4 comments about Some Times in America.

1. If he can make it there, he can make it anywhere. But Alexander Chancellor did not make it in New York, N.Y. -- the British writer was hired in 1995 by then-"New Yorker" Big Cheese Tina Brown to edit the magazine's mythical "Talk of the Town" section, and he failed. Miserably. His book -- the latest to join the rather long list of tomes "celebrating" the fabled magazine's 75th anniversary -- dishes as much dirt as Renata Adler's "Gone: The Last Days of 'The New Yorker'" (the best of the bunch), but Chancellor's Brit wit keeps them tamer -- with himself often the brunt of the jokes. He admits Brown had "her blind spots" and that "maybe appointing me had been one of them." Largely lightweight, sometimes silly, marvelously mocking.



2. I was one of the many New Yorker subscribers who were dismayed at the announcement of Tina Brown's editorship of The New Yorker. This Brit, who came fresh from the glitzy "Vanity Fair", was to be at the helm of our elegant New Yorker? I felt her tenure was a disaster, and the only thing of which I approved was the addition of a much-needed Table of Contents.

   Mr. Chancellor, an English journalist, recounts his recruitment by Ms. Brown and his subsequent year as the editor of the Talk of the Town segment of the magazine. Why Ms. Brown selected a fellow-Englishman for this task is a mystery to us and Mr. Chancellor. The "Talk of the Town" is the heart of The New Yorker, and it is well nigh unimaginable for an editor who is not only a Brit, but had no familiarity with New York City to be in charge.

   The book is enjoyable written with a light, deft, slightly acidic style. Alex is fond of Tina in an edgy way. She is damned with faint praise. He is intrigued by the peculiarities of the New Yorker staff and general outlook. This is nothing new, for the ways of The New Yorker are passing strange.

   Mostly the book recounts the author's adventures, which were first class in every sense of the word. He is on a chummy basis with the richest, the most social and powerful Americans. He is a guest in their homes, on their party lists, and an intimate confidante. When he wishes to have a weekend home in the country, a cottage is provided for him on a huge estate. I read and reread Mr. Chancellor's description on the book jacket and still could not make a connection between his modest attainments and background and his scintillating friends. I am sure he is a very appealing man as he writes in an attractive manner. That charm must carry him a long way.

   If you ever wanted to live the high life for a year on an unlimited expense account, this is your book.




3. A British journalist examines behind the scenes life at the New Yorker magazine in a blend of biography, gossip, Americana and social observation. Some Times in America provides an outsider's view of American culture and New Yorker politics, with a special focus on Tina Brown. A 'must' for any fan of the publication.



4. "Just make it up ", said new Yorker writer Brendan Gill to the author of this book .Following Gill's advide , the Fleet Street celebrity lets us have a view of American journalism as if it was penned by P>G> Wodehouse's Psmith,Journalist . Chancellor's picture of celeb editor Tina Brown is so funny you may need to loosen your clothing before tacking it .He makes no adjustments for American readers.Chanceller views some American institutions such as fact checking as jokes . Hilarious job for those who need to know what the Brits think of the American press .

No comments about About Chekhov: The Unfinished Symphony (SRLT).

3 comments about My Mother's Ghost: A Courageous Woman, a Son's Love, and the Power of Memory.

1. This memoir was about a family tragedy, the first-hand experience of the accident in which his mother died instantly. He had witnessed her fall from a horse directly in front of the horse he was riding. He'd felt guilty and, as a boy of fourteen, he believed that he had killed his mother.
   
   A son never gets over the loss of his mother at a young age. My brother would have been sixteen when our mother died of cancer. My father was having problems adjusting to the death of his first wife (even though it had been a long and horrible way watch her die), and so he took out his pain on Ralph and Cecil. To escape the daily thrashings and humiliation, Ralph got married the next year at the age of seventeen -- to leave a tormented home situation. In 1990 (42 years later), Ralph was dying from emphesema and liver failure when I visited him in the hospital. A nurse came in his room as he and I were alone and conversing (I lived 200 miles from here then), and casually asked him, "When did your pain begin?" The 58-yr-old man sobbed and said "when my mother died."
   
   Like Ralph, Mr. Bordewich became a man overnight and had to cope with an alcoholic father. But life goes on and he lived through the turmoil to become a father himself. His mother (a beautiful person) was an important person, well-known on a national level. Our mother was an abused woman who'd borne nine children (five died at birth) without a doctor's care -- even I, the baby of the family, had been born at home -- and as a result developed cancer of the uterus. In effect, our fahter killed her. I was nine years younger than Ralph; Cecil and I both thought that we would die at the age of 36, our mother's longevity. My mother did not leave a ghost behind; Fergus is lucky to have had her lingering presence to remind him how fleeting life is.
   
   This is much better than ANGELA'S ASHES and more substantial and heartfelt. Those brothers in New York City even considered putting Angela's remains in a garbage bag out for the trash collectors to get.
   
   So much for being a mother of boys -- you devote your young years to be their chaffeur, first teacher, cook, supporter and see that they are properly cared for, and what glory do you have when they are grown with families of their own.
   
   I'm glad his mother was Irish. I've always like to think mine had been, with the blue eyes and light brown hair. We inherited my dad's dark eyes and dark brown hair; his father's family had mixed with the Cherokee Indians of the Smoky Mtns. When my mother was in her casket, they'd pulled her long hair behind her head and I kept asking, why does she look like a man? Such is life for the youngest left behind.
   
   He has written books on diverse subjects, including the Underground Railroad and many articles published in "American Heritage,' 'Smithsonian Magazine,' and 'The Atlantic Monthly' among others. More power to him!



2. This exquisitely crafted memoir so powerfully conveys the author's terrible loss that at times it's almost excruciating, but like the loss itself, the project is redeemed by Bordewich's remarkable writing, suspenseful narrative and indefatigable reportage. It's not just an investigation of his amazing mother and the gaping hole she left in his life, it's also a profound meditation on memory and loss, not to mention a vivid portrait of its times. The book deserves a much wider audience.



3. Fergus Bordewich gives us a beautifully written book that intertwines his mother's story with his own story of obsession, alocoholism and recovery as he comes to terms with her death. LaVerne Madigan was a classical scholar at New York University in the darkest years of the Depression, a member of the Communist Party and writer of sonnets. After her marriage, she was anything but the typical suburban mom, sharing with her young son her love for Latin phrases and compassion for minorities. She took him with her on trips to Indian Reservations as she crisscrossed the country for her job as executive director of the Association on American Indian Affairs. To him, she was a fearless woman who could accomplish anything. Her death in a horseback riding accident when Bordewich was 14 left him devastated. Bordewich takes the reader on a journey first of despair, depression and near suicide and then of recovery. An accomplished writer, he decides to research his mother's life and that of her parents and grandparents, separating truth from family legends. He walks in his mother's footsteps, fingers her papers and sniffs the stains her coffee cups left behind. In the process, he finds healing. He gives us an emotional and engrossing story readers won't want to put down.

2 comments about My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism.

1. Andrew Marr is one of the foremost political journalists of the modern age and in his book "My Trade - A Short History of British Journalism" he covers in a series of what are really essays the development of journalism in Britain.
   
   Where this book comes into it's own is the way in which Marr uses his knowledge and experience as a political journalist to explain the love/hate relationship between politicians and the press; and why both sides act in the way they do.
   
   With plenty of anecdotes this book is a serious but easy to read work that would be of interest to anybody interested either in jornalism or politics.
   
   Strangely for a book of this type there is no index, an omission that has prevented me from giving it top ranking but in all other aspects this is one of the best works of its kind that I have read recently.



2. Marr's trade is journalism, he has been a print journalist, an editor and a BBC political correspondent in Britain for the last twenty years. The book gives an overview of the origins of and current influences on British journalism. The book is witty, informed and eminently readable, as you might expect. Marr doesn't spare us the basic ruthlessness of the trade - his early tasks as a cub reporter involved trying to get details on local crimes and deaths from the grieving next of kin, he later says that he wrote disparagingly of a rising Tory minister - John Patten - who had been a source, and Marr had been a guest at Patton's home.
   The book has a series of chapters - in fact they are long enough to be sections - on print journalism, British newspaper proprietors, Video-journalism, and political and special correspondents. In summary his heart is in print journalism, he thinks the proprietors are in general weird, upwardly mobile outsiders who bring business dynamism to the trade, I think he feels that video journalism is too rehearsed, too controlled by legal obligations to be `real', but it is hugely vivid, and he has both respect and a pleasingly level of scepticism about specialist correspondents, political or foreign.
   Marr feels that the development of political reporting (as opposed to British journalism) in Britain was brought about as much by parliament's need to communicate with potential taxpayers (who may not have been voters) during the time of the Napoleonic Wars, as much as by any ancient rites to free speech. One of the things about the book that I found most enlightening is the role of the editors and subeditors in sourcing the stories which will be printed, I suppose I was always aware that certain newspapers supported certain views - for example you will never find the Economist berating market-based solutions - but I was not aware of the extent to which Editors sent out reporters to find particular stories and `rewrite' the results to suit. Marr became editor of the Independent newspaper in England in the early Nineties, and largely judges himself to have failed at the task. The book carries a huge element of wistfulness for this period, and the life of the editor together with deadlines, financial pressure to attract particular types of readers - `more rolexes, less dead babies', and pressure, pressure, pressure. Marr brings us through the details of putting together a newspaper - the fastest changing news goes last to the printer - so sports are on the back page, the headlines and local news are on the first pages, features and soft news are towards the middle - the first pages printed.
   His views on video journalism are quite pointed and, while the technology is quite awesome and the skills involved are quite different to print, he sees the medium as being focused on the visual and the emotional. He quotes John Birt, a former head of BBC, about the emotional impact of video news driving out analysis, and Marr cites genuine dilemmas in news rooms where the news with the dramatic pictures crowds out stories which, even in the views of the reporters and editors, have more importance. And this view is quite important in the book, one of the best sections of the book comes early on when he asks the fundamental, and ultimately disturbing, question ` What is News?'. His description of how reporters copy each other, how marketing focuses reports on some issues and not on others, and how local news gathering is disappearing in a sea of `pushed' news releases - in particular celebrities' activities.
   In general this is a book worth reading. Marr does not spare his own foibles and failures, there is quite a lot of anecdote and insider-gossip - Raggi Omar, the BBC's correspondent in Baghdad during the latest war landed a book deal supposed worth £850,000; Peter Riddel is the Times correspondent most worth reading on proposed government policy. However ,the main use of the book is the twin questions of what is news and how it is influenced and shaped by unaccountable editors and proprietors. Though Marr offers no answers, this is presented in a interesting form and well worth the time spent.

No comments about Going All the Way: 2.

No comments about Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War.

1 comments about William F. Buckley Jr: A Bibliography.

1. William F. Buckley Jr.: A Bibliography is quite simply a very solid, comprehensive, and superbly presented bibliography of political commentator and social conservative William F. Buckley Jr.'s considerable and extensive body of work, including his articles in various magazines, the National Review, fiction and nonfiction books, reviews of movies, music, and theater, obituaries, essays in books, syndicated newspaper columns, and more. Enhanced with an erudite introduction by William F. Meehan III, William F. Buckley Jr.: A Bibliography is especially recommended for college and public libraries collections, as well as the non-specialist general reader hoping to track down a some particular gem of Buckley's political wisdom.

No comments about William Lindsay White, 1900-1973: In the Shadow of His Father.

2 comments about Another Shot: How I Relived My Life in Less Than a Year.

1. We got the audio book version of this (it is read by the author, and while abridged, runs about 6 hours over 5 cd's). It made for good listening. Do not expect an epiphany. This book does not contain the magic answer to "Life, the Universe, and Everything." Rather it is filled with simple, common sense reminders of what we can do (or try to do) to make life more pleasant and rewarding. Joe Kita takes a look at some of the regretes he has in life, and goes back to address them (with varying levels of success). If nothing else, it is an honest look into the life of another person, and that in itself can be helpful.



2. I picked this book up while I was traveling for work, hoping that it would provide some light entertainment. Well, the entertainment was pretty light. Kita writes for Men's Health magazine, and it shows -- each chapter reads like an article from that magazine, with 9th-grade reading level to match, and for all I know maybe that's where they originated. But even worse than the flaccid dreariness of the prose is now-familiar sound of a boomer struggling with his mortality. Over the course of a year, Kita attempts to resolve lingering regrets from his past. It goes about the way you would expect it to go when a suburban 40-year-old learns to surf or tries to find his old car. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this; it's just not very interesting. Sure, each of us probably should go visit all the churches in our area; the guy who finds the squid-worshipers is the only one who should write about it. Kita reaches unremarkable conclusions which he trumpets like a new gospel of mediocrity: Good sex requires intimacy!! Toupees are silly!! Religion is personal!! I'm giving it one star because I'll give one star to anything I can finish, and because the chapter about PET scanning gratified my sense of hypochondria. Everybody can probably find similar hints of interestingness somewhere in this book, but do be prepared for the aftershock when this overdose of vapid banality finally hits home.

4 comments about Mistress of Manifest Destiny: A Biography of Jane McManus Storm Cazneau, 1807-1878.

1. I am related to General William L.Cazneau 1807-1876 and his wife Jane McManus Cazneau 1807-1878, the subject of this book. I met the author in November 1999 in Texas. A great amount of research has gone in to this book and it took years to collect it all. I am a direct descendent of General Thomas Nugent Cazneau 1812-1873 of California, brother of William. I am sending copies to libraries and friends. God Bless You !!



2. History is a passion of mine and this book is so very good. I can not imagine how long it took to do all this research. It gave me a different understanding of our government history. Just to think if our politions had had the foresight that Jane McManus and Aaron Burr had, Cuba, Doninican Republic, and Mexico just to name a few, could have been States today. I would love to have been Jane because she was so smart and brave. I found her one of the most fascinating persons in history. I loved this book.



3. History is a passion of mine and this book is so very good. I can not imagine how long it took to do all this research. It gave me a different understanding of our government history. Just to think if our politions had had the foresight that Jane McManus and Aaron Burr had, Cuba, Doninican Republic, and Mexico just to name a few, could have been States today. I would love to have been Jane because she was so smart and brave. I found her one of the most fascinating persons in history. I loved this book.



4. Linda Hudson has done a wonderful job of following the travels and trials of Jane McManus Storm Cazneau from her youth in New York to her involvement in Texas land deals in the 1830's and her mission to Mexico City in the midst of the Mexican War in the 1840's to her life in Eagle Pass, Texas, (which she somehow did not at first realize was literally the middle of no where) to her exploits in Cuba and her return to New York City to play a role in the presidential campaign of 1852.

   She has shown the complexity of the politics of the times especially as they relate to the question of slavery and its expansion into Texas. She has also related the very complicated life of a woman who was liberated long before being a liberated woman was considered cool. In doing so, she has created a far more complex view of society in the United States in the middle of the 19th century than many historians have uncovered...or been willing to admit to having uncovered.

   It is a wonderful trip into the history not only of the United States but also of Mexico and the Caribbean that she has taken with Jane Cazneau and that she allows the reader to share.