It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Apr 12, 2016 Maryam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, favorites, non-fiction, favorite2016, memoir-biography-autobiography

Journalism is a selfish profession but I still believe in power of its purpose and hoped my family too

Taliban fighters near the Afghan border, 2008 (part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series) (Lynsey Addario/Getty Images Reportage)

Taliban fighters near the Afghan border, 2008 (part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series) (Lynsey Addario/Getty Images Reportage)

Three months after I was born, a war began between Iran and Iraq which lasted for 8 years. I still remember most of those years. I was young and I didn’t live in the cities close to border but still there were bombings, I remember horror of loud sound of red alarm broadcasted through streets by loudspeakers and then calmness brought by hearing green alarm. Still this book showed me much more ab ...more

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Mar 14, 2020 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, social-issues-social-sciences, memoir-and-autobiographical-essays, audio

This is such a riveting book, definitely one of the best memoirs I’ve read. I’d never heard of Addario before, so - other than obviously knowing she would survive to write this book - I never had any idea what was going to happen, and I couldn’t wait to read more and find out. Her life as a photographer/photojournalist took her around the world, to almost every modern conflict on the globe.

... when I am doing my work, I am alive and I am me. It’s what I do. I am sure there are other versions

This is such a riveting book, definitely one of the best memoirs I’ve read. I’d never heard of Addario before, so - other than obviously knowing she would survive to write this book - I never had any idea what was going to happen, and I couldn’t wait to read more and find out. Her life as a photographer/photojournalist took her around the world, to almost every modern conflict on the globe.

... when I am doing my work, I am alive and I am me. It’s what I do. I am sure there are other versions of happiness, but this one is mine.

The audiobook was really well done. One might think - as I did - that a book about/by a photographer should be read in hard copy. You know, for the pictures. But I stalled reading the hard copy. I was not fully riveted until a month later when I switched to audiobook. Addario is a fantastic writer and her words really lend themselves to the oral tradition of telling the story. Her only mis-step was in the overly-wordy and detailed prologue, which dumps us right into the middle of the action, and which is where I stalled in the hard copy. It was hard to maintain interest when I didn’t really “know” the people yet. If that happened to you, too, give this book another try: skip ahead to the last page of the Prologue and jump right into the story. (You can always go back and read the Prologue later, after Part 3!)

I did go back to the hardcopy to look at the pictures, but Addario is such a vibrant and strong writer, her words affected me even more than her photos. (She may not be happy hearing that!!) The only thing missing from this book was why she chose to write it. She leads a peripatetic life, when did she decide to slow down long enough to put a book together?

Several content warnings: since Addario’s work took her to some violent places, CW for violence, brutality, rape, dismemberment, illness, cruelty, death, warfare, gunfire, and kidnapping. You will probably cry.

Also, surprisingly, CW for use of the words “transvestite” and “tranny” in the first chapter. It wasn’t clear to me why she used those words when they are known to be offensive; she is an otherwise thoughtful and compassionate writer. ...more

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Mar 03, 2015 Susanne Clower rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, biography, memoir, travel, women

I really enjoyed reading this book. I didn't agree with all of her choices but I came to understand them through the passion of her writing. By the end I thought this was a very powerful story of a woman pursuing her vocation with dedication and zeal. ...more

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