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Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival
Few people have witnessed more scenes of chaos and conflict around the world than Anderson Cooper, whose groundbreaking coverage on CNN has changed the way we watch the news.
After growing up on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Cooper felt a magnetic pull toward the unknown. If he could keep moving, and keep exploring, he felt he could stay one step ahead of his past, includ
...morePaperback, Large Print, 296 pages
Published
June 1st 2006
by HarperLargePrint
(first published May 1st 2006)
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Is Anderson Cooper REALLY gay? It seems like I have heard this from different people. And if so, oh god. What a tragic waste of beautiful manflesh.
...Oh wait. I should be talking about his book, not his devastatingly handsome looks. Whoops! See what college education has done for women?
Dispatches from the edge was a very...not edgy book. Entertaining and enlightening perhaps, but but it is more likely to be that to someone who does not listen to NPR or BBC, or just does n...more
...Oh wait. I should be talking about his book, not his devastatingly handsome looks. Whoops! See what college education has done for women?
Dispatches from the edge was a very...not edgy book. Entertaining and enlightening perhaps, but but it is more likely to be that to someone who does not listen to NPR or BBC, or just does n...more
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I know, I know. Really?
Only partway thru...But who would've thought the gay son of Gloria Vanderbuilt would toss himself into war-torn countries in his tender 20's just to get the story. He is such an amazingly brave and complicated fellow. Not just that annoying CNN guy. Wow. Liking the memoir so far...
Only partway thru...But who would've thought the gay son of Gloria Vanderbuilt would toss himself into war-torn countries in his tender 20's just to get the story. He is such an amazingly brave and complicated fellow. Not just that annoying CNN guy. Wow. Liking the memoir so far...
I initially had stopped reading this book at the mid point because I found it very depressing and thought Cooper's endless pursuits of finding the next tragedy and trauma a little exploitive. It wasn't until I decided to finish it and got to the chapter on Katrina that I began to see how much Cooper cares about the people behind the stories and how the tragedies of others have helped him deal with tragedy in his own life. I found his experiences as a journalist difficult to read at times but ve...more
I have always thought of Anderson Cooper as a thoughtful-looking self-contained news guy, and expected this book to be a fair amount of self-promotional blather interspersed with a few biographical details. Instead, I found that Anderson Cooper, in addition to being a t-l s-c news guy, writes like one. This memoir is thoughtful, self-contained, filled with news-that-was, and surprisingly well written. (My expectations are seldom high.)
The wars are comprehensive--Bosnia, Somalia, Nige...more
The wars are comprehensive--Bosnia, Somalia, Nige...more
I picked this book up when I still worked for Borders. It was on the best seller list for awhile and at the time, I was intrigued by Cooper (cute and likes to travel the world? who cares if he doesn't like the ladies!) I settled in, looking forward to reading about all of his big adventures.
Disappointment set in pretty quickly and after only reading a couple chapters, it was very clear that this was a horribly ghost written piece of garbage. There is absolutely no emotional depth to ...more
Disappointment set in pretty quickly and after only reading a couple chapters, it was very clear that this was a horribly ghost written piece of garbage. There is absolutely no emotional depth to ...more
I admit that I was drawn to read this book mostly because my friend Wendy kept playing CNN on the telly when I was in Chicago last winter and the advertisement for the New Year's Show kept running. Anderson Cooper is the perfect poster boy for a romantic ideal of journalism -- the tough journalist who goes into places where other people turn a blind eye to because he cares, the journalist who gives voice to the anonymous victims who suffer in the face of disaster and the quiet heroes who work to...more
Where In The World Is Anderson Cooper?, 27 May 2006
Anderson Cooper relates this "All this came about for me in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and I started writing about a week after. In many ways, I'd been sort of writing it in my head for the last 15 years. "But there was something about this sort of combination of the present that I was seeing, this horror and this tragedy, and the bravery and the compassion of the people I was meeting."...more
I've never really watched much of Anderson Cooper's reporting, though I think I might try to a bit more from now on. Actually, up until I read this book, the image his name brought to mind was the snazzy trailer CNN had of him, which somehow always made me think he was one of those uber successful guys who's just a bit too aware of how successful he is.
So the book was a bit of a surprise. I picked it up expecting to hear a bit about the news stories he's covered, and he certainly provi...more
So the book was a bit of a surprise. I picked it up expecting to hear a bit about the news stories he's covered, and he certainly provi...more
I listened to an audiobook of this on my way to/from home for Thanksgiving. Starting out, I hardly knew who Anderson Cooper is -- the first I'd heard of him was during the Hurricane Katrina coverage. But he seemed to be a pretty good reporter, and i probably ought to pay more attention to the wide world around me, so i thought i'd give this a shot. Part of the time it sounds like something his therapist told him to write -- "how deaths in my immediate family turned me into the man i am toda...more
A journalist's duty is to tell someone else's story. Personal opinion is to be put to the wayside as the journalist steps back and allows others to be heard when they normally don't have a voice on their own. So when a book from a respected journalist is released, I'm always curious to see how much of their personality shines through. Now we finally are able to get a glimpse inside their personal thoughts and experiences; unadulterated and ready for consumption.
Anderson Cooper's Dispat...more
Anderson Cooper's Dispat...more
Why do people write memoirs?
Because they want to understand the life they lead by looking back at the life they led.
Why do people read memoirs?
More or less the same reason, but just reversed. Isn’t it rather fashionable to read about someone else’s life, learn what you can and quote it next time in casual conversation in order to pass oneself as learned?
Sure we can.
At times we do and even get a kick out of it equally, especially when someone take...more
Because they want to understand the life they lead by looking back at the life they led.
Why do people read memoirs?
More or less the same reason, but just reversed. Isn’t it rather fashionable to read about someone else’s life, learn what you can and quote it next time in casual conversation in order to pass oneself as learned?
Sure we can.
At times we do and even get a kick out of it equally, especially when someone take...more
Who doesn’t adore Anderson Cooper? Not only is he a tough and fair interviewer with an obvious passion for getting the truth out there, he’s also quite a looker! I used to love to watch Anderson Cooper 360, but then for so long we didn’t have cable (over a year) when I lived in Indiana and I sort of got out of the habit. Now Trab is home and I decided to get cable again (I rarely watch it when I’m alone, so saw no need to have it hooked up when I was) and have found myself back watching AC360 ag...more
The book is not a literary wonder. Many times I feel like he is a non-writer trying to be poetic when he delivers a narrative. But the fact that its so personal, made it a good read.
Anderson Cooper is a dark person with a troubled past (know knew?). His memoirs are a very personal soul-searching attempt at making sense of his place in the world. These memoirs are the products of his efforts as he travels the worlds and sees the humanity at its lowest and lives among it - sometimes as...more
Anderson Cooper is a dark person with a troubled past (know knew?). His memoirs are a very personal soul-searching attempt at making sense of his place in the world. These memoirs are the products of his efforts as he travels the worlds and sees the humanity at its lowest and lives among it - sometimes as...more
I've heard journalist Anderson Cooper's name for years but rarely see him on TV because I don't watch CNN. This memoir turned out to be as much a personal story as one about covering some of the worst tragedies in recent memory, including Bosnia, Katrina, and the tsunami. I did not know that his mother is Gloria Vanderbilt. You can see how that might have considerable influence on one's formative years. But that notoriety was negligible compared to the impact of two personal tragedies--the deat...more
I stumbled upon this book a few days ago and am very glad that I did. It's a quick, but significant read. I've never really paid that much attention to news anchors, but Anderson Cooper's life is worth a story. Born into the Vanderbilt lineage, Cooper lost his father and his brother at an early age. He has spent the rest of his life trying to cope with both of those losses and chose the medium of field reporting in order to do so. This particular book chronicles Cooper's 2005, a year fraugh...more
This book was not really what I was expecting, but I was happily surprised and glad that I read it. The book gives a first-hand view into reporting in nearly every hot spot in the world during the last several decades. The reader also learns some personal information about Cooper which allows one to make sense of his travels and travails.
The writing is not overly-pedantic in the least, and is, in fact, offered in short, crisp, AP News style, which makes it a pretty quick read. But...more
The writing is not overly-pedantic in the least, and is, in fact, offered in short, crisp, AP News style, which makes it a pretty quick read. But...more
Once again I find myself really wishing GoodReads allowed half-stars. If it did, I'd be giving this one 3.5 stars, but I always give the benefit of the doubt and round up, so 4 stars it is.
I've never really liked Anderson Cooper. He's always struck me as self-important and a little inhuman since he never seems to crack a smile. I actually like him just a teensy bit more after reading this. True, it's hard to buy into his "poor little rich kid" background. It seems pretty cl...more
I've never really liked Anderson Cooper. He's always struck me as self-important and a little inhuman since he never seems to crack a smile. I actually like him just a teensy bit more after reading this. True, it's hard to buy into his "poor little rich kid" background. It seems pretty cl...more
I really enjoyed Anderson Cooper’s book, “Dispatches From The Edge”.
It’s an interesting and very honest look into the stories he’s lived through and covered. He interweaves his reflections on some of the most powerful stories that he has covered, with his own life and the part that that has played in his journey to this point in time.
Each of the stories that he talks about involve massive human suffering. He recounts his time spent in Sri Lanka following the tsunami, his ...more
It’s an interesting and very honest look into the stories he’s lived through and covered. He interweaves his reflections on some of the most powerful stories that he has covered, with his own life and the part that that has played in his journey to this point in time.
Each of the stories that he talks about involve massive human suffering. He recounts his time spent in Sri Lanka following the tsunami, his ...more
This book is a must read for any fan of honest journalism or of Anderson Cooper. It fascinating to learn about all of the different places, people, and stories Anderson has covered in his relatively short career. His desire to be in the action while it's happening, his compassion for others, and his honesty is clearly what earned him a prime time slot on CNN, which has since turned to gold. The tragedies Cooper experienced in his personal life involving his only male role models (his father dyin...more
I have the utmost respect for this guy. Highly informed, willing to dispatch news at the worst places and participant of his own family publicized tragedy. That being said, listening to Anderson's memoir is depressing, and.....interesting, in a "I just read a juicy US Magazine article" kind of way. As a young reporter, just out of college, Cooper goes to these terrible war-zone places, completely on his own and reports with a hand-held camera, just to get a job from one of the major ...more
It's taken me some time to get around to reviewing the book. Time plus not really being sure what I wanted to say. I picked up this book because I like Anderson Cooper. There was a piece about him in Entertainment Weekly and it left me curious to read his book.
Overall I did quite like the book (more 3.5 stars than 4, but I round up). He writes in a somewhat confusing manner that other people here have addressed. I think I get it, or at least, I've arrived at a possible explanation that...more
Overall I did quite like the book (more 3.5 stars than 4, but I round up). He writes in a somewhat confusing manner that other people here have addressed. I think I get it, or at least, I've arrived at a possible explanation that...more
Thanks to my daughter's recommendation, I bumped this book up on my to-read priority list, and I'm glad I did. Anderson Cooper did a great job of distilling his reporting experiences during the disaster-filled year of 2005 and juxtaposing those experiences with his efforts to come to terms with his older brother's suicide nearly two decades earlier. I'm old enough to have remembered Carter Cooper's death, and therefore I knew Anderson's mother is Gloria Vanderbilt. When Anderson became a CNN rep...more
Anderson Cooper has a gift for getting to the heart of a story and treating his interview subjects with compassion and respect; this book gives the reader an idea of how he has become one of the finest journalists of our generation and why he continues doing what he does in some of the most dangerous spots in the world. In one of the best memoirs I've ever read, Anderson Cooper expertly intertwines his personal life experiences, including the premature death of his father and the suicide of his ...more
What a treat it is to find a memoir that tells of one person's life while touching your own. I have always been in awe of Anderson Cooper's beauty and strength during traumatic events. It was not until I read his memoir that I discovered that the root of this strength is his rootlessness. In my mind, he has gone from being a reporter to a hero.
Unlike other memoirs, Cooper does not praise himself anymore than he berates himself. His book is written like how he tells the news, straight and to...more
Unlike other memoirs, Cooper does not praise himself anymore than he berates himself. His book is written like how he tells the news, straight and to...more
There was a great deal of media hype many years ago about Cooper's involvement in covering Hurricane Katrina. Many media critics dismissed him as another self-serving political reporter who favored drama over seriousness. This book to a certain extent will allay some of those critiques: in many ways, Cooper is quite an old-fashioned journalist. He has a journalist's knack for rounding up the different sides of a story and for finding good interviewees who in a few words can tell their side poign...more
Some of these stories were compelling and I liked a lot of Anderson Cooper's conviction throughout it but the entire time I was wondering "if you're saying it seems so strange and detached that news people are just gawking and you feel bad because you find yourself doing it sometimes...STOP DOING IT!"
It was a creepy story of how someone knows what the answer is and realizes that his profession, in general, doesn't help the situation but then he hides behind his profession o...more
It was a creepy story of how someone knows what the answer is and realizes that his profession, in general, doesn't help the situation but then he hides behind his profession o...more
A friend recommended this book, and since the Silver Fox is all over daytime and nighttime talk now, I thought I'd give it a try. It's a really good read, not a wonderfully, well-developed story, but rather a first-hand retelling of major news stories in 2005 (and in the 1990s) like Katrina and the Tsunami. The real gem in this book is how Cooper reveals his personal story (living as the son of Gloria Vanderbilt and the death of his brother, father) through his experiences in reporting. I fou...more
I didn't realize Anderson Cooper's mother is Gloria Vanderbilt, how fascinating.
This memoir of reporting around the globe, is interspersed with stories about Anderson's brother and his father, and both of their deaths, as well as loss and death around the world. I read this on my Kindle, if it makes a difference. It was very fast to read, maybe it seemed faster as an ebook. Always interesting to read a memoir, people can give you as much or as little about themselves as they choose and use...more
This memoir of reporting around the globe, is interspersed with stories about Anderson's brother and his father, and both of their deaths, as well as loss and death around the world. I read this on my Kindle, if it makes a difference. It was very fast to read, maybe it seemed faster as an ebook. Always interesting to read a memoir, people can give you as much or as little about themselves as they choose and use...more
Cooper weaves autobiography and world events together in an engaging work of non-fiction. Part of me was somewhat disappointed that the narrative didn't offer more surprises, but on the other hand I felt that my post-modern world view was validated. Cooper tries to deal with one of the biggest and perhaps most important questions of media and news coverage, which is how the reporter should react, what are his or her responsibilities in a time of disaster. Merely to record the events? To pitc...more
It is one of the heaviest books to read (especially after Haiti earthquake has happened for just over a week) , yet it is also one of the fastest-read books I have ever done. Just spent 1-2 hours a night in a week's time, I got it finished. I feel like I had personally been to all the major wars, natural and man-made traumas happened in less than a decade from 2010 and seen all the heart-breaking inhumanities, which made no difference whether it happened in a third-world developing country or a ...more
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Anderson Hays Cooper is an Emmy Award winning American journalist, author, and television personality. He currently works as the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories.
Cooper is the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Coope...more
More about Anderson Cooper...
Cooper is the younger son of the writer Wyatt Emory Coope...more
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“Each child’s story is worthy of telling. There shouldn’t be a sliding scale of death. The weight of it is crushing.”
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