Task #5: A book by a journalist or about journalism

[Z]

Hafsa wrote: "Does Palestine by Joe Sacco count? I just want to confirm before I get started on it!"

Definitely, I've been looking forward to reading that book for a while.

[Breanna]

Does Beautiful Boy count? The father who wrote the book is a journalist but the book is about his son's drug addiction.

[ekr]

Hafsa wrote: "Does Palestine by Joe Sacco count? I just want to confirm before I get started on it!"

Ooh, perfect! I can't wait to finally read it!

[Breanna]

I plan to read Drug War Capitalism for this challenge.

[Anna]

I'm just finishing American War - it's fiction, but the author is a journalist. It's pretty good, if someone wants a fiction option for this one.

[Monica]

I'm just finishing up Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin for MLK wknd. Excellent!! I am also planning on reading Thank You for Your Service this year.

For others looking for suggestions I highly recommend All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation and/or Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger both by Rebecca Traister and both are excellent!

[Breanna]

I’d recommend The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan for this challenge. It’s about soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who refused to fight in the war. It’s easy to read and there are many interviews with soldiers throughout the book.

[Megan]

I just finished Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II by Liza Mundy. It was excellent and I HIGHLY recommend it.

Also, Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old by John Leland was very good.

[Mandy]

Kimberley wrote: "Going with For One More Day by journalist Mitch Albom who wrote Tuesdays with Morrie which I read in 2017 I think."

Awesome list!

[Siobhan]

DisneyWar works for this

[Doris]

I didn't realize it, but the author of The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century, which I just finished, is a journalist.

[Zeynep]

I read The Library Book by Susan Orlean

[Teresa]

I read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea written by Barbara Demick, based on her interviews with defectors in South Korea . It was eye opening and well written.

[Randi]

Would Sadie by Courtney Summers work? It's partially told via a true crime/investigative journalism podcast.

[Joyce]

Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper

[Helene]

Does Factfulness by Hans Rosling count? It's neither by a journalist nor strictly speaking about journalism, but rather about all of our views of the world, how wrong it is, and what to look out for when you're presented with facts about the world.

[Hebah]

I initially checked out Abbott from the library just because I've been following Saladin Ahmed's writing and wanted to read this, but it also works as a book by a journalist or about journalism.

In this case, protagonist Elena Abbott is a chain-smoking, brandy-drinking investigative journalist in 1970s detroit who is willing to pursue stories those in power would rather see silenced. They weren't happy about the story she did on police brutality, and they'd just as soon she dropped the story about mutilated corpses, putting pressure on her boss to fire her. While on the story of the first human victim found, Elena witnesses a shadowy monster, the likes of which took her first husband from her. What follows is equal parts investigative journalism and Lovecraftian horror, with a fair deal of social critique along the way.

[Elsbeth]

Got this one! The beautiful biography of Marie Colvin by Lindsay Hilsum. A wonderful read!

[Shelley]

I went with Another Day of Life about the civil war during Angola's independence. I knew very little about the country so it was an interesting read.

[Genie]

I just read the NYT's review of Jill Abramson's new book, Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/bo...) . They say it is "examining four news organizations trying to sail through the storm of digital transformation: BuzzFeed, Vice, The Washington Post and The Times." They say it is a "marvelous" book although she uses it to settle some scores from her time as Executive Editor of the New York Times. I am definitely going to read this one for this part of the challenge.

[Nikki]

I read Kurt Eichenwald's memoir, A Mind Unraveled about his life with epilepsy and some seriously horrible doctors he encountered as he was first diagnosed in the early 80s. Swarthmore College, where he attended and I currently work, figures prominently (not in a good way). He's a journalist, and how he got into the field features.

[Rebecka]

For those of you who speak (or are able to read in) Swedish, I highly recommend Jemen är bra! by journalist Tanja Holm who lived in Yemen for several years. Her book is one of the best I've ever read on Yemen.

[Maria]

Randi wrote: "Would Sadie by Courtney Summers work? It's partially told via a true crime/investigative journalism podcast."

I was just thinking the same thing! Currently reading it and LOVING it. I think, for me, it counts! :)

[Mandie]

I'm listening to Anderson Cooper's Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival for this prompt.

[Melody]

I think I'm leaning towards either Guy Delisle or Joe Sacco for this, but I'm curious to see if anyone has recommendations for a fiction rather than a nonfiction work for this prompt?

[Mya]

I'm looking forward to reading Trailblazer: A Pioneering Journalist's Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America, by Dorothy Butler Gilliam. She was the the first black female reporter at the Washington Post.

[Renee]

Marching Powder by Thomas McFadden

[Kelly]

What if the author is a journalist but the book is fictional?

[Anneka]

Kelly wrote: "What if the author is a journalist but the book is fictional?

"

Hi Kelly, the challenge is:

Task #5: A book by a journalist or about journalism

So if the author is a journalist that counts!

[Genie]

Genie wrote: "I just read the NYT's review of Jill Abramson's new book, Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/bo......"

I am commenting on my own post, having now read two articles about the numerous errors in this book (https://splinternews.com/jill-abramso...) and that at least some of it was plagiarized (https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/...). So I am going back to my original idea of reading April Ryan's Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House (https://www.amazon.com/Under-Fire-Rep...). Reading about journalism through a book that was plagiarized and error-filled kind of defeats the purpose!

[Tammy]

The author of Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food is a journalist. I recommend it, especially if you are interested in learning about the where and how of food. Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....

[Lavanya]

I think I'm going with "The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks". Rebecca Skloot.This has been on my TBR ever since I heard the Radiolab episode on Henrietta's tumor. Rebecca Skloot is a good science journalist.

[Octavia]

I found one both by a journalist and about journalism! I read The Polk Conspiracy: Murder and Cover-Up in the Case of CBS News Correspondent George Polk by Kati Marton. It's about a journalist who was murdered during the Greek Civil War. His murder was unsolved, but it looks very much like the Greek government had him killed after he uncovered some dodgy information about them - and the Americans and the Brits who were propping up that regime helped them to cover up said murder by cooking up a cock-and-bull story about Polk being done in by communists. Fascinating and infuriating.

[Erica]

Veronica wrote: "I'm going to read And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. I've tried to read it twice and have yet to make it all the way through. This time I will."

Such an amazing book.

[Britany]

Finished The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know by Katty Kay

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Lesley]

I’ll be reading Fear: Trump in the White House for this. It was lent to me and although I’m not looking forward to the content, I do want to read it.

[Lissa Mascio]

The Library Book by Susan Orlean was fantastic - a masterful blend of reporting and history. And if you are doing a challenge that requires a book about books you'll have a twofer.

[Ella]

Would Wade Davis' Serpent and The Rainbow work here?

[L Y N N]

Tracy wrote: "I have Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity on my kindle. I also found We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Fam..."</i>

[book:Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity was such an eye-opening book! Highly recommended!

[L Y N N]

Stina wrote: "Andrea wrote: "None of these are about journalism, but the authors are journalists:

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away or many other titles..."

I (and my book club) loved The Glass Castle and The Persian Pickle Club!!

Also, if you enjoy historical fiction, I loved Half Broke Horses!!

[L Y N N]

Anything written by Susan Casey. I loved The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean and would easily read anything she writes!

[Harper]

Lesley wrote: "I’ll be reading Fear: Trump in the White House for this. It was lent to me and although I’m not looking forward to the content, I do want to read it."

I'm reading this book now/off and on. I think I can tell who the sources are by the perspective that is being told. The Steve-Bannon-as-probable-source section about the 2016 election was hard to stomach. I can't read too much of this book at a time.

[Harper]

Mya wrote: "Already in my to-read list - Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq is a graphic novel about two reporters as they research potential stories on the effects of t..."

Oh, neat! I remember checking this book out from the library but not getting to it before my checkout time ran out. Maybe it's worth another go?

[Emily]

I’m planning to read Parkland: Birth of a Movement for this prompt!

[Michele Lynn]

Would Murder at Broadcast Park by Bill Evans work for this category?

[Anna]

I went with American War, which is not at all about journalism, but is by a journalist.

[Pamela Roberts]

Katharine Graham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography Personal History is one of my favorites - it traces the evolution of the Washington Post through Watergate and the Pentagon Papers, her marriage and her husband’s depression, her growth as a strong woman business leader. Amazing story and well told.

[Connie]

A Thousand Farewells by Nahlah Ayed. A CBC journalist about her upbringing in Canada and the Middle East and her time as a journalist there. Don't usually read memoirs but learned a lot.

[Harper]

I read Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives. It was wonderful; I learned a lot and it expanded my thinking about gun deaths in America.

[Wellington]

I read Bad Blood by John Carreyrou for this challenge. I thought it was excellent and definitely recommend it. He does an excellent job of describing the basic science behind what Theranos was trying to do without dumbing it down so much that someone who is a scientist wouldn't still like it.