3 comments about Portrait of the Artist As a Young Dog,.

1. This memoir is painful, beautiful, rugged. He shows himself to be proud, horrid, loving, sentimental. It is a small collection of short, powerful stories that span from childhood to young adulthood. He refers to himself at times in first person, other times in third (so you have to pay attention!). Growing into manhood, observing others and being observed. He expresses experiences of personal pride and humiliation with equal relish. Portraits of others in his life are humorous, admiring and at times sad. Hanging out with odd-balls; learning about women. It may have been a simpler time for technology, but the emotional struggles, the economic realities, the physical exertion required in a life in early 20th century Wales were harsh. All-in-all, this book is unforgettable.



2. I would rather read this book than any by James Joyce. Thomas may be remembered for his wonderful poems, but his short pieces are, under no circumstances, to be ignored.

   Thomas writes of his youth, which is a subject that many writers have attempted to write about, and where they fall short he excells. The stories are nothing but fun. Actually, they are more than fun; they are often beautiful. By all means, READ THIS!




3. It's been a while since I read this book, but I wanted to be the first one to review!! The book was filled with small excerpts from Dylan Thomas' life, many of which dealt with surreal type encounters. The first part of the book seemed to lag somewhat, but the last story got me hooked and then ended in a very odd way, which was really cool. Maybe I shouldn't be writing this, I'm no lit expert. I'd reccommend it though.

5 comments about Finding My Voice.

1. I think Diane Rehm is a talented radio host. I appreciate that she has had a long and interesting career, however, being a radio host and being an author are definitely not one and the same. Ms. Rehm's revelations of insecurity, marital discord, marital sex, and the rest, felt just too embarassing. Her perspective is whiny and immature and completely uninspiring. I kept wishing I could have been a wise and dear friend that stopped her from writing this book.I shudder each time I think of her (literary) indiscretion.



2. Even more incredible and galling than her first "literary masterpiece" is volume two of "My Life for Sale." While I am not near retirement age, I can only hope that I can continue to write, challenge and generally annoy media and ruling class types like Diane Rehm who don't know when to quit. Despite the fact that I am in my mid-50s, I play drums in a rock and rock band and hope to have the manual dexterity to continue. Yet, I hope I have the grace and sense to bow out when it becomes medically necessary. Instead of gracefully bowing off the air, Diane Rehm prefers a regimen of shots to the throat at Johns Hopkins.

   "Towards Commitment" sounds like someone who has been married for a long time but is still unsure. I remember listening to a segment of Diane's show in which she interviewed an author of a book on infidelity. On the air, she stated that if she ever caught her husband cheating, she would ...If I was married to her (heaven forbid), and she said something like that about me, I would have divorced her immediately.

   "Towards Commitment" sounds like someone still struggling with whether or not they want to be manacled together with another person when there are so many nubile 18 years old about the land.

   It is difficult to imagine that anyone could stoop so low as to think that their life is of such enormous interest to anyone else that one would pay good money to read about their trials and tribulations. Selling one's life in the pages of a book means that with everything happening in the world, with all of one's life, having lived through momentous events, that the only subject worthy of literary attention is your sorry life and how your struggling "Toward Commitment."

   Maybe the authors ought to be committed and this ridiculous effort committed to the bargain basement.




3. "Finding My Voice" is one of those books whose content is intimately intertwined with the author. I cannot review such a book without commenting on the author. Such a book proves that "celebrity" authors, such as Ms. Rehm, make it that much more difficult for those of us struggling for the attention of publishers and "Rick Reynolds, Super Hollywood Power Agents" and trying to put important words on paper.

   I am sorry that Ms. Rehm had a terrible childhood and has seen fit to forsake her Lebanese heritage in favor of entertaining Zionists on her radio program as they justify the slaughter of Palestinian men, women and children for the continuation of the Zionist entity and for the dubious and questionable Biblical justifications allowing such slaughter.

   A stroke of luck brought Ms. Rehm's now trembly voice to NPR (National Police Radio) and Washington, D.C.'s WAMU. Ms. Rehm, a high school graduate, took the place of a volunteer for an on-air slot leaving listeners to suffer with her apologetic, non-confrontational, Larry King-type program where she, as former station manager Kim Hodgson remarked engages in "positive, unconditional regard" for guests. This means that when she entertains guests such as war criminal Henry Kissinger and former national security advisor Sandy Berger she allows them to lie on the air unchallenged by her, who refuses to do so, or callers, whom she cuts off the air. I have been the victim of such terminations, despite the fact the WAMU, which is subsidized by American University student tuition and the American taxpayer through NPR, a U.S. government controlled entity. Despite this policy, Ms. Rehm attacked a guest, Gore Vidal, for being homosexual, hardly a fitting policy when your a supposed liberal. When Noam Chomsky appeared on AU's campus, Ms. Rehm, who at first refused, then was forced to allow Mr. Chomsky to appear on her program. She was unable to attack him because of his superior intellect and cogent arguments.

   I believe that the American reading public should stop subsidizing the lifestyles of the rich and ridiculous by refusing to buy such claptrap as "Finding My Voice." I believe that writing should say something to the reader. it is a literary and social contract whereby the author agrees to provide something new and original that will educate and entertain. "Finding My Voice" is not a retirement program for the already wealthy living in a two story, red brick colonial home in Bethesda, Maryland and counting members of Washington's ruling and media elite as friends. How about Knopf giving real writers a chance for a change?




4. Believe me, I am a devoted fan of Diane Rehm's. She is the most articulate, knowledgable, talented talk show host in the country. Thus I was disappointed by her autobiography. Of course, because her outstanding talent is interviewing, I guess I can't expect her to be a brilliant writer as well.

   I thought she harped on her sad childhood too much. Over and over again she blames her mother--and her father less so--for emotionally crippling her entire life. Many of us have had less than happy childhoods, and many of us have suffered some type of abuse, but most of us get over it--or at least don't go around continually blaming our flaws on our parents and/or childhood. I certainly didn't expect Diane Rehm to do so. She seems much too mature and wise for that.

   The other disappointment I have is the writing itself, which is not as smooth and polished as it should be. (Where was the editor?) There's also some repetition of passages from one chapter to another, as if the author had forgotten she had said this same thing earlier in the book.




5. As a big fan of "The Diane Rehm Show," I guess I'm somewhat biased, but I truly think this is an excellent, honest, heartfelt book. In "Finding My Voice," Diane comes across as the same admirable person we all know from her radio talk show --honest, direct, curious (about ideas and above all about people), down-to-earth, warm, caring, determined (even stubborn) and - despite her lack of a college degree (who cares?!?) - highly intelligent. In my opinion, the really interesting parts of the book deal less with Spasmodic Dysphonia than with: 1) Diane growing up as a girl in a traditional Arab-American family in the 1940s and early 1950s with a depressed, anxious, abusive mother; 2) the obstacles (professional, personal) which Diane -- and many talented young women -- were forced to overcome to achieve something for themselves in the male-dominated society of the 1950s and 1960s; 3) Diane "finding her voice" in a growing radio career, and in a broader sense the overall growth of talk radio - for better ("The Diane Rehm Show" and others where people can have a civilized discussion and actually are encouraged to think for themselves) and for worse (Rush Limbaugh and "Dr. Laura" - blech - where people berate each other, preach to each other, or mindlessly "ditto" the host); and 4) Diane's constant struggles to overcome deepseated feelings of insecurity and of not being worthy, despite (or even fueled by) her growing outward success.

   Besides that, there are also some memorable moments with some really bizarre/obnoxious guests - Tony Randall and Tom Clancy stand out in particular - and some really excellent ones - Race Hoss and Jimmy Carter, for instance. And unlike many celebrity autobiographies, in "Finding My Voice" this does not come across -- at least to me -- like mere gratuitous name dropping. Instead, they are an integral part of Diane's story, illustrating some of the best and worst which she has faced in her radio career.

   Finally, "Finding my Voice" shows us that -- whatever she may feel about herself (and whether or not she'll ever truly believe it) -- Diane Rehm IS an amazing person who deserves every bit of success and happiness she has achieved in her life. I'm just thankful that Diane finally DID manage to "find her voice," and hope that she doesn't lose it for years and years to come! P.S. Thank goodness for public radio -- and for everyone who supports it!

5 comments about Yo Soy la Hija de Mi Padre: Una Vida Sin Secretos.

1. self serving and extremely boring. i still can't figure out why i was given this book as a present.... maybe they are not really my friend!



2. Esta es una de las autobiografias mas sorprendentes y al mismo tiempo encantadoras porque describe la historia de amor de sus papas como muy linda. Sufrida por parte de los dos, porque tuvieron que dejarlo todo y vivir en un lugar y en otro, cuidandose y protegiendo a sus hijas y mantiendolas alejadas de su propia familia.



3. Story of a woman's pursuit of her father's previous life before marriage to her mother, and consequent discovery of his secrets and his whole side of her family.



4. Atrapa tu atencion y te lleva sin esfuerzo a traves de una historia que no queres que termine por diferente y culturalmente interesante; con situaciones que a veces te podes identificar. A pesar de algunos errores de redaccion, fue un placer leerlo en espanol.



5. This book is her own autobiographical sketch from the viewpoint of a daughter of an immigrant, journalist and social commentator; she puts together her whole as a person and brings the reader down to the conclusion that as an individual we are what are parents shaped us to be. As a reporter she documents and researches her family roots that she thought she knew until her fathers best friend gives her fathers box of secrets, then and there she realizes that she really didn't know who her father really was. From that point on she goes through a chilling journey of discovering her own roots and eventhough she doesn't find all the correct answers , every step of the way she discovers more about herself and how important family values are for the individual. This is my own conclusion from her readings, we are who we are do to our predessesors.

5 comments about But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous.

1. I am from New Jersey so I was thrilled to read a memoir about "one of my own" become as successful as Jancee has become in the world of reporting. Once I got my hands on it I loved the New Jersyisms as well as the wonderful writing of her life as a writer. This book is perfect for anyone who is down in the dumps and needs a good laugh. Jancee knows how to deliver :)



2. I waited a while before I purchased this book. It was definitly worth the wait



3. You do not need to be from Jersey to love this book. Anyone who spent their adolescence cultivating a thin, fragile veneer of coolness to cover an inner dork will relate to Jancee. I did not want this book to end. I can't wait for the follow-up on the rest of Jancee's life. Funny, touching, and entirely real. (Just like a true Jersey girl!)



4. I loved this book! I loved the throwbacks to old fashion, Jersey-Hair, and general 90's quips. I laughed a lot. The pieces on celebrities were like a bonus of reading a trashy tabloid inside a novel. It was unlike what I normally read, it was refreshing and very enjoyable!!



5. I picked this book up because of the cover. I loved seeing 80's hair do and I read the back to find it amusing enough to buy. I never really knew who Jancee Dunn was before I read her book.
   
   I enjoyed the quick read and liked how it bounced between her family and her work, it is a story of someone my age(36) and it mirrored experiences of coming of age during the 80's and early 90's. I loved it.
   
   Heartwarming and honest

1 comments about Means Of Escape: A War Correspondent's Memoir of Life and Death in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Vietnam.

1. I'm going to post the Publisher Comments and also the Kirkus Reviews here because it will better tell you what this book is about and because there are no other reviews and I'm a lousy reviewer. I've read A Rumor of War (loved), Horn of Africa (loved), Delcorso's Gallery (didn't care for), The Voyage (Loved), Acts of Faith (loved) and of course Means of Escape (Loved)
   Mr. Caputo's been through some mighty harrowing experiences in his life as a war correspondent and soldier. I love his writing and his views.
   
   
   Publisher Comments:
   Philip Caputo has been a witness to the most important struggles of our time, from the hot green hell of Vietnam to the dusty mountains of Afghanistan and the bloodstained streets of Beirut. In Means of Eascape, Caputo intersperses imaginative retellings of events he witnessed with true accounts of how he became a writer, and what happened when he was sent to some of the most dangerous places in the world. He begins with his childhood and budding career in Chicago. Soon after, he was deep in the Sinai Peninsula searching for the last authentic Bedouin, and reporting from the front lines of the Yom Kippur War. In an eerie parallel to journalist Daniel Pearl's tragic murder, Caputo was held hostage for a week by Islamic extremists while reporting in Beirut. Caputo's palpable descriptions of the captors and fellow cellmates in this razor-thin existence are as compelling as any escape stroy before or since. As he emerged from captivity, Peter Jennings congratulated him on his eventual escape, and on the Pulizer Prize he'd won while imprisoned. While continuing his work as a reporter in Beirut, he was singled out by a sniper, and received a bullet in his ankle and a chunk of wall in his head. In Afghanistan in the 1980s, he joined the Mujahideen for a clandestine mission and was nearly captured by Soviet forces. Few authors have put themselves so squarely in the center of the 20th century's great conflicts, and even fewer can describe what they saw as well as Philip Caputo does in this important memoir. (6 x 9, 416 pages)Philip Caputo is the author of the New York Times best-seller A Rumor of War and three novels: Indian Country, DelCorso's Gallery, and Horn of Africa. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 as part of an investigative team for the Chicago Tribune, and his coverage of his experience as a captive of Palestinian guerrillas won him the Overseas Press Club's George Polk Citation.
   
   Kirkus Reviews
   An intensely personal, albeit consistently affecting and frequently riveting memoir of years of living dangerously. Caputo (A Rumor of War, Indian Country, etc.) has witnessed much of the worst violence that marked the latter half of the 20th century. A combat veteran of Vietnam, he went on to cover trouble spots throughout the Third World as a roving correspondent for The Chicago Tribune. Describing himself as drawn to history (if not to the sound of the guns), the globe-trotting author has reported on insurgency in Eritrea, civil strife in Lebanon, Israel's October War, the fall of Saigon, and a host of lesser belligerencies. Looking for a "good war" several years after having quit the journalism trade, Caputo accepted an assignment from Esquire that took him deep behind Soviet lines in Afghanistan. Venturesome to the point of rashness, he has paid the price of boldness on many occasions. Though he made it through Vietnam without a physical scratch, for example, the author was imprisoned by Palestinian guerrillas in Beirut and later sustained severe wounds (at the hands of Christian militia) in the same city, leaving him with a still-painful limp. Peacefully settled in one place now, he's content to let a workroom window overlooking a salt marsh on the Long Island Sound serve as his new means of escape. Caputo nonetheless looks back on his days as a rolling stone with some relish and few apparent regrets. Indeed, he retains a rueful sense of barracks humor neatly summarized in an ultrarude anecdote whose moral is: "the final indignity is that there is no final indignity." An episodic, impressionistic, and dead-honest narrative that affords memorable as well as consequentialinsights into a chaotic era's noteworthy conflicts.

2 comments about Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist: Writings from the Ozarks.

1. I cannot help but pour forth great excitement and delight in a book I just picked up titled Laura Ingalls Wilder: Farm Journalist, edited by Stephen Hines. Any American worth their salt knows Wilder as the author of the "Little House" books. I myself cut my book-reading teeth devouring these books time and time again, always dreaming of being a modern-day pioneer homesteader.
   
   Before book-writing fame came to Wilder, she was known through the state of Missouri as a popular columnist in the Missouri Ruralist from 1911 to 1923. This book gathers nearly two hundred of these essays together for our profit. Ingalls wrote about home, agriculture, thrift, parenting, women's roles, etc., and gave readers an endless supply of pithy advice and personal anecdotes. She was Erma Bombeck, Will Rogers, Samuel Clemens, and Ben Franklin all rolled into one.
   
   Ingalls' eyes were wide open to the advancements of the future, all the while seeking to keep her hands on the best of the "old ways". For example, in a clip called "Let's Revive the Old Amusements", she writes:
   "Sometimes I wonder if telephones and motor cars are altogether blessings for country people. When my neighbor can call me up for a short visit over the phone, she is not so likely to make the necessary effort to come and spend the afternoon, and I get hungry for the sight of her face as well as the sound of her voice."
   
   However, Ingalls was not a sentimentalist in regard to the past. She says:
   "Love and service, with a belief in the future and expectation of better things in the tomorrow of the world is a good working philosophy; much better than, `in olden times-things were so much better when I was young.' For there is no turning back nor standing still; we must go forward, into the future, generation after generation toward the accomplishment of the ends that have been set for the human race."
   
   Historians, fans of Little House, farmers, and children will all enjoy this book.



2. Now in a revised edition that adds forty-two additional articles and restores passages previously omitted from other articles, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Farm Journalist: Writings from the Ozarks assembles essays written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957), which originally appeared in the "Missouri Ruralist" between 1911 and 1924. Best known for her classic novel "Little House on the Prairie", which she would later publish in 1935, Wilder was also seasoned in political, relationship, and practical matters. Her essays range from how women could be equal partners with their husbands, how they should stay true to their new freedoms including the recently won right to vote, how to maintain traditional family values in a rapidly changing world, and much more, as well as relatively mundane tasks such as raising chickens and managing one's time. New articles in this edition include "Making the Best of Things", "Economy in Egg Production", "Spic, Span, and Beauty", "Magic in Plain Foods", and more. A singularly wonderful portrait of a beloved woman's wisdom; though Wilder was indeed a product of her time, many of the insights contained are truly transcendent. Highly recommended.

No comments about Lincoln's White House Secretary: The Adventurous Life of William O.Stoddard.

5 comments about Give Me a Break.

1. Many do not understand the phenomenon that is Libertarianism, a political philosophy which is greatly like that that of the Democratic-Republicans of our nation's Founding Fathers, the thought of John Stuart Mill, and - to a lesser and slightly more conservative degree - that of Edmund Burke. Too infrequently do Americans even breach the subject of political philosophy with any depth, primarily thanks to our general tendency for pragmatism (if we are being positive) and superficiality (in a more negative sense). Stossel's light-hearted text does not aim to be a treatise on Libertarian thought but does function - in a wholly American style - to broach the subject of this political philosophy through concrete examples in his exodus from "social liberalism" (which is often just called liberalism today) to classical liberalism, that of the Libertarian.
   
   Stossel begins with his common, gut-level misperceptions of what the direction and aim of consumer reporting is. Though a series of stories, he came to realize that much of the sensationalizing which the media was doing (and the people were consuming) was nothing more than fear-mongering which actually diverted a great deal of attention from more important matters. In addition, this fear-mongering takes on a character of duplicity by both excoriating large entities (business and government) while calling for the same entities to take action (particularly government). From a series of such realizations, he came to realize that much common sense is found in the political philosophy of Libertarianism, in its dual pillars of laissez-faire capitalism and individual liberty. He proceeds in a non-comprehensive way to show that such freedom has been beneficial, particularly in the elimination of material poverty.
   
   Peppered with other light considerations of the meaning of liberty, Stossel's book serves as an excellent, albeit very, very light, introduction into Libertarian thought for American readers. It is engaging and enjoyable, therefore coming with my high recommendations in an age which has lost much zeal for liberty.



2. I bought this book in this election year as a gamble. I'm pretty tired of the mud-slinging that replaces argument in most "popular" books about the current state of American society - it always seems to come down to Democrat vs. Republican - no in-between or alternate stances. Stossel, however, has done an honest and thoughtful job of it, from a unique, long-standing, and privileged position (privileged in the sense of being an eye-witness). This is not a political treatise favoring one party over another. It is altogether something different. I highly recommend it. It will make you think and look around.



3. [Helpful? Not? Please vote.] :: This was as much "fun" as I've had with a book lately. I consumed it in one sitting, and was genuinely interested and engaged the whole time. A few of my (accepted) beliefs were tested, and turned on their ear by this guy's book. I love to see his TV segments because his style is so frank and down-to-earth. I don't need anyone to make me feel better about what they're saying while they're saying it. I prefer a sincere exchange of ideas, and if we need to discuss how we should feel about the delivery, that comes later. Stossel's writing style is much the same as his speaking style, clear and 'to-the-point' (no stuttering, which is a problem I never noticed he had...). He does not fall into the "verbosity-trap" many writers do, and instead misses few opportunities for brevity. A diciplined love for the sight and sound of his own words is something I particularly admire about Stossel. He seems to think a clearly-expressed few are most beautiful.
   
   Agree or disagree, based on style or content or even organization... That's for you to decide. I would suggest that you prepare to do some research to prove him wrong. If you just wanna disagree on principle, there are plenty of opportunities in this book where the author challenges the herd's wisdom. His premise that freely available legal recourse actually damages freedom of the individual and opportunities and innovations is my absolute *favorite* of his pet theories. You realize again for the first time why there are so many lawyer jokes ... not all of them are good people. Read this book! It won't cost you much time or even money at this point, and it's the easiest and most engaging read of it's kind I've seen in a while. It doesn't get bogged down in exhaustive minutia, but rather gives you lots of things to start thinking about, and then YOU can dig deeper if you want to into whichever of the topics interest you most. It was in my public library, and took me less than a day to read. You might disagree w/ Stossel, but you won't get bored with this book. Cheers!



4. This is a great book. In his wonderful style, Stossel subjects commonly-held assumptions, common scams, scares, and media lies, the government, and a lot of other stuff to whithering skepticism. Discover why everything you know (or, at least, a lot of it) is wrong.
   
   It's funny how people are willing to be very skeptical of businesses but aren't willing to turn that same skepticism on the government. Stossel manages to do that and argues that the expansion of the government hurts consumers much more than it helps them. A lot of people have this idea of a benevolent government saving us from big, bad industry, but this isn't true at all, as Stossel quiet ably shows.
   
   I'd recommend ignoring the one-star reviews of this book. Stossel answers most of their "objections" in the book, and one of the reasons he wrote this book was to refute a lot of those types of claims.
   
   This book is a must-read for those who are concerned about the expansion of the state. Then again, if you're not concerned, you should definitely read this book, because this book shows that you should be. This book shows how government regulation hurts consumers by raising prices, stifling innovation, and much more. Gives plenty of examples of government stupidity. This book is great reading and provides an excellent introduction to many of the key ideas of the libertarian philosophy of government. This book is very well written and highly entertaining; there's not a dull moment to be found. Highly recommended.



5. As someone who has been in the media for more than 20 years, and has developed a niche in debunking the horribly inaccurate, irresponsible and downright sloppy use of statistics in the media and beyond, this book was a refreshing piece of common-sense journalism. I highly recommend it especially to anyone considering a career, or already embarked on a career, in journalism or any communications endeavor.

5 comments about Travels with Myself and Another: A Memoir.

1. This is a book of Gellhorns recollections of trips thru China, Africa and Africa.
   Her writing is such,... so lacking in substance that you feel she is making it up. It doesn't feel genuine. PLUS! and here's the real killer... SHE DOESN'T REMEMBER!. All through the book she states how she doesn't remember this or that, so often that the whole book comes onto question. The trip to China with her then husband Ernest Hemingway was a total blow out. She wasn't sure about anything.
   The second story, her first trip to Africa, was the best in the bunch.
   The last trip to Africa was totally unbelievable. Fiction.
   
   She can not remember enough to make a coherent record of her journeys.
   
   Also for someone who loves to travel and has spent her life doing so all around the world-- she has no camera! No interest in them. No pictures.
   
   I've also read 'The View from the Ground' and wasn't impressed.



2. This is a truly delightful read...Gellhorn's wit and courage shine through. Her observations and insight are so interesting. You will enjoy this book.



3. As a traveller and a reader, this is one of the best books i have read in a very long time.



4. One of the finest books I have read on the subject of travel, in a class with the best of Theroux and Chatwin. Take on your next trip along with a battered straw hat..!



5. This wonderful travelogue of "bad trips" to politically important places takes the reader on an incredible range of journeys to many world hot and "cold" war spots. China and a meeting with Communist leaders in hiding during WWII (with the writer's then husband (Ernest Hemingway) looming large but quietly in the background and a poignant trip to an aging Russian writer in the days of Soviet rule transport us through time and space. Martha Gellhorn, as journalist and fiction writer, needs to be "recovered" with the very best of war correspondents of any gender and the adventuresome and unbelievably courageous woman travelers of the 20th century. The section on Gellhorn's travels in Africa, because it is so "honest" and forthright on matters of race, will strike some as politically incorrect, but her descriptions of modes of transport, race, missionaries and the search for exotic animals are among the most vivid anywhere. This book moves the reader -- through time and space, brain and heart.

5 comments about The Badge: Thoughts from a State Trooper.

1. Wow - what a book! An absolute "must read" for EVERYONE - not just law enforcement officers (but should be compulsory reading for them!!). A rare blend of excitement, humour, action, honesty and humility. One of the best books I have ever read (and I read a lot of books!!). I can't recommend it highly enough.



2. This book is the first book in a long while that I picked up and never put down until I read it from cover to cover. Jim's words and stories make you feel at home with the book. This is "the real stories of the highway patrol." I can't wait to get the rest of Jim's books



3. This book is simply the most endeared book in my vast "law enforcement"
   collection. Jim Geeting is instantly your best friend. Reading his words
   is like having him at your kitchen table, coffee in hand, with a very
   warm, comfortable atmosphere!



4. Thank you, Trooper Geeting - you made me realize why I got into this profession - and why I need to stay. You also showed many of our "customers" a side that is rarely seen. Keep up the good work!



5. Cops are People, Too!
   By John De Haven

   Happily, it's still possible to find your way to a good book now and then. And once in a while you can get lucky, and a good book will just sort of find its way to you. That's what just happened to me!

   We've all heard the jaded expression "You can't put it down." You know what I mean. You sometimes get that feeling of connection with the author or with the story (or both!) and adjust your posture, reload your beverage and maybe sink a little deeper into the couch with the welcome and soothing thought: "This is good. This just feels good. He's talking to me here, and I can tell I'm gonna like this." With some good books, it can happen early on. Sometimes, if it is to happen at all, it can take a little longer.

   In Jim Geeting's new one, "The Badge - Thoughts from a State Trooper," (McKenna Publishing Group) it happened to me in the first few seconds. No, I don't mean somewhere in the first chapter; it happened earlier than that. I didn't get any farther than the dedication where the author acknowledges his beautiful wife and young sons before I had a tear in my eye and solid confidence in my certainty that Jim's book was going to be a pleasure.

   Here, in the dedication, Geeting speaks to his sons, saying in part:

   You took a cop's blackened soul
   And taught it the joy of wrestling, giggles and unconditional love
   Of camp outs, good jokes and the wonder in a bug or a rock.
   Of the hero I could be - simply by being a good dad
   I dreamed of you both, long before God sent you.

   Oh, yeah? Please pass the Kleenex!

   Author Geeting is a veteran cop, a trooper with the Wyoming Highway Patrol. For some time he has written a column, "The Badge," which appears regularly in largest circulation newspapers in Wyoming. Bearing the same title, his book is a digest of some of Jim's (and his publisher's, no doubt) favorites from among a couple years' worth of these columns. Whether sorting out broken cars and bodies at the scene of a wreck, lecturing those who might choose to drink and drive or fail to buckle up, or basking in the pleasures of the school spelling bee or in any of the many places and experiences in between, each savory nugget in the banquet of a cop's and a family man's life can be consumed in barely a minute or two. But like the best of Thanksgiving feasts, the pleasure derived has a way of lasting.

   Trust me. The reading is the easy part. It's the pondering of the practical simplicity of this cop's ways and wisdom that brings the reward. Indeed, the digesting and enjoying of the nearly 75 columns included in his book (yes, I counted!) represent a much more touching and longer-lasting experience.

   Early on, I had the good luck to recognize Geeting's anthology was, for me anyway, really something of a confession... a generous slice of the "stuff" of law enforcement we on the outside always want to know - not what happens in the legislature or in meetings when the brass get together but, rather, the stuff that unfolds or (on a bad day) explodes out there in the street. Easily, modestly, credibly and with a refreshing clarity, Geeting conveys his genuine love and respect -- both for his chosen profession and for his colleagues and brethren within it. Most often citing examples from his lengthy experience behind the badge, he invites us to see it from his side.

   And there, on the inside, we are offered this good cop's view of many of the familiar and not-so-familiar facts, routines, surprises, fears and follies that conspire to make the on-duty life of a law enforcement officer so exciting, interesting, satisfying, humorous, rewarding, dangerous, at times sickening, heart breaking, misunderstood, under-appreciated, frustrating, occasionally frightening, and yet always so absolutely essential to our safety and the quality of life most of us enjoy every day.

   Still, that's only part of why I'm lucky "The Badge - Thoughts from a State Trooper" found its way to me. Jim Geeting is much more than the stereotypical policeman. He is also the perfect blend of hard-hearted cop, all business and always steeled against publicly showing feelings or emotion, and the kind of family man that you and I wish we could be, adoring and adored by his wife and children. In one particularly memorable vignette, Geeting describes how his wife and (now teenage) sons are both his motivation and his satisfaction, in the end acknowledging: "They and our home are not the reason for my armor, they are my armor."

   In fact, I'm not certain whether this new book is more about a humble and devoted and decent citizen, a family man who happens to be a cop or about a cop who is still married to his first wife and who views his role as a father and husband as the most important and satisfying in his or anybody's life. That's not to suggest it matters; it doesn't. Time and again, the insights into each are presented with a persuasive and almost irresistible clarity and candor.

   I promise you... Jim Geeting will grab hold of your heart, too! Many of his commentaries, brief though they may be individually, favor readers with a look at this "other" side where he reveals his gentle nature, his appealing yet hair trigger sensitivity, his vulnerability and his extraordinary love of and desire to protect children. His recognition of and determination to preserve as best he can the innocence and ultimate worthiness of every child, is a subject visited several times in "The Badge's" 130 pages.

   So get comfortable, be sure the Kleenex is nearby and pick up "The Badge - Thoughts from a State Trooper." You'll catch Jim Geeting's message all right. Or it'll catch you!

   And when you're finished reading this one, don't take it to the book barrel at church. Put it on the shelf by your easy chair or atop the magazine pile in the pearl room. Keep it nearby. You'll want to read it again.

   I did.