tumble greenhorns who may or may not make peace with their new land. Foibles, failures and faults flow throughout this slender, wry memoir. As to her inheritance, Dorothy Gallager permits the reader to discern what wealth truly exists in her family.




2. I've read any number of books -- memoirs and novels -- about women growing up in the late thirties/early forties in New York City, with immigrant parents involved in Communism. This was among the best -- clever, ironic, touching, laugh-out-loud funny. Only complaint: too short. I wanted to know more and more about Dorothy Gallagher and her family.



3. Dorothy Gallagher's "How I Came into My Inheritance" is a Hoot: rich with the humor of real events derived from real experience and real people. Even though Gallagher seems like she doesn't mean to be funny, she is...and some of these anecdotes are laugh out loud hilarious.
   In many ways, we can all relate to this type of family expose in that most of us have had these same types of experiences with our own families. What most of us don't have though, is Gallagher's talent and her facility with the English language, which makes all of this come alive.
   Though some of "HICIMI" is sad as befits the subject matter, most of this book is dangerously witty and underhandedly sly. This is the perfect book to give to your Mom, Dad, Aunts and Uncles for Christmas. Then you can all read from it around the Christmas dinner table and laugh till you puke.



4. HOW I CAME INTO MY INHERITANCE by Dorothy Gallagher is a story of family, or rather, episodes from a family history. About halfway through, I realized that Dorothy's immediate forebears had a history much similar to mine. Around the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, her maternal grandparents and their youngest children emigrated to the U.S. from the Ukraine, following their three eldest children sent over previously. About the same time, my paternal grandparents emigrated to America from Romania with their youngest offspring, the oldest son having gone on before. In both cases, additional children were born in the States. There was a shared experience there, however nebulous, that made me appreciate this book more than I might have.
   
   Unlike the five-star SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS by Laura Shaine Cunningham, HOW I CAME INTO MY INHERITANCE is less of a warm and fuzzy celebration of family. The latter is perhaps more interesting than engaging, more poignant than charming. Each exhibits its author's own brand of humor, Gallagher's being a bit drier. Cunningham's pivot is always herself growing up, while Gallagher's stories often focus on her mother, father, and various aunts with only tangential reference to herself. Gallagher's have a discontinuous feel, although there is a broad, overlying time frame.
   
   The politics of Dorothy's parents and aunts is perhaps unusual among written memoirs of the U.S. between the world wars. They were passionately Red. Lenin's photo had a place of honor on the wall; Uncle Joe Stalin and the victories of the Soviet armies against the Nazi invaders were much admired. During the Depression, capitalism in America appeared to be moribund, and the family was prepared to welcome the new socialist world order. Oddly, Gallagher doesn't mention how much of this revolutionary spirit she retained. Apparently, it just failed to take, as the political and religious passions of parents often do in their offspring.
   
   For me, HOW I CAME INTO MY INHERITANCE hit its stride and was at its most interesting when Gallagher recounts her early efforts as a writer, first scribbling dubious stories about celebrities in such scandal mags as "Screen Stars" and "Movie World", forerunners of today's checkstand tabloids. Then, there was the agony of her first book, ALL THE RIGHT ENEMIES: THE LIFE AND MURDER OF CARLO TRESCA. Saddest is the second-to-last chapter, "The Last Indian", about her youngest aunt, Rachile, otherwise mostly ignored up to that point. Rachile outlived all of her siblings, dying convinced that she'd been terribly wronged throughout life by her brothers and sisters.
   
   HOW I CAME INTO MY INHERITANCE suffers greatly from not including a section of visual snapshots. While Dorothy can see with her mind's eye, the reader needs to be shown faces. While it might not have made the narrative more joyful, it would've put flesh on the past and given it a more balanced perspective. (I remember my own maternal grandmother dying as a bitter, unhappy old woman. It's good that I have photos of her cheerfully and vibrantly young. One forgets from where the aged come.)
   
   It appears to me that writing this book was the author's way of seeking closure. In the very last chapter, she recounts visiting Romania - as near as she could get to the Old Country - five years after her parents' deaths, and writes in the last paragraph:
   
   "And now, in this odd and wracked corner of the world, on this hill ... grief slipped away. I felt happy as the day is long."



5. Inheritance is usually synonymous with money. Gallagher has to fight for hers and eventually wins. It's a story of semi-neglect and confusion that has a satisfying ending. But the true legacy of her parents is revealed in the remaining stories. Her own stubborn inherited character comes out in "No", "Good For Nothing", and "How I Became a Writer". Her memoir discusses love obliquely, with dark humor, and there is little mention of tenderness and affection by her mother and father. But it's there. Between the lines. Some parents are that way sometimes.

No comments about In My Mind's Eye.

5 comments about Call The Briefing.

1. "Call the Briefing" by Marlin Fitzwater puts you inside the White House. The reader is brought right to the Podium, fielding questions from a voracious Press Corps ready to do almost anything for a story. And you are there with the President and the Cabinet, discussing strategy and estimating every action's media reaction.It was hard to put this book down. You meet the very idealistic Ronald Reagan and the very professional George H. W. Bush through the eyes of the man who served a Press Secretary in both Administrations. Mr. Fitzwater's longevity in that position attests to his skill at working with the White House insiders and the news media.

   Many of the events covered are specific to the Reagan and Bush days, but you also experience the many duties of the White House Press Secretary in any Administration, a role that could give ulcers to almost anyone. This gave me a real appreciation of the "24/7" crises White House Staff in any Administration, must battle every day.I especially liked Mr. Fitzwater's writing, honed through years of experience. I liked his ability to paint events in a terse yet rich way. All the journeys of Marlin Fitzwater come alive, starting as a farm boy in Abeliene, Kansas and a reporter and editor in small-town Kansas newspapers.

   Although he had originally wanted a career as a journalist, his opportunity came on the other side of the podium, handling public relations at Government agencies. Mr. Fitzwater got his baptism by fire at the Environmental Protection Agency, handling the hot potato of the Three Mile Island Nuclear leak. For better or worse, it is the news media which ultimately decides what is news and how that news is presented to the public. But their power is even greater than we perceive. They can choose to make any particular event, such as a Presidential Speech, front-page headline news or bury it on the Obituary page.

   Mr. Fitzwater handled his dual challenge very well: to communicate the Administration's activities in the most favorable light, and at the same time building trust among the White House Press Corps by being fair and honest. One sees the successes, such as the Summit Meetings held by both Presidents Reagan and Bush with Premiere Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. And you see the bad times, such as the unfortunate illnesses suffered by Mr. Bush at Camp David and again in Japan, which caused many people to question his ability to finish his term. The reader also learns about the successes and failures of the Movers and Shakers in the White House, from Caspar Weiberger and Iran-Contra to the rise and fall of the autocratic Chief of Staff John Sununu. And of course the Media are happy to make a story at anyone's expense.

   Definitely five stars, and recommended for anyone who wants to know more about what happens in White House and how it affects the Nation.




2. "Call the Briefing" by Marlin Fitzwater puts you inside the White House. The reader is brought right to the Podium, fielding questions from a voracious Press Corps ready to do almost anything for a story. And you are there with the President and the Cabinet, discussing strategy and estimating every action's media reaction.It was hard to put this book down. You meet the very idealistic Ronald Reagan and the very professional George H. W. Bush through the eyes of the man who served a Press Secretary in both Administrations. Mr. Fitzwater's longevity in that position attests to his skill at working with the White House insiders and the news media.

   Many of the events covered are specific to the Reagan and Bush days, but you also experience the many duties of the White House Press Secretary in any Administration, a role that could give ulcers to almost anyone. This gave me a real appreciation of the "24/7" crises White House Staff in any Administration, must battle every day.I especially liked Mr. Fitzwater's writing, honed through years of experience. I liked his ability to paint events in a terse yet rich way. All the journeys of Marlin Fitzwater come alive, starting as a farm boy in Abeliene, Kansas and a reporter and editor in small-town Kansas newspapers.

   Although he had originally wanted a career as a journalist, his opportunity came on the other side of the podium, handling public relations at Government agencies. Mr. Fitzwater got his baptism by fire at the Environmental Protection Agency, handling the hot potato of the Three Mile Island Nuclear leak. For better or worse, it is the news media which ultimately decides what is news and how that news is presented to the public. But their power is even greater than we perceive. They can choose to make any particular event, such as a Presidential Speech, front-page headline news or bury it on the Obituary page.

   Mr. Fitzwater handled his dual challenge very well: to communicate the Administration's activities in the most favorable light, and at the same time building trust among the White House Press Corps by being fair and honest. One sees the successes, such as the Summit Meetings held by both Presidents Reagan and Bush with Premiere Gorbachev of the Soviet Union. And you see the bad times, such as the unfortunate illnesses suffered by Mr. Bush at Camp David and again in Japan, which caused many people to question his ability to finish his term. The reader also learns about the successes and failures of the Movers and Shakers in the White House, from Caspar Weiberger and Iran-Contra to the rise and fall of the autocratic Chief of Staff John Sununu. And of course the Media are happy to make a story at anyone's expense.

   Definitely five stars, and recommended for anyone who wants to know more about what happens in White House and how it affects the Nation.




3. Fitzwater's book is perhaps one of the finest insiders views of the White House and the White House press corps to ever be published.
   Fitzwater details the inner workings of the Reagan White House like none other, including the scandals and how they did not affect the inside of the White House regardless of the pressure from the media. His admiration for Ronald Reagan is palpable in this book, however he's not as favorable to George Bush. While it's clear he personally likes Bush, it's also clear that he did not agree with Bush's policies and the rest of the Bush White House team as much as he seemed to agree with much of the Reagan White House. However, overall the only person to come out of Fitzwater's book looking bad is John Sununu the former Chief of Staff. He comes off as paranoid and really a generally nasty guy.
   Fitzwater also writes probably the finest view of why Bush lost the 1992 Presidental race and the bungling inside of the White House that caused it. Unfortunately he avoids writing much about the invasion of Panama and Desert Storm, two of the biggest events of the Bush Presidency. Fitzwater rationalizes this by stating many other books will be written on those two events, however I would liked to have known how he handled it in terms of the briefings and the announcement of the invasion of Panama and the beginning of Desert Storm.
   Overall, this is a fine book and should be read by anyone who wants an insider's view of what the Washington Press Corps and their relationship with the White House is really like as well as anyone interested in how Bush managed to turn huge popularity raitings during and after Desert Storm into a political defeat in 1992.



4. I have read my fair share of political memoirs and to me they always seem to all into one of two categories. It is either the disgruntled guy that maybe did not leave on such good terms who is going to put as much venom as possible into anyone that slightly crossed him during his time in the administration, or it is the guy that thinks the President he served walked on water and is wondering why the American population did not create a monarchy with his President as the King. This book falls into the later category. I am not apposed to these types of books, I tend to like them if I liked the President so I was ok with the authors glowing review of Reagan and Bush. I just wished the author had given us little more meat with his comments. Most of the book reminded me of a rambling conversation you might have with a friend where, at the end, you really do not know what was talked about. One thing did come out very clearly, the author loved working for these two Presidents and there is absolutely no criticism, fair or unfair, within these pages.

   The one thing that I did get a little annoyed at was the author's attacks on the Clinton administration. I could understand the comments about the 1992 election and those comments were fair, but what was with the comments of what the Clinton team was doing in 95? These looked to me as nothing else but simple-minded attacks to help a bruised ego. As the book went on into the Bush administration this author started to really tear into the press. On and on he would spout off about the liberal press that was just out to get good old George when maybe the author should have realized that it was the Bush team that was losing focus and was losing the election one day at a time. The author hardly ever admitted that the Bush administration made mistakes; the No New Taxes issue was not even discussed. And as other reviewers here have mentioned, the author did not touch on the two military actions undertaken during the Bush administration. Overall the book was light on new facts, but had some interesting parts about the press and some internal meetings and issues. I could not get past the petty attacks on the Clinton administration and the obsessive mantra about the negative, unfair liberal press.




5. Marlin Fitzwater is still, in my mind, the supreme model of a press secretary. He was sharp, quick witted, capable of being funny, and honest. This is a terrific book that not only lets us in on what a press secretary's job is really like, he gives us the inside story on many important events in the second Reagan and Bush administrations. He also tells delicious stories about the Whitehouse press corps that are entertaining and informative.
   
   The author provides enough of his own biography, about fifty pages, to give us a better idea how he became who he is and how he came to Washington and ended up working for Larry Speakes, Reagan's press secretary at the time. He grew up on a Kansas wheat farm, ended up working at some small newspapers and working his way through college like many of us less well to do children of the middle and working classes did and do.
   
   He provides some key insights into the Reagan administration and is not afraid to say when he thinks Reagan was less than successful or what his weaknesses were, in his view. However, he is also extremely positive and explains where he thinks Reagan received bad advice and was less than well served by certain advisors.
   
   The accounts of the Bush administration are also excellent. Each anecdote is not only interesting but is used to illustrate some principle of the media in Washington and how the feebback between the press and politics works. The campaign between Bush and Clinton, whom the press adored, is especially illustrative.
   
   Each press secretary nowadays writes a book about their time in the hot seat, and they are usually good. After all, they are in that job because they know how to tell a story and communicate with the media and through them with us. But Fitzwater's book is a special example that sets the standard for all the rest.

No comments about LA Rebelde : Leonor Villegas de Magnon / The Rebel: Leonor Villegas de Magnon (Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage).

5 comments about Ahead of Time: My Early Years as a Foreign Correspondent.

1. Many of you who see the CBS miniseries will be reading and loving HAVEN,the book, but may be puzzled that the material on Ruth's experiences in 1930s Germany are --missing. Look no further! The information is here. If you are hooked on HAVEN you will want to read this book also, because the flashbacks to Germany are entirely taken from AHEAD OF TIME. It's also a great book. As Joan Michel wrote in HADASSAH MAGAZINE upon first publication in 1991:

   -"Talk about courageous pioneers and voyages into uncharted waters, about plumbing the depths of the human spirit, of discovering new worlds and uncovering hidden teasures..Ruth Gruber takes us on an extraordinary personal journey."

   Ruth Gruber, my stepmother, is 89 and I can vouch that she remains one of the most brilliant and adventurous women you could ever hope to meet, as well as THE BEST storyteller. She learned story telling from a consumate artist, Virginia Woolf, on whom Ruth wrote the very first doctoral thesis, conferred by the Univerity of Cologne in 1931 when she was but twenty. The University boasted that Ruth was "the world's youngest PhD" and in honor of her achievement, Cologne's Lord Mayer Konrad Adenauer presented her with a gift of two magnificent art books. As she left his chambers, the future United Nations leader placed his hand on her head, as in a benediciton."Bless you my child. May God go with you."

   And- it seems as though God did!




2. I was inspired to purchase this book along with Haven after watching the mini-series on TV. Ruth Gruber is a woman definitely ahead of her time. She puts modern day "women's libbers" to shame. This is a woman who, when she decided to do something, didn't live her amazing life so she could show the world what a woman could do. She lived her amazing life because she took advantage of any and all opportunities offered her. She didn't say, "Let me do it so I can show the world a woman can do it." She just said, "Let me do it because I can." She should be an example to all -- men and women alike. I would recommend this book and Haven to anyone interested in learning more about the history of the period as well as to anyone simply interested in a good read. Ms. Gruber writes her books in a way that brings them alive. They are not historical textbooks, nor are they "me" books. They are simply wonderfully inspiring books about a wonderfully inspiring woman.



3. I bought this because I was interested in early women's lib-ers who "just did it" and in her 1930s era access to Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union. She certainly is an interesting woman with a will power, but her access and her insights into these two countries were minimal and superficial. While she ackowledges that she was a pawn, the information she does present adds nothing to the understanding of those two countries or to what it must have been like to BE there. The Artic adventures are more promising, but like the rest of the book suffer from a really quite juvenile writing style that does little to effectively or movingly capture the moments she experiences. Finally, her lack of introspection seem to suggest that she really did "just do it" without much of a real reason and without much struggle and that just isn't very interesting reading.



4. This very engaging book covers so many experiences that you have to keep reminding yourself it's only about Ruth Gruber's first 25 years. While others have commented negatively on her simple writing style, I found it refreshing. She doesn't come across as a Ph.D. disseminating her vast knowledge, but as the young woman she was at the time, amazed at being able to have all the experiences she had. She seems to write from that viewpoint, so that even though she wrote this book much later in life, you feel like you're having a chat with "Rut," as the Russians call her, who is a very intelligent, but still very young woman. She apparently based this book on notes she took at the time, so its youthful attitude is authentic. Be warned, though, if you're older than 25 you're going to come away from this book feeling like a complete slacker.



5. the author,ruth gruber,tells a fascinating story.she is an amazing woman,very bright and gutsy.one feels as if he or she is going along with ms. gruber on her journeys. she is an accomplished writer and journalist. i recommend this book for others who want to go with her on her journeys.