On Tuesday, Donald Rumsfeld—who, as defense secretary under George W. Bush, was a driving force behind the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—died. Major outlets wheeled out pre-written obituaries. The AP’s, by Robert Burns, bordered on hagiography. Its headline initially declared Rumsfeld “a cunning leader undermined by Iraq war”; that language was later changed to “cunning leader who oversaw a ruinous Iraq war,” but the opening paragraph still says that “try as he might,” Rumsfeld “could not outmaneuver the ruinous politics of the Iraq war,” as if he had been forced to play chess against a supercomputer. The Iraqi death toll from the war is not noted; the American death toll is—but not before Rumsfeld’s charitable work on behalf of veterans, his “accomplished” college wrestling career, and colleagues’ recollections of his smarts and patriotism. The first words of the article’s URL are “Chicago Bears,” a reference to the football team Rumsfeld supported as a kid. Because the AP is a wire service, the obituary was republished widely. Other prominent efforts were better, but did not adequately foreground the human cost of Rumsfeld’s military aggression: The New York Times addressed Iraq only after mentioning the records he broke as defense secretary (he was the youngest person in that post, under Gerald Ford, then the oldest, under Bush) and his reputation as a “combative infighter” who challenged “military orthodoxies.” The Washington Post described him as “controversial,” but... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2021-07-02 12:32:38 UTC ]
Pan Macmillan has snapped up the autobiography of Shane "Shakey" Byrne, the most successful British Superbike Championship rider in history, in a three-publisher auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-01 00:46:31 UTC ]
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Susan Straight's new memoir, "In the Country of Women," depicts the tough, trauma-burdened women who have populated her life. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-07-30 19:40:36 UTC ]
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HarperCollins imprint 4th Estate will publish Whitesnake musician Bernie Marsden's memoir in November 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-30 07:38:39 UTC ]
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TWO RECENT TITLES from the University Press of Florida make for a remarkably successful pairing: one focuses on the “golden years” of George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet through the memoir lens of former soloist Bettijane Sills, while the other offers, through a series of impressionistic... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-28 17:00:03 UTC ]
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Piper Kerman, whose experiences and memoir inspired the Netflix prison dramedy, now works with inmates in correctional facilities. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-07-26 10:00:07 UTC ]
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Piper Kerman, whose experiences and memoir inspired the Netflix prison dramedy, now works with inmates in correctional facilities. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-07-26 10:00:06 UTC ]
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Bud Selig’s memoir misses the sport’s magic, while two statheads explain its inspiring innovations. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-07-25 16:00:00 UTC ]
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On Nadina LaSpina’s SUCH A PRETTY GIRL, a new memoir about being disabled in Sicily and New York from the 50s onward. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-07-24 10:33:40 UTC ]
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THE TRAGEDY OF THIS slim, self-satisfied little memoir about the 2007–2008 financial crisis is not what it gets wrong. Indeed, four of its central arguments are important and exactly right: (1) that extraordinary measures and creative innovation and improvisation saved the entire financial... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-22 19:00:44 UTC ]
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Crowdfunding publisher Unbound has launched YouTuber Jack Maynard's memoir and guide to living online. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-22 01:52:22 UTC ]
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JAMES BALDWIN HAS GROWN into the wise, guiding elder of the United States’s fractured racial conversation. His presence is at times almost palpable. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote his memoir Between the World and Me (2015) as a letter to his teenage son, directly invoking Baldwin’s addressing his... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-07-18 12:30:39 UTC ]
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John Paul Stevens’ memoir “The Making of a Justice” and the biography “Oliver Wendell Holmes” are must-reads for legal buffs. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-07-17 19:13:55 UTC ]
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John Paul Stevens’ memoir “The Making of a Justice” and the biography “Oliver Wendell Holmes” are must-reads for legal buffs. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-07-17 19:13:55 UTC ]
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John Paul Stevens’ memoir “The Making of a Justice” and the biography “Oliver Wendell Holmes” are must-reads for legal buffs. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2019-07-17 19:13:55 UTC ]
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Stevens’s “The Making of a Justice” is both a personal memoir and a meditation on the law. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-07-17 13:32:04 UTC ]
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Last night, Variety reported that Lakeith Stanfield (also known as the actual best part of Atlanta, there I said it, don’t @ me) to star in a feature film adaptation of Kwame Onwuachi’s Notes From a Young Black Chef—which is an essential cooking memoir that you should go read immediately if you... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2019-07-16 14:28:13 UTC ]
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Imagine that you are a character from a classic tale pitching your memoir to a literary agent. You know that it will become the next bestseller. Write your query letter, story synopsis, or elevator pitch to the agent. The post It’s My Story and I’ll Pitch if I Want To by Cassandra Lipp appeared... Continue reading at Writer's Digest
[ Writer's Digest | 2019-07-16 09:00:28 UTC ]
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Virago has scooped an "eye-opening” memoir from broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, based around what she sees from the upper deck of a London bus. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-07-15 11:56:36 UTC ]
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As we descend into the hazy thick of summer, this week’s book events remind us that one day in a life has the power to change everything. Indeed, it’s all that ever changes anything. In the memoir corner, we have a traumatic encounter at the train station, a knock on the door of a rundown... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-07-12 14:20:00 UTC ]
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A pitcher who had modest success with the Yankees in the 1960s, Bouton revealed the seamier side of baseball in a book that was a best seller. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2019-07-11 02:47:37 UTC ]
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