2 comments about Gordon MacQuarrie: Story Of An Old Duck Hunter.

1. If you've ever wondered who the real "Mac" was, Keith Crowley has the answer for you, and then some. If you you're like me and you need to read the Stories of the Old Duck Hunters over and over as the leaves start to turn, then you need to read this book to gain an even greater appreciation for the talents of this outdoor writer. Buy it and put it right next to the rest of your McQuarrie titles where it belongs.



2. This guy can write! Forget about the extensive research done to produce the tremendous amounts of factual data in the book, it reads with the ease and style not unlike that of the subject author. This book has earned a spot on the shelf next to my copies of Macquarrie Miscellany and the Trilogy!

3 comments about Boston Boy: Growing up with Jazz and Other Rebellious Passions.

1. Once, jazz was a real and pervasive presence in Boston and in the dim and scruffy clubs of the South End, this American Music-par-excellence thrilled thousands of afficionados, while yet rarely affording its dedicated and colorful creators a living.
   It was the Twenties and the Jazz Age; it was the Thirties and the age of the Big Bands; it was the wartime Forties, the age of The Savoy on Mass Ave and of Sidney Bechet; it was the baby-boom Fifties and the age of Storeyville in Kenmore Square...
   There were Big Bands and great ballrooms but there were, as well, many talented smaller bands, playing inspired improvised jazz and struggling to survive as they enthralled more limited audiences in more limited venues.
   Nat Hentoff eloquently reminisces about a time when the soulful sound of trumpet and clarinet, piano and bass - pained, glorious, yearning, introspective, challenging, alien even - could inadvertently reach out of the smoky, dark, cave-like clubs of Washington and Columbus Avenues, and so mesmerize a young boy that it could change his life.
   Nat Henhoff blends this tale of a city, its cultural glories and its social sins, with the story of the music, light and dark, somber and witty, pure and besmirched - the faithful mirror of the human soul.
   He leaves one desolate that - much too soon! - things changed, and he leaves one wondering why Boston let it happen; why the city - host to The Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory, the Symphony as well as The Boston Pops - couldn't swiftly rally to support and, in time, to save a once-thriving Jazz community...
   Oh, economics and changing taste are the answer, of course, but one is left wishing that Boston had been able to sustain its local jazz scene and, failing that, wishing that it should presently choose, at the least and at last, to honor it with a South End Jazz Museum.
   Many of the greatest Jazz Musicians played there once and their presence or passage should not be forgotten.



2. It's great to see a book like this. As another Boston boy, I had many similar experiences that have been hard and perhaps confusing to explain to someone who grew up in another time and place.
   My wife feels that she understands me better now after reading Boston Boy. We are giving copies to our sons.
   The book for me is nostalgic, poignant, and somewhat reassuring. Helps to understand that generation, that time, and that place. We made it in spite of the bastards.



3. Nat Hentoff, who later became famous as a writer about jazz and civil liberties, describes his "coming of age" and discovery of jazz in the Boston of the 1940s. A very enjoyable read.

1 comments about Roosevelt to Reagan: A Reporter's Encounters With Nine Presidents.

1. Hedley Donovan (1914-1990), was the editor of "Fortune" magazine in the forties and fifties, and from 1964-1979 he was the editor of "Time" magazine. In "From Roosevelt to Reagan" Donovan has written a marvelous memoir of his numerous meetings with every President from FDR to Reagan (and he even worked for Jimmy Carter for awhile in the late seventies). Each President gets his own chapter in the book, and in these chapters Donovan offers his personal take on them: their personalities, their strengths and weaknesses, their successes and failures, etc. As one of the professional reviews for this book noted, it's like sitting in a bar and sharing a beer with an interesting old-timer, while listening to him recount the famous people he's dealt with. To his credit, Donovan doesn't always accept the conventional judgements or ratings of each President. For example, he judges FDR to have been a "failure" in dealing with the Great Depression, but a marvelous success in dealing with World War Two. He writes that Truman was a "Very Good" President, but he also argues that there was something "stubbornly small-bore" about Truman that prevented him from achieving true greatness. Donovan was a well-educated and well-read scholar, and he also offers incisive chapters which deal with presidential reputations (and how they can fall or rise depending upon the mood of the nation), and he offers some suggestions as to how the nation can improve its selection process for presidential candidates (he believes that the current presidential primary system is "insane"). In short, this is a marvelous book, and it offers many unique and personal insights of the presidents and political leaders of the last 75 years. Recommended!

No comments about Kit's Kingdom (Women's Experience).

2 comments about Remembering Jackie: A Life in Pictures.

1. Remembering Jackie is one of Jackie Kennedy's best book.
   The biography is complete, you never get bored.
   There are a lot of pictures too!
   I suggest it to all Kennedy 's fans or for people who want to know about Jackie's life.



2. This book really shows the details of Jacqueline's life: pictures, quotes, not-well-known facts, everithing!

No comments about Russia's Greatest Enemy?: Harold Williams and the Russian Revolutions (International Library of Twentieth Centruy History).

4 comments about Wired - A Romance.

1. This book is well written and an easy read - it's hard to put the book down. Wired-A Romance is a story about the people who started the cutting edge magazine Wired. People interested in the beginning of the Internet revolution should find the book fascinating. Also, people interested in the business of starting a company and seeing where the big monetary payoff comes will also find it worthwhile.

   The founder of Wired, Louis Rossetto, is strong-willed man and in the early 1990's has a definite view on how the world will change with the upcoming wired revolution. Rossetto's vision and character are essential for the magazine's quick success, but later these same traits almost cost the magazine's investors dearly.

   An interesting tale by a talented writer. I recommend this book.




2. Wired, a romance is a fascinating tale. Author Wolf is a contributing editor at WIRED magazine and he tells this story with an insider's viewpoint. No doubt WIRED changed modern journalism, but how much did it contribute to the bluff and fluff of the Dot Com era that soaked so many average investors? That's a tale that Wolf never quite measures up in. More business data would have been helpful. But we get the flavor of the times. WIRED should have and actually DID see the diversification of the communications world and the convergence of telecom, film, records, books and more. They did issues on BIOTECH and covered new technologies but the flavor of the time was DOT COM and somehow they became entwined in the not com aspect of what went wrong in the 90's. Wolf's viewpoint is only part of the larger story of why they didn't go public and how they managed to sell out for a fortune to Conde Nast. It's a pleasant read but most of us on the seesaw knew the story well. What we need really is a skyhigh view of what it was all about and the good and the bad and the ugly that evolved from that Silicon Valley bubble that almost blew us all away.



3. While not poorly written you will find yourself skipping pages in this book. Gary spends a great deal of time telling you about the characters habits, backpacking, flower pots, pets and such in much more detail than he does about the actual company and magazine.

   OK, but a VERY quick read.




4. I read Gary Wolf's 262-page account of the founding of Wired Magazine by Louis Rossetto and his moll, Jane Metcalfe, in one sitting. The subtitle, "a romance," is more about Louis' remarkable (half mad) passion for publishing in the digital age than about his courting of the beautiful Jane. Louis' passion for Jane is likely to have been great too since they are still together today living in France with children and $30 million (small change for a position thought to be worth hundreds of millions two years earlier) from the buyout of Wired by current publisher, Conde Nast, in 1998.

   I have read Wired since its beginning but have tossed my copies. After reading this book I bought a nearly complete set of issues on Ebay for the first seven years (1993-2000), including the premier issue from January 1993, thinking I would enjoy reading some of the early issues again. In any case, they look nice in my library.

   The author is a Wired editor with first-hand knowledge of all but the earliest of Rossetto's years at Wired.
   
   If you are fond of the history of Silicon Valley (as I am), then this is for you. Otherwise there is not much here for the average Joe.

3 comments about The Diary of a Mad Fat Woman: Complete Again.

1. As teenagers, most little girls will keep a diary of some kind, but when they are chronicling their whole life it is not to eventually share, it is to get it off their mind and chest. Leola Stafford shared with the world the diary of Nola Bradford, a woman searching for her life's purpose all the while making the wrong decisions. The Diary of a Mad Fat Woman...Complete Again shows one woman's determination to make a change.
   
   The Diary of a Mad Fat Woman by Leola Stafford is a series of journal entries over the course of many years telling a tale of low self-esteem, constantly making wrong decisions, being overweight and complaining, loving the wrong people too much and the right ones not nearly enough, and finally accepting the only help that would bring her to the next level in her life. Nola, an uneducated, mother of five, and desperately seeking love in all the wrong places tries to find herself. Life was never easy for Nola; her mother was not really a mother and once the only person who showed her any love died, life got worse for her. Her family was comprised of drug addicts, thieves and murderers.
   
   With no proper role models, no one to teach her to respect herself first, Nola was failing miserably at being a mother. She chose a man who had his own addiction over her precious children; the man who stole the few things they had to get his next hit. Would Nola ever look to God for the answers she prayed for every day? Or would she continue to pray for salvation, but turn her head every time God made a way?
   
   The Diary of a Mad Fat Woman...Complete Again by Leola Stafford is a sad look at what African American women or any woman with low self-esteem and no self-respect would sacrifice to find love. However, the sense of determination was eminent throughout. When Nola finally realized she had to depend on God to make a change, positive things began to happen. Aside from the author's need to address the reader, explaining things that should not be explained, the editing needed to be a bit more polished. In the current condition, I cannot comfortably recommend this book. However if you can look past the errors and see to the core of one woman's quest, this is the book for you.
   
   Jennifer Coissiere
   APOOO BookClub



2. This novel is very honest and complete. Leola Stafford's book is not a unique story, but she adds a touch of genious that puts her story above many. Anyone with any struggle should read Diary Of A Mad Fat Woman. It will show you how to get through your challenges of everyday life, conquer your demons and become the strong person that you want to be. I truly applaude this author for her boldness and the generosity to share her diary with others. It will surely help those who seem lost find their way.



3. Very interesting! I could totally relate to the lead character in this book. I have either been through the same things in my life or have friends I've witnessed go through it. Plus, we all have a few family members who grate on our last nerve and have those "special" occupations that don't draw a W2. We just don't talk about them. This book was very funny and down to earth. One minute I am applauding the lead character and the next minute I want to strangle her for her foolish decisions. I experienced a whole range of emotions throughout the book and by the end I was totally rooting for the lead character and her kids to be victorious.

1 comments about Anchoring America.

1. Anchors away? A look at how TV news is changing
   By John Kornacki

   You know it's going to happen, and it's infuriating. The president of the United States has just finished the State of the Union speech, and Tom Brokaw (or Peter Jennings or Dan Rather) will tell you what he just said and what was important. He will say something about the delivery of the speech, too. Though he is trying to be objective and analytical, the selection of key points from a speech is basically a matter of individual judgment; any impression about the delivery is strictly subjective.

   Some viewers are fed up with what they see as a condescending and patronizing attitude expressed by today's news anchors. Others are miffed by perceived bias.

   Either way, if you look at the ratings, more and more viewers are looking at alternatives to the network news offered by the cable channels or by new media like the Internet. Still others tune out to watch Paris Hilton, QVC or anything but the news.

   To blame Brokaw et al. for the falloff is to fault their mentors, the men who pioneered the role of anchorman and set formulas that had worked for a generation or two.

   When John Chancellor or Walter Cronkite summed up key news items and events, we accepted it: "That's the way it is," said Uncle Walter, the most trusted man in America.

   So what happened to television news and the people delivering it over the past 20 years? Did something happen to us? Television journalist Jeff Alan and writer James M. Lane provide some answers to these questions in Anchoring America.

   To understand the modern television anchorman or -woman, one must go back to its creation by a man who didn't think much of TV as a news medium and never really sat in the TV anchor chair: Edward R. Murrow of CBS News. Murrow was a renaissance radioman, as Alan says, "equal parts journalist, celebrity, arranger, composer and keeper of the public trust."

   Murrow's deep voice was a model of finely tuned inflection and measured delivery. It was uniquely American - tough, skeptical and, somehow, soothing. He sounded (and looked) like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. Murrow's great gift, however, was in identifying and organizing talent. He knew newsmen and could get the most out of them. He expanded news programming and enhanced the prestige of CBS.

   From Murrow's team came Eric Sevareid and Charles Collingwood. The other two networks followed similar formats based on the Murrow mold of the trusted journalist-commentator as anchorman.

   The two biggest factors in changing television news came from outside of news. According to Alan and Lane, these factors were entertainment and technology. The first big change began with the innovative Roone Arledge and the success of ABC's Monday Night Football in the early '70s. Arledge proved that new formats and new thinking worked in ways that attracted key audiences. The three-person booth, event programming and edgy commentary evolved into similar audience-attracting experiments with the then moribund ABC News. Young Peter Jennings accelerated his TV journey under Arledge with the initiation of the three-headed "World News Tonight."

   The second change emerged a short time later, from the convergence of two irresistible forces: satellite communications and media mogul Ted Turner. His gamble with CNN changed the news from a daily half-hour summary to a 24-hour ubiquitous display. The news set moved into the newsroom. There were so many "anchors" no one really noticed them anymore. As Alan explains it, "the very premise of a national news audience which gave rise to the evening news in the first place was undermined almost completely."

   We are left with a sobering conclusion: that the "news landscape reflects an increasing tribalism, something we see in the culture at large" with fewer original reports and more personality-driven programs: namely, more interviews with Larry King, more two-sided arguments with Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson and more "perspectives" on the news with Pat Robertson.

   Alan thinks it would be undesirable to lose the traditional anchor, and cites the example of how the anchors comforted the nation in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

   Can we live without anchormen and -women in future? This book will make you ponder that question. Ratings suggest that some of you already have made up your mind.

   John Kornacki is a contributing writer for The Hill.

   Book reviewed:
   Anchoring America: The Changing Face of Network News
   By Jeff Alan with James M. Lane
   426 pages
   Bonus Books, 2003

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

1. 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.



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



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. 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.



5. 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.