35th out of 261 books
—
180 voters
Blue Blood
As a Harvard graduate and regular writer for the New Yorker, Edward Conlon is a little different from most of his fellow New York City cops.
And the stories he tells in his compelling memoir Blue Blood are miles away from the commonly told Hollywood-style police tales that are always action packed but rarely tethered to reality.
While there is action here, there's also polit...more
And the stories he tells in his compelling memoir Blue Blood are miles away from the commonly told Hollywood-style police tales that are always action packed but rarely tethered to reality.
While there is action here, there's also polit...more
Paperback, 1st Edition, 495 pages
Published
2004
by Riverhead Books
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Very readable and a high quality memoir of Edward Conlon's first seven years as a New York City police officer. He has since resigned from the NYPD (1995-2011) to pursue his writing career. A cynic might speculate that he went into the profession of law enforcement for the material that it would supply - (writers write what they know) - and there is that possibility. However he still wore a badge and put himself on the line. Pretty gutsy for somebody doing research in my opinion.
Having now been...more
Having now been...more
I read this book partly because my job has required me to have a lot closer relationship with law enforcement than I have in the past and I thought it might give me some helpful insights into what the realities of life as a police officer are like. In that capacity, the book was a pretty good read and I was surprised by how many commonalities I did recognize about the work that I do as a domestic violence advocate and the kinds of struggles that law enforcement officers have to deal with on a da...more
Jan 24, 2013
Voracious_reader
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-but-unowned
Blue Blood tells the story of Edward Conlon's campaign from Harvard English major graduate to gold shield NYPD Detective. While chronicling his own journey, he also peppers readers with info about his family and general NYPD history. I enjoyed it; though, it runs a little long, coming in at over five hundred pages. Fielding domestic violence calls--which he doesn't seem to think much of--and the like, he tires of the smallness of patrol, acquiring a taste for chasing drugs and guns, not because...more
As a student in journalism school, I got to ride along with police from the NYPD's 71st precinct as they patrolled Brooklyn's Crown Heights on an autumn afternoon. Perhaps no other profession has inspired as much bad fiction and unfavorable press (especially pre-9/11) as the police, so it was fascinating to see the reality behind those distortions, to participate in the mundane routines of police life--clearing out illegal street vendors, responding to bogus 911 calls, picking up cars that were...more
With 'Blue Blood,' former detective Edward Conlon delivers an engrossing memoir about his time in the NYPD, starting with his days as a rookie on the street up through finally obtaining his detective badge.
For anyone who's ever been curious about day to day life is like for the, as it were, "boys in blue," the book offers plenty of fascinating insights on all manner of subjects - from the squadroom atmosphere and camaraderie between coworkers, through the bureaucratic BS that Conlon and others...more
For anyone who's ever been curious about day to day life is like for the, as it were, "boys in blue," the book offers plenty of fascinating insights on all manner of subjects - from the squadroom atmosphere and camaraderie between coworkers, through the bureaucratic BS that Conlon and others...more
The author is a Harvard-educated NYPD cop, son of an FBI agent, writing his memoirs seven years into his career on the force. Over the course of the book’s 560 pages, he begins in Housing (drug busts in the projects), works with Narcotics, gets a feel for the midnight shift, sifts though the awful wreckage of 9/11 on Fresh Kills, and finally becomes a detective. Every so often, he interrupts his own story to tell some other facet of police or city history, such as that of the real Serpico or the...more
I got halfway through this book before I realized that the author, who is a New York City cop, was probably going to have to cover 9/11 and I was keen to get to his description. That's not to say that the rest of the book wasn't great--it was--but the passages on 9/11 are powerful, especially because they are not fiction. But the whole book is a fascinating inside view of what it's like to be part of one of the largest police departments in the world. Conlon cleverly weaves history, memoir and s...more
I really wanted to rate this four or five stars. Three at the very least. I just can't. Conlon seems like an awesome guy and an awesome cop. He can write well. But there are parts - looong parts - included here that just didn't interest me.
I started this because I wanted to read about Conlon's police experiences and maybe a little about his life in general. I got that but those were such small parts. Granted, they were many, but just so, so small.
In between these parts that I liked reading I had...more
I started this because I wanted to read about Conlon's police experiences and maybe a little about his life in general. I got that but those were such small parts. Granted, they were many, but just so, so small.
In between these parts that I liked reading I had...more
The only reason I finished this is that some circumstances conspired to give me time in March when I was confined to a sedentary position. And my book club picked it, and I feel compelled to finish book club books. (Even if no one else does – and no one else did this time – it’s a self-imposed compulsion – no peer pressure in my awesome book club!) That and wanting to get to the part where the NYC cop describes his perspective on 9/11. Conlon is no slouch – to be honest, it was like talking with...more
I picked up this book as a library cast-off and wasn't overly optimistic about it. I was encouraged by the fact that Conlon had written for the New Yorker and I vaguely remembered reading some cop on the beat sort of thing there.
It is nearly 600 pages long and I read every word. He's a good writer with felicitous little remarks throughout the book. And it's really funny in spots. It's main attraction was the description of everyday police stuff in the Bronx. Conlon is modest and not a reformer...more
It is nearly 600 pages long and I read every word. He's a good writer with felicitous little remarks throughout the book. And it's really funny in spots. It's main attraction was the description of everyday police stuff in the Bronx. Conlon is modest and not a reformer...more
This review originally ran in the San Jose Mercury News:
As a TV cop-show fan, I had high hopes for this book. It's by an NYPD detective -- a real-life Lennie Briscoe or Andy Sipowicz, except that Edward Conlon is a lot younger, and he graduated from Harvard and has written for the New Yorker. ''Blue Blood'' promises to be a literate, sophisticated and realistic view of the cops who pursue what TV has taught us to call ''perps'' and ''skels.''
And a lot of it is just that, with scenes that are m...more
As a TV cop-show fan, I had high hopes for this book. It's by an NYPD detective -- a real-life Lennie Briscoe or Andy Sipowicz, except that Edward Conlon is a lot younger, and he graduated from Harvard and has written for the New Yorker. ''Blue Blood'' promises to be a literate, sophisticated and realistic view of the cops who pursue what TV has taught us to call ''perps'' and ''skels.''
And a lot of it is just that, with scenes that are m...more
May 16, 2010
Jared Della Rocca
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-to-charlie
I was actually surprised at how much I ended up enjoying this book (the three stars was more a reflection of the subject matter, as opposed to its treatment.) This book was part of my non-fiction foundation reading, under "True Crime", and so I thought it was going to be a single crime or criminal. Instead it was the autobiography of Edward Conlon and his time in the NYPD, as well as his research of his ancestors who had preceded him in law enforcement.
I appreciated the way Edward Conlon handled...more
I appreciated the way Edward Conlon handled...more
"Do you like beiong a cop?"
"I love it, when it doesn't suck, sir."
A cop's day can go from the mundane to the heroic, from the absurd to the tragic and back again in a single day. Edward Conlon joined the NYPD in 1995, at age 30. His Harvard English degree is put to good use in this monumental and well written account of a cop's life.
The tales from the street will make you laugh, break your heart, make you want to beat your head against the wall. It relates how a good boss can take months or year...more
"I love it, when it doesn't suck, sir."
A cop's day can go from the mundane to the heroic, from the absurd to the tragic and back again in a single day. Edward Conlon joined the NYPD in 1995, at age 30. His Harvard English degree is put to good use in this monumental and well written account of a cop's life.
The tales from the street will make you laugh, break your heart, make you want to beat your head against the wall. It relates how a good boss can take months or year...more
I hauled this book around for ages, because it's gigantic and complicated and full of characters. But I kept going back to it, even though it weighed a ton and I had to remember who all of the people were (and half of them had nicknames too).
It's a fascinating combo of day-to-day life on the streets as a cop/NYPL history/author biography. Conlon made me think about a lot of things from the police perspective, and that was interesting. The bureaucracy sounds mind-boggling and the politics ridicul...more
It's a fascinating combo of day-to-day life on the streets as a cop/NYPL history/author biography. Conlon made me think about a lot of things from the police perspective, and that was interesting. The bureaucracy sounds mind-boggling and the politics ridicul...more
Better than: Cops re-runs, The Job starring Denis Leary, bad SWAT scenes, strip clubs in NYC that are less than 1 story tall (including basement), CSI, getting tazered,
Not as good as: Dime-a-dozen detective novels, Cash by Johnny Cash, the movie Evenhand, ride-alongs, The French Connection, going to a gun range with a .45
It's a tie: Sting's Police
Not as good as: Dime-a-dozen detective novels, Cash by Johnny Cash, the movie Evenhand, ride-alongs, The French Connection, going to a gun range with a .45
It's a tie: Sting's Police
This book is the story of the author's years in the NYPD up too September 11, 2001. In some ways humanizes the the police, who could certainly use it right now given how they've handled the Wall Street Protests and overusing "stop and frisk" policies. Often it seemed as petty and whiney as anyone complaining about the politics and unfairness of a job. Of course that is interspersed with the adrenaline associated with getting searcch warrents and arresting some pretty heinous people.
It's a long...more
It's a long...more
An authentically boots-on-the-ground snapshot of the life of a NY street cop leading up to 9/11, Conlon effectively interweaves his experience with both his family history and the history of the NYPD at large. And yes, it is all very The Wire-ish with its cast of local criminals, junkie CIs, and departmental BS/red tape (season 1, though, not 3 through 5). Conlon is a stronger observer than a composer of prose, but I am really game to check out his first novel now; seems like he has what it take...more
Harvard grad becomes a cop. The title comes from the family heritage--Conlon has NYPD, NYFD, and FBI in his family tree.
"The bulletproof vest--'bullet resistant,' technically--is made of two double panels of a synthetic material called Kevlar, inside a cloth carrier that holds it around your torso like a lead X-ray smock. One cop wrote phrases from the Bible on his, 'Yea, though I walk in the valley of the Shadow of Death...' Other cops wrote their blood type."
"I was constantly amazed by how man...more
"The bulletproof vest--'bullet resistant,' technically--is made of two double panels of a synthetic material called Kevlar, inside a cloth carrier that holds it around your torso like a lead X-ray smock. One cop wrote phrases from the Bible on his, 'Yea, though I walk in the valley of the Shadow of Death...' Other cops wrote their blood type."
"I was constantly amazed by how man...more
I sought out Conlon's memoir after reading his amazing, recently published first novel. The writing is fine, the stories about his own experiences are good and funny and honest, but it's 200 pages too long, stuffed with police history and tales about distant family members, and, in my opinion, way too much detail about booking forms and staffing issues and the relative comfort of patrol cars. This stuff might be fascinating to current or prospective NYPD officers, but to this civilian it was no...more
I started reading this because it was recommended as a memoir on a holiday NPR broadcast--I read another of the recommendations (The Hare with Amber Eyes) and thought it was one of the best I'd read,s o decided to try another. This is a story of a cop from a cop family and his stint with the NYPD--while I was holding the book, someone asked if it was the same as the TV series--being so disconnected from TV has it's disadvantages--I had no idea--but in fact, it turns out that it is. Recommended,...more
I was entertained with this book for most of the way through, but got annoyed somewhere in there. Kinda sucks being a cop if this is what it is like, well, at least for some. I'm sure it's worse for others as well. I was honestly expecting him to become a detective within the first 100 or 200 pages. That's what I was really interested in. But when I got to page 400 and he is still walking a beat, just barely a level up from when he was much earlier in the story, I was a bit surprised. Truthfully...more
Wow - what a book. Not an easy read by any means, but a deep look into the everyday life of law enforcement officers and the system.
It took me awhile to figure out how to read this book without getting frustrated.
It's written in a style that jumps around within chapters, tons of code words (that is astounding to think that people know what they actually mean), and names that are just impossible to keep track of BUT once you stop trying so hard to remember everything it is a wonderful book of t...more
It took me awhile to figure out how to read this book without getting frustrated.
It's written in a style that jumps around within chapters, tons of code words (that is astounding to think that people know what they actually mean), and names that are just impossible to keep track of BUT once you stop trying so hard to remember everything it is a wonderful book of t...more
This book is not short. This book is not a murder mystery. This book does sometimes give you a short blurb about a 70s show or movie you may have seen. If you are okay with the above, and really, you should be, you need to read this book.
Detailing his days as a cop, from patrolling the projects through sifting the crime scene that 9/11 left behind, there is an easy conversational mood to it all, while remaining engaging and aware. He never sleeps, even in regurgitating brief plot points so as to...more
Detailing his days as a cop, from patrolling the projects through sifting the crime scene that 9/11 left behind, there is an easy conversational mood to it all, while remaining engaging and aware. He never sleeps, even in regurgitating brief plot points so as to...more
As someone who has worked in offices since high school, I'm a sucker for the outsider's cerebral perspective on dangerous and/or highly physical professions, like police work. This book fits the bill at first glance, with a guy who went to Harvard and likes to read and write as an adult. And he does a good job in many cases bringing interesting characters on the force and on the street to life.
But, man, does one need to spend so much time on office politics? It really gets bogged down in petty b...more
But, man, does one need to spend so much time on office politics? It really gets bogged down in petty b...more
I bought this book a long, long time ago because the author is the brother of my high school history teacher, and I thought it was too neat a connection to pass up. It languished on my book shelf until recently, when my increasing desire to become an assistant U.S. Attorney someday led me to start reading more about law enforcement and crime.
This book isn't what I thought it was going to be. There aren't many terribly frightening true crime stories or crazy casts of characters or exposes of th...more
This book isn't what I thought it was going to be. There aren't many terribly frightening true crime stories or crazy casts of characters or exposes of th...more
I thought this book was really great. I thought the commentary on police-work was riveting at times, and engaging even when the author described the drudgery of annoying tasks and incompetent bureaucracy. It went beyond tv procedurals in both of these ways, but even without those details and plot points, the memoir is just beautifully written and full of insights and funny metaphors. I also appreciated that he intersperses the history of the New York Police and his own family history. Though, at...more
This book surprised me with how good it was. Conlon weaves his experiences as a policeman in the Bronx with the history of the NYPD and the history of his family. I thought it was beautifully done and engaging. Ultimately it leaves you frustrated that all the good is countered by all the harm or, most frequently, a lack of progress. Conlon is upfront about the NYPD's shortcomings while also capturing what he loves about the job and his fellow officers. Highly worth a read.
I expected more from this book. Quite frankly, I had a hard time staying interested in it and found the narrative spotty, scattered and not well put together. I'm assuming the rave reviews are there simply because the writer was a Harvard graduate. Takes more than graduating Harvard to impress me when it comes to reading a book. I am going to attempt his fiction book because I do like the mystery genre but I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will be a smoother read.
Weirdly written, I'll say that much. Edward Conlon describes his time on the NYPD in a stream of consciousness, diary-like prose. His thoughts and asides pop in out of nowhere with no explanation. It's off-putting. He's clearly a good writer and his choices are obviously intentional. It's too bad he decided to write his book like that. So far, it's been like a roller coaster, with the exciting parts really moving your blood and the down parts really boring, but promising more around the corner....more
I love this type of book. Police officers, good ones anyway, have a wonderfully phlegmatic and practical approach to life. Many of the qualities needed to be a good police officer are needed to be a good nurse which is possibly why nurses and police officers often marry. As the actor playing a police officer in one memorable episode of ER put it when speaking to the nurse.
"We have a shared appreciation for the vicissitudes of every day life"
"We have a shared appreciation for the vicissitudes of every day life"
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Edward Conlon was born in the Bronx. Conlon spent most of his childhood in nearby Yonkers. He attended Regis High School and graduated from Harvard in 1987 before joining the NYPD in 1995.Mr. Conlon's family background is also in law enforcement. Mr. Conlon's great-grandfather was a police sergeant in Brooklyn, and his father was at one time an F.B.I. agent.
Conlon's police experience focused on pa...more
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Conlon's police experience focused on pa...more
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“When I had to work Shea Stadium for a Mets-Braves game – Atlanta pitcher John Rocker had recently given an interview in which he denounced New Yorkers of all Colors and preferences – I was assigned to a parking lot, where numerous drivers asked me for directions to various highways. When my first answer – “I have no idea” – seemed to invite denunciation and debate, I revised it to “Take the first left.” For all I know, those people are still lost in Queens. ”
—
4 people liked it
“I had to agree with one ex-boyfriend of one crackhead complainant who'd gone missing, when he told me with disdain, 'This is a whole big bunch of unbelievable!”
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3 people liked it
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Sep 07, 2011 11:54am