Newspapers Books

very true. Humor is the best thing that we invented. The book is easy reading and the laughs are many.

I think "Laughing Matters: Selected Columns by Humorist Pam Robbins" is one of the funniest humor books I have ever read. It is a collection of columns, each about one of the writer's simple experiences. What made it so funny? They were all experiences that I could relate to...things that had also happened to me. Robbins has a way of pointing out how funny these everyday things are - I love her take on life. My favorite in the collection was about how she would spend winnings from the lottery (my favorite line: "Give 10 minutes notice, then clear out my desk and throw its contents into the trash can; go home to count my money and watch TV round the clock." I was also tickled by the ones about keeping state troopers entertained; buying a package of rags; answering machine mishaps, and borrowed siblings. I liked this book so much, I bought copies of it for my friends and relatives for Christmas. Who can't use a few laughs??

Not only have I read this book several times, I've also had the opportunity to meet Pam Robbins in person, and she's NOT as funny as she thinks she is....she's FUNNIER! This collection of columns is bound to strike a familiar chord with everyone who reads it. My particular favorite is the column about her gall bladder operation...just as long as they didn't remove her funny bone! I'm giving this as a Christmas gift to all of my friends!

In this book, Pam Robbins takes a look at our everyday foibles and makes them something to laugh about. For example, in one particularly funny column she writes about the antics of a law-abiding woman who is caught driving behind a state trooper on her way to work, and how her guilt reflex causes her to make a clown of herself! Each story offers something to laugh about and something to think about. And ... it makes for a great gift book. What more could you ask?

For more than 20 years, Pam Robbins has been telling readers in Western Massachusetts that when all else fails, as it frequently does, laughing matters. She takes on some of the most important issues of the day and wrestles them to the ground -- state police, low-fat holidays, relatives, what to do when you win the lottery (my personal favorite), surviving major surgery. She's not knee-slapping, roll-in-the-aisle funny; she's sneak up on your funnybone from behind funny; call up your best friends and read it to them over the telephone funny, get you through the day funny. All I can say is, Look out world, here comes Pam Robbins!!!

The Nisei soldier was very well written. I enjoyed reading the personal interviews as they gave insight to what people were really thinking. The book kept my interest because it was told more in the sense of a story than just in factual information put on a page. I was really able to get a better understanding of WWII (results, consequences, causes).

I am a homeschooler using this book to enrich my children's understanding of history. This book presents valuable Japanese prespectives that are not discussed in mainstream education. All of the foreign terms are clearly explained, and the book is very easy to understand. I highly reccomend this book for anyone who is interested in gaining a unique insight into World War II and the Korean War!

In The Nisei Solder: Historical Essays On World War II And The Korean War, Edwin Nakasone draws upon his expertise having taught Asian-American and World War II history from more than 25 years to write a highly informative account of Japanese-American soldiers called "Nisei", who fought to defend American interests, despite discrimination accorded them and their families by the people and government of the United States. The narrative text is rich in descriptive detail, based on Nakasone's own experiences (he served as a Nisei in the U.S. Army's occupation forces in Japan at the end of the war), supplemented with extensive interviews with Nisei soldiers. In addition to offering the reader an informative Japanese-American perspective, Nakasone's essays also explore the Japanese perspectives on World War II not often available to an American reader. The Nisei Solder is a very highly recommended addition to any personal, professional, academic, or community library World War II history collection.

The Nisei Soldier is a fascinating, fast moving account of major historical events. It is chronicled in such a way that one sees the faces of the protagonists and feels the psychological impact on them--ideal reading particularly for those interested in the contributions of the Nisei to our country's wars. I was a replacement with the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regiment. The Vosges Mountain campaign in France was my initiation into combat as an infantry-man. It was awful, with steel and tree splinters raining down on us--it was hell.

The book Nisei Soldier is a very good and interesting book. The subject matter is interesting, and put together correctly so that the book flows. It is really easy to understand and follow. It is very readable because it is so easy to understand, and because any unfamiliar word or japanese phrase is described in good detail.

It is the issues brought up in Fife's memoir which current publications are often bursting with haste to bury: war, the social impact of art, the mixing of art and social reality, how individuals can have influence on their locale and their times. Each and every one of these themes, as well as other illuminated briefly in Fife's text, are what most readers will not find readily available at their local newsstands and megalithic bookstores. Fife concerns herself with true grassroots publication: the story of one journal. It is fitting that another press, grassroots and from the same region, would publish a text honoring its literary parent. It is honorable and rare that such a press would do so just when we need to remember this history and just when corporate publishing is so intent on forgetting.

Let's see: A materialistic, smugly self-satisfied culture, spying on its own citizens; a nation stuck in a useless war; young people searching for meaning in a culture that discourages non-conformity. Sound familiar? It should because that was then (the period of this book) and NOW. Everything recounted in this book has a current parallel and after reading it, you will ask, as I did: Why haven't we, as a nation, learned anything? This is recommended for any Gen X and Y folks who have been brainwashed into thinking the 60s Counterculture was some kind of error or mistake. Read, Learn, Act!

The alarm sounded by babes just learning about life - The continued energy that was necessary to actually protest our involvement in Vietnam in a way that helped make the American people aware of what we were really doing while at the same time living, loving, searching, finding. This is life in the trenches comittment and FUN -The pictures - that's how it was -The cartoons - A brisk slap that says question question question -Honoring the lode stone within Bob's what's interesting - important to me now and in that there's a lesson for us all- The clearest moves come spontaneous for those with the courage to honor their way of thinking instead of buying the - this is the way it is - farm It's a little history that paints a clearer picture than most. It belongs on a lot of shelves.

Darlene Fife's new book "Portraits from Memory: New Orleans in the Sixties" in a Memoir in the finest sense of the word. It is refreshing to read someone who is so self-deprecatingly honest about her own feelings and thoughts during the time she was Editor of one of the most important "underground newspapers" in America. This is not a "history" book filled with data, facts and figures striving to make a past time more understandable. The book is a series of connected written snapshots of a Time and Place, highlighting some of the people that the author grew and evolved with. It does not matter if you think that the people portrayed in this book are multi-manically insane, depraved drug addicts, dangerous political operatives, or sainted hipsters. The strongly held beliefs and political passions of all of the characters shines through the writing. There were "cells" like Darlene's operating all over during the sixties, one wonders how candidly other writers would deal with theirs.

What a wonderful surprise to find this beautiful book while searching the internet for information on New Orleans during the period I lived there, 1970-72. I am writing a memoir about the Sixties, and this book is a real gem. Of course, I knew Darlene Fife, the author of "Portraits from Memory," and Robert Head as publishers of the notorious "NOLA Express" bimonthly, but I was a political radical and kept my distance from the counterculture. Reading Darlene's memoir, I realized how truly radical she and the paper were, and also remembered how supportive they were to me, however unappreciative I was at the time. I recommend the book to anyone who cares about literature, free speech, the sixties and the undereground press, early environmentalism, New Orleans, the nuts and bolts of community organizing, and anyone who appreciates a beautifully produced book from a small regional press that deserves support.

This series of books is "fabumouse". My seven year old loves them and his reading ability has increased dramatically with these books. They are great books for young readers as they transistion from early readers to advanced reading material. We own and love the audio versions of these books as well. The Temple of the Ruby of Fire is a favorite.

this is a very interesting book. this made me want to go to Amazon Forest. This is the world's bestselling book. I am really glad to have the book. Mr.Stilton writes very nicely. I want to meet him.

Did you ever hear of a mouse that is a scaredy cat? Well, read The Tempel of The Ruby of Fire and you`ll mee that mouse. Geronimo Stilton is trying to save a ruby before the other mice do. Will he save the ruby or not? Read The Tempel of The ruby of fire to find out. Recommended for 2nd grade and up.


by
Jordan

When geronimo, trap, thea and benjamin go to the jungle, they see all kinds of animals. they are also searching rubies!

Professor Von Volt discovered the location of The RUBY FIRE. Geronimo, Thea, Trap and Benjamin wants to have THE RUBY FIRE but a snake is guarding it!

Jeff Pasley's "The Tyranny of Printers" is a fresh look at American politics and journalism in the early Republic. The traditional narrative of journalism in the early Republic is that a weak press tyrannized by political parties produced some of the most subservient and unfree journalism ever seen in America. Pasley turns this narrative on its head, arguing that printers and newspapers in fact created the modern party system. Far from being party stooges, printers were in fact politicians with a major stake in the issues of the day; far from politically subservient, printers provided the organizational glue that held the early parties together.

Pasley argues that newspaper editors provided the crucial ideological and organizational tools that were needed to negotiate the chaotic political waters of the early Republic in part because printers were the only truly professional politicians of the time. Parties lacked permanent organization in the early Republic; campaign season brought political operatives and candidates out of the woodwork, but for the rest of the year it fell to editors to mediate between politicians and constituents.
Newspaper offices, which often doubled as local post offices and as reading rooms for out-of-town papers, were logical locations for official party meetings and informal affairs. Editors were uniquely placed to gauge public opinion because of the volume of other papers that passed through their offices. By reprinting accounts of party rallies, toasts, speeches and marches, newspapers spread the party's message to many more people than ever could have seen the event in person and created an "imagined community" of party followers spread over the entire nation. The printing of toasts and speeches also allowed editor-politicians to simultaneously forge a national party ideology and to tone down the parts of that ideology that might not play well in certain states or regions.

Pasley argues that the first party to understand and use newspapers in politics was Thomas Jefferson's Republican party. The Republicans were able to deploy the press effectively as a weapon at least partly because of their willingness to let a certain class of people into the political arena - artisan printers. The Federalist newspapers that sprang up to counter the Republican press were generally run by young aristocrats who wrote and copied articles from other papers but didn't actually do the hard manual labor of setting type and printing papers. Republican editors, by contrast, tended to be printers themselves, raised in a declining artisanal tradition and realizing that the road to success might lead them down an untraditional path. By understanding artisanal editors to have played such a large role in the birth of political parties, Pasley provides fresh new evidence for the idea of a great democratization of politics occurring in the early Republic. The party editors of Jefferson's and Jackson's days were certainly not of the lowest class of people, but they were manual laborers who conformed to an old, hard-drinking tradition that was anathematic to refined Federalist or neo-Federalist aristocrats.

The most revolutionary aspect of Pasley's book may be found in the way it understands the relationship between journalists and politicians. The received wisdom of the journalism world focuses on notions of objectivity and partisanship; the era of the political press is seen as a low point of American journalism. Pasley's argument suggests that printers of that era may well have had more influence over politics and that ordinary voters may have been much more well-informed than voters are today. The union of journalism and politics that Pasley describes is one that held many advantages for both the printers and the parties of the day.

This fascinating book traces the evolution from a relatively apolitical printing trade to a highly politicized press, from the founding of the republic up through the Jackson administration. While the book is a solid contribution to historical scholarship, it is written in a highly accessible style, providing plenty of context for those of us who have forgotten many of the details of high school US History class. But what makes the book most readable is Pasley's style of substantiating his general accounts of demographic and political trends with numerous engaging mini-biographies of specific printers, a colorful lot of characters, to illustrate his points. For me, the book also went beyond forgotten high school history to explain things I never knew about the development of party politics, about the "Federalists" (who stood for the opposite of what is called "federalism" today) and the "Republicans" (the precursor of the modern Democratic party). Given today's highly polarized political climate, it is especially interesting to read about the founding fathers' fears of party politics. In 18th century elections, it was considered quite unseemly for a candidate to campaign or promote himself in any way. Thomas Jefferson was conflicted in his views of the press, working behind the scenes to encourage a pro-Republican press, while making every effort to personally disassociate himself from newspapers.

This book first came to my attention in the course of my family history research, as it turns out that my great-great-great-great-grandfather Charles Holt is one of the printers given biographical treatment in the book. Holt served as an example of printers who became politicized by the infamous Sedition Act under John Adams' presidency. He started publishing his newspaper intending to be neutral, printing all viewpoints, but quickly discovered that the Federalists who utterly dominated Connecticut would not countenance a newspaper that published any viewpoints other than their own. Just for publishing diverse views, he was labeled "a Jacobin, a Frenchman, a disorganizer, and one who would sell his country." (Sound familiar?) Frustrated in his attempts to be a neutral printer, he dug in, editorializing:

There are generally *two sides* to every subject. To the
public opinion, in a free country, there ever will and should
be. And it is the duty of an impartial printer to communicate
to the public on *both sides* freely. But nine tenths of the
newspapers in Connecticut are decidedly partial to *one side*,
and keep the *other* totally out of sight. This is not
fair.... The public may therefore rest assured that so long as
my brethren in this state print on *one side only*, so long
will I print on *the other*.

(In other words, Holt anticipated by a couple of centuries Rush Limbaugh's quip that "I am equal time.") Eventually, Holt was convicted under the Sedition Act, heavily fined, and jailed for six months. But as Pasley shows through Holt's example and many others, the Sedition Act, which criminalized criticism of the government, and which intended to stifle the much-feared evils of a politicized press, instead had the opposite effect. A whole generation of printers became more politicized than ever before, and The Sedition Act was not only repealed, but a newly energized explicitly Republican press put Thomas Jefferson into office.

It is amazing how timely and relevant some of the issues of 200 years ago seem, with parallels to today's politically divided climate. (Just as one example, I was struck by Pasley's comment on a trend in the wake of Jefferson's election: "there was a sudden awakening of libertarianism among some Federalists now that some of the weapons of state were in Republican hands." Not unlike our present-day Democrats who are rediscovering federalism, and our Republicans who think government should be small except when they're in control of it.) I really enjoyed getting to know the many colorful characters who enliven this history. I think anyone who enjoys politics and history will greatly enjoy this book.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch chose "Tyranny of Printers" as one of the best books of 2001 in its November 25 edition (...).

The Tyranny of Printers is a history book that accomplishes a lot at the same time. On one hand, it offers a new and fascinating look at journalism during the Revolutionary Period. Pasley essentially argues that rather than being tools of the parties, journalists themselves were responsible for dictating the rise of party politics.

The book is very well-written and manages to be entertaining enough for a general audience but also incredibly useful for the academic world, which is very tough to do. Pasley mainly uses a series of biographical portraits to construct his narrative, which makes the book easy to digest but does restrict his ability to apply his conclusions to a larger population, but I never doubted his findings.

As with any book, Pasley obviously takes sides. The newspaper men emerge as the true heroes: bold and fearless spreaders of democracy who had a fundamental role in the rise of party politics of the period. Extending that, the Jeffersonians (and not the currently chic Hamiltonians) are the politicians who were more in tough with spirit of democracy that the nation was founded on, and this propellem them to their dramatic victory in the election of 1800.

Pasley's book is inventive, enjoyable, and highly informative. I suggest to any casual or serious student of the Early American Republic. It is a welcome antidote to the current trend in Founding Father hagiography.

The Tyranny of Printers: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic written by Jeffrey L. Pasley is a book that gives an overall picture of the power of the press in our early American Republic from the Revolutionary period to the Jacksonians. Newspaper based politics is a term used much in this book to describe the type and level associated with the local party.

The classic case of newspaper-based politics was when Thomas Jefferson used one paper in Philadelphia to do his bidding against Alexander Hamilton... not to mention that Jefferson got caught. Newspapers were the central source of news, outside of word of mouth, and a network of newspapers really gave both the candidate and the paper momentum and political life. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was a real hotbed where newspapers breathed, newpapers were the republic's central political institutions, working components of the political system rather than just commentators on it. This was true all the way to the end of the Jacksonian era of democracy.

This book has a narrative that flows quite well and keeps the reader well informed and is full of anecdotes. Jefferson, Madison and Monroe all used the press to their collective advantage as they striped the power away from the Federalists, but not only is this book about how they politician used the press. The most interesting story is how the author enlivens his narrative with accounts of the colorful but often tragic careers of the individual editors.

There is a companion web site that readers should consult at: [url] serving as an extension of the book... this site contains important supporting material information. The book has endnotes rather than footnotes concentrating all of the supporting information toward the back of the book. There is a very good bibliography with this book that supports the writing very well.

As time marchs on... reading this book give us a glimpse in the window of a time where political goals were linked to the newspapers and their editors making the full circle of the political process, linking parties, voters and the government together... the newspapers were the linchpin of early political power. This book is very informative and gives a rare look into the life at times of some of the more interesting minor players of early American Politics the editors.

I enjoyed reading this book as it still had a familiar theme but the players were the most interesting as the Americian political process still worked, a very interesting book, indeed.

I have developed a life-long habit of taking notes of every book I read. My bookmark is a blank piece of paper on which I write things of interest that strike me as I read along. Within a couple of pages of "The Handbook" I stopped taking notes. If I had continued, I would have had as many pages of notes as the book is long. This book is jam packed with very useful information for those thinking of a career as a magazine writer. I have just begun working in this field, and I must say that there is not an area not covered by the 56 contributors to this work. This is like a college course that instructs you on how to find ideas for articles, how to write a great query letter, the dollars and cents of running your own free-lance business, researching, interviewing, developing a style, it is all-inclusive. If you have thoughts of becoming a magazine writer, you can cut out a lot of the uncertainty, stress, waste motions, and rejections of this business by studying this book. I daresay I'll be turning to this handbook on at least a weekly basis. Thank you to the editor and contributors for a job very well done.

The information covers the entire non-fiction magazine market, not just journalism. Includes the best ways to break into freelancing, and compares small and large markets. Creating a niche for yourself versus generalizing is also covered. Some writing tips are offered, as well, but the focus is on selling your work.

I am very pleased with this book, and I recommend it.

I had to purchase this for an online writing course. I didn't expect much. I have read about half a dozen other books on magazine writing that weren't required reading. But this book is really solid and doesn't meander aimlessly, like a couple others I've read. I'd first recommend Jenna Glatzer's book, but this is a good addition to your writing reference shelf.

The "Writer's Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing" takes information from a wide variety of highly successful freelance writers and edits it together into a seamless instructional manual. It starts off with a discussion of finding ideas that addresses more than inspiration--it delves into methods to find topics that will sell. "Querying" and "Finding Markets" teach you to pick markets for your work and get assignments from them. "Selling Reprints and Rewrites" and "Business and Rights-Related Issues" help you to understand what your work is worth to whom, and how to make sure it remains worth as much as possible to you.

"Researching" and "Interviewing" get you through the information-gathering phase, which can take longer than the actual writing. "Avoiding Problems" helps you to avoid accidental plagiarism and similar legal problems. "Writing Techniques and Revision" deals with general issues of writing magazine articles, while "How to Write Common Articles" delves into specifics on article types such as profiles, roundups, how-to articles, service journalism, art-of-living articles, and even pieces for children's magazines. "Working With an Editor" shepherds you through the relationships that will make or break your career.

Because the book gets into so many specifics (there's even a sidebar on writing book reviews!) regarding particular article types and so on, you're likely to find it useful even if you've already done some magazine freelancing. It's so helpful to know all the little rules of thumb and instructions regarding different types of articles, not to mention what editors are looking for and get the least of in their submission piles.

The chapter on working with editors presents particularly valuable information in a remarkably even-handed and balanced format. It presents a number of ways to maintain a good relationship with your editor, and these tips are useful and specific. A "damage control" section is included, since everyone runs into trouble now and then despite the best of intentions. There's information on "problem editors" to watch out for and how to best work with (or avoid) them, as well as types of writers that editors hate to find themselves working with and how you can avoid being one of these writers.

Quotes from freelancers and editors liven things up and bring a personal touch to the book. Clear, bulleted lists of helpful points are balanced by enough detail to make sure that you can figure out what you're doing in specific circumstances. The information presented is broad enough to be applicable to any sort of magazine freelancer, and specific enough to be applicable to every sort of magazine freelancer.

This book gave me even more valuable information than I anticipated. I recommend it for anyone who may want to write and get published in magazines.

It's too bad that since the last Boston World Series Championship, the New York Yankees have only won about 22. (Heh Ty - who won the CDE Championship in 1961? Give up? - The Yankees!!!)

Nothing but the pain and despair of being a true Bosox fan could ever prepare an author like it must have for Mr. Waterman. The book was a bright read about a very different game in a very different America. As much a chronicle of the era as baseball and the Red Sox themselves. A first class study of the despair of every Red Six fan!

I beleieve the Braves won the 1960 CDE Title!

No team in professional sports offers a full scale opera with each game more than my beloved Boston Red Sox. All Red Sox and baseball fans know the trials, tribulations, and horror that surrounds this team, and with it Boston, and all of New England. Buckner in '86, Torrez in '78, Bill Lee's junk pitch to Tony Perez in game 7 of '75, the collapse in 72, the could have been of '67, the should have been of '48, Enos Slaughter in '45...the Red Sox have sustained their share of horrific luck since Harry Frazee dealt the Babe to New York in 1919...

Few fans remember, or realize, that the Red Sox dominated baseball for the first 20 years of the past century. They had great pitchers from Cy Young to "Smoky" Joe Wood, to the Babe, and hall of famers Harry Hooper, Tris Speaker, Young, the Babe... yes, the Sox had it all, and it all culminated in 1918, the last time the Babe-led Sox won the World Series.

Waterman's book is a delightful piece of Americana, complete with old tyme sketches, photos, box scores, standings, and everything else that made 1918 what it was- a simpler time in baseball. The stories, from the trade of Speaker to the Indians to the many showcasing the Babe's probelms but undeniable charisma and popularity, to that of Harry Hooper's fight against MLB that lasted all of his life, are fascinating and riviting. The newspaper writers were more than that in those days- they became part of the saga, as well.

This book is a remarkable historical document that fans of baseball, no less those of the Red Sox, will appreciate. Many of the day's brightest stars are mentioned, and it hearkens back to a day when to play baseball was a privledge, not a job. ..and while the 1918 Red Sox were a dysfunctional lot, they played the game hard, and loved what they did. The book, cartoons, and stories from the writers clearly show this. Baseball today can learn more than a thing or 2 from the 1918 Red Sox and baseball of that era. A delightful and informative read.

But in 1918, the Sox won. They really, really won. This well researched book makes me fell like I was there, 83 years ago, following the REd Sox daily, the same way I do now. Difference is, they win it and this is not good fiction, it is great non-fiction. What Ken Burns did for baseball history, Ty Waterman does for the 1918 Red Sox.

Another interesting thing about this book is the news clips which is how you, as a reader, follow along with the season. The interesting part is not just the information from long ago, but how a ball club is written about back in 1918, and how it differs today. Sure the players had "issues" back then, but now days we can get bogged down on the importance of player's personal problems and the effect that has on the team. Looking foward to digesting the next Ty Waterman fact filled book.

Great reading !! The book takes you back to that glorious Sox summer of 1918, and as ALL Sox fans are aware of, the last World Championship season. It chronicles the entire season from start to finish. You can also see how the writing style of the sportswriters was quite different than it is nowadays. Also captured in the book are various cartoon illustrations that are no longer a part of the current day sports page, but quite popular back then. This book should be must reading for all Sox fans.

The author, an investigative reporter for the New York Times who has school-age children, has written a hard-hitting look at the state of public education in the guise of a novel. Any middle school parent (or student who has been paying attention) will recognize the pabulum-spouting administrators, the lazy teachers who can't be bothered to read student work even on the rare occasions when written work is required, the "educators" who find make-work projects for students so that they can surf the internet or make cell phone calls, the constant waste of kids' valuable class time. Beyond this, Winerip indicts the parents who do the kids' work for them, and highlights the class distinctions that lead to kids with two-parent households who are highly involved being pushed ahead and everyone else left behind. The book is also revealing on the subject of how to do investigative journalism, what sort of personality is best suited for this line of work, and the sometimes adverse effects of this work on the reporter's personal life. On the subject of race, the author's approach is admirable: while one of the main characters is black, this isn't what defines her and we aren't made aware of this fact until half-way through the book and only because it becomes relevant to the plot. It is also clear that the fact that her parents are well-to-do is more significant in her life than skin color. The hero, Adam, is "oblivious" to race, and this seems to be the approach the author wishes everyone would take. On top of everything else, the book is entertaining and hard to put down.

As a nursing/college student, I found myself picking up this book every night before sleep. It was a rewarding break from my anatomy studies. I received it as a gift was not disappointed. I looked forward each night to reading what would happen next. I am definitely passing it on to my roommates. D.Weis

I'm studying to be a teacher and read this book while taking a class in multicultural education. I found it a very interesting look at one (white) boy's development of a true non-racist white identity as he realizes the realities of racism in his community. It's also an interesting take on bullying, power and what it means to be a "good" person.

As a children's librarian, I find myself skimming through a lot of new books to see how the folks they were written for will take to them. This is one of the few this year which I have read from cover to cover simply for myself. Adam Canfield Watch Your Back is about a group of children who passionately run a school newspaper, risking all for a great story and learning much about the imperfections of their school, their community and themselves. They are fun, feisty and full of surprises. The Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote this book shares the thrills and woes of his trade. Anyone who reads of them will at least consider knocking on the school newspaper door and giving it a try. I myself was not at all in the mood to write this review but felt that any book which celebrates the power of words (as this one does) deserves to be written about. Mostly I loved how the characters--co-editors Jennifer and Adam--make a fantastic team of sleuths, friends and sparring partners with the slightest hint of a humorous middle school romance. Don't let this one pass you by. (Grades 5-8 & grownups too)

This is the perfect book for a baseball fan (or a historian with an interest in baseball) to have if he's stranded on a deserted island.

I've looked at all the headlines in this book and skimmed some of the stories, but I still haven't read an appreciable portion of the book as a whole.

The detail is so great, and the print on the older newspapers is so small that one really would have to have the luxury of time to read the whole thing.

Essentially, the book is a collection of baseball-theme newspaper headlines from 1857 to 1999. One can appreciate just how far back in time this book takes him when he sees a 1918 Boston Post headline that reads, *Red Sox Are Again World's Champions.*

The RED SOX? Baseball's world champions? AGAIN??????

Now THAT'S ancient history.

But this just isn't a baseball book, and those who can tolerate the baseball but whose historical interests lie elsewhere will take interest in the other slices of Americana that often lie side-by-side with the baseball stories.

The Red Sox story above is actually overshadowed by a headline about 13,000,000 additional draft registrants being called up, even as victory over the Kaiser is within reach.

Right next to the Milwaukee Daily News headline from October 14, 1908 declaring *Cubs Again Champions of the World* (another example of ancient history) is a political cartoon lampooning President Teddy Roosevelt.

The 1921 acquittal of the Chicago *Black Sox* players of conspiring to throw the 1919 World Series accompanies another story about the death of singer Enrico Caruso.

A 1948 headline in the Washington Afro American announcing forty-something Satchel Paige's belated call-up to the major leagues also includes an editorial criticizing Harry Truman's civil rights policies and announcing the assassination of a Haitian editor of a pro-government newspaper.

*Going away?* the ad in the lower left-hand corner asks. *Be sure that the Afro goes with you.*

Ads for tobacco (*Rabbitt Maranville says, *Blackstone is the best smoke on the big league circuit*), chewing gum (*it's good and it's good for you,* the Wrigley's Spearmint Gum ad advises), and health-enhancing elixirs also predominate.

A 1951 story in the Kansas City Star about the boyish Mickey Mantle's standing as heir apparent to the great DiMaggio also proudly announces Satin School Jackets (regularly selling for $7.95) on sale for $4.98. 1951 model Dodges are available at Midwest Motors for only $1666.17.

Moon Mullins and other retro comic strip characters also dot these pages. *Whadd'ya mean he's beginning to get to you?* an irate boxing manager demands of his fighter in the middle of an empty arena. *He's been and gone!* Now THAT'S another animated boxing manager who also isn't going to be saying *we* anytime soon.

There's even a measure of eeriness about some of these headlines. Everyone knows that Joe DiMaggio's famous 56 game hitting strike took place in the pre-war environment that was the 1941 baseball season, so it's startling to see a number of San Francisco Chronicle headlines tracking his hitting streak - that are dated in 1933.

The answer, of course, is that years before DiMaggio electrified the nation with his 56-game streak, he was raising eyebrows on the West Coast with a 61-game streak for the Pacific Coast League's San Francisco Seals. Incredibly, the Chronicle repeatedly gets his name wrong, spelling it as *De Maggio*. The man was born on Fisherman's Wharf, after all. He was a San Francisco native son.

And in another Twilight Zonish moment from 1920, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle proclaims that *Hank Gherrig* (whose bases-loaded homerun won the game for his local high-school) is the Babe Ruth of high school baseball.

The subject, of course, is Lou Gehrig who would set the all-time record for grand slam homeruns (it still stands today) and who would later join Babe Ruth in the Yankees lineup to make up what might still be the greatest homerun-hitting tandem of all time.

Yes, if you've got this collection with you, you have tremendous incentive to find a desert island to be stranded on.

Of course, the stories from the more recent years can be passed over. And retro-baseball also contains some sobering food for thought: 50 years from now; 80-100 years from now; will baseball fans from the future pour over headlines about Darryl Strawberry, Frank Thomas, Alex Rodriguez, Garry Sheffield, and Will Clark - and modernist madness outside the world of baseball - with the same misty glow?

I just received this book for an early birthday present and have not been able to put it down! I have always been a fan of the way's baseball used to be,so I really got into this book.It almost felt like I was in the game! I would recomend this book to any one who loves baseball,or even a young boy just starting out. It really shows true appreciation of the sport.

This book is awesome... First of all, it's huge - about 18" x 12" and 400+ pages. Each page is copy of a newspaper, going back to 1857, with stories about significant events in baseball's history. Reading the non-baseball stories and advertisements is almost as good as the baseball stuff. I highly recommend this book!

I've bought this book, and I thinks it not so bad. If you're into baseball from 1860 to 1950 this one is for you, but the stories from the 60s to the 90s is not so well covered. It is many pages I would like to have, for example more on expansion teams, player's strike, my favourite team the St. Louis Browns and of course stories about unassisted triple plays. In the 80's section the most stories are about world series winners (but not all, both Pete Rose and the Pine-Tar case is there). I would recommend it for every old baseball fan, and of course fans who like to trace the history. Bam's last game is covered, so is The Ironman, and BoSox first win in the WS are also well covered. Ed Gaedel is also one story that I liked. But the author could have add more pages from the modern times of baseball. If you buy this book, be sure to have a magnifying glass, many of the articles are written in very small types

It's a long book, so I thought it would last. No such luck. The writing is simply amazing, across the board. Buy it, enjoy it.

No one could possibly take The New Yorker, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Esquire,The American Scholar, the Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Time, Gourmet, Harper's and Vanity Fair and read all the stories in them every month for a year. But what if the greatest experts, The American Society of Magazine Editors read 1,586 stories and picked just the best 17 of them for you to read. Even if you didn't think you'd like the subject, you will love reading each and every one of these. I'm using it for a seminar I'm giving -- one article and its author to discuss each week for 14 weeks. It's Terrific!!!

For anyone who enjoys feature writing and investigative journalism this is an excellent read. I have made it through 9 of the 17 stories and have thoroughly enjoyed 8 of them. The topics are broad (John McCain, seal hunting in Greenland, a fat wine critic, campaign finance reform and many more.) The writing is so good that even topics that usually bore me (wine for one) became interesting.

No matter who you are, what your interests or where your political affiliations lie, if you enjoy reading good writing, you will enjoy this book. It represents some of the tightest, best researched and most insightful writing of a year's worth of magazine articles. The magazines in which the articles were originally published range from The Atlantic Monthly to Zoetrope: All-Story (did they include the ends of the alphabet for such a sentence as this?). The subjects, writing styles and tones of the stories smatter widely, but have in common one thing: they are stories worth your while. You could be forced to walk, sit and suffer with John McCain through his torturous 5-year imprisonment in a North Vietnamese p.o.w. camp, as well as with the cast of characters behind one week of McCain's presidential campaign tour. You could bask in the glory of Bob Parker, a burly, middle-aged Maryland guy whose freakishly acute sense of smell, coupled with his rigid integrity, led to his publication of The Wine Advocate and the author's well-founded claim that Parker may be "single-handedly changing the history of wine." The book is replete with the end product of authors whose diligence, sensitivity and dexterity with the English language have culminated in some rock-solid reading.