Book Review: This Just In by Bob Schieffer

This Just In: What I Couldn’t Tell You on TV
by Bob Schieffer (070.192 Sch)

Long-time reporter Bob Schieffer discusses the stories and people that spanned his career. The book begins with the Kennedy assassination in 1963 through the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade towers in New York City in 2001. He provides fascinating, and frequently emotional and poignant, behind-the-scenes stories on people and events.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and ended up buying my own copy. No part of the book got bogged down in a boring recitation of “just the facts.” He provided context in both location, situation, and people involved.

This is a fast-read that I couldn’t put down even at 423 pages.

[ Wikipedia page about Bob Schieffer ] | [ official Bob Schieffer Twitter feed ]

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Fantasy Fiction - Good News and Bad News

The last few days have seen two newsworthy announcements in the media of interest to fans of fantasy fiction.

First, the Bad News:
Author Terry Pratchett, known for the immensely popular Discworld series (and Good Omens in partnership with Neil Gaiman), announced through artist friend Paul Kidby's website that he has been diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's Disease. Click on the BBC news article for more information.

And the Good News:
Following the death of James Oliver Rigney Jr., who wrote fantasy under the pseudonym Robert Jordan, there was uncertainty as to whether the unfinished 10th and final volume in Jordan's hugely successful Wheel of Time series would ever see the light of day. Jordan's publisher announced on December 7th that Nebraska's own Brandon Sanderson has been tapped to finish Jordan's final book. See the full article on publisher Tor's web site!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard...worth $4 million?

One copy of J.K. Rowling's handmade Harry Potter tie-in, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, complete with hand-drawn artwork by Rowling, bound in Moroccan leather and ornamented with sterling silver and moonstones, has been sold at a Southeby's auction to Amazon.com for $4 million.

The other six copies of the book were all apparently given as gifts to friends and associates of Rowling, with this single copy going to auction, to benefit The Children's Voice, a charity founded by Rowling and Baroness Nicholson of Britain's House of Lords.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a book mentioned prominently in the text of the final Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was released this past July.

For more information, including images of/from the book and reviews of the stories in the book, visit Amazon.com's Beedle the Bard site.

R.I.P. Madeleine L'Engle

From the AP newswire feed earlier today:

HARTFORD, Conn. - Author Madeleine L'Engle, whose novel "A Wrinkle in Time" has been enjoyed by generations of schoolchildren and adults since the 1960s, has died, her publicist said Friday. She was 88. L'Engle died Thursday at a nursing home in Litchfield of natural causes, according to Jennifer Doerr, publicity manager for publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

The Newbery Medal winner wrote more than 60 books, including fantasies, poetry and memoirs, often highlighting spiritual themes and her Christian faith.

Although L'Engle was often labeled a children's author, she disliked that classification. In a 1993 Associated Press interview, she said she did not write down to children.

"In my dreams, I never have an age," she said. "I never write for any age group in mind. When people do, they tend to be tolerant and condescending and they don't write as well as they can write.

"When you underestimate your audience, you're cutting yourself off from your best work."

"A Wrinkle in Time" — which L'Engle said was rejected repeatedly before it found a publisher in 1962 — won the American Library Association's 1963 Newbery Medal for best American children's book. Her "A Ring of Endless Light" was a Newbery Honor Book, or medal runner-up, in 1981.

In 2004, President Bush awarded her a National Humanities Medal.

"Wrinkle" tells the story of adolescent Meg Murry, her genius little brother Charles Wallace, and their battle against evil as they search across the universe for their missing father, a scientist.

L'Engle followed it up with further adventures of the Murry children, including "A Wind in the Door," 1973; "A Swiftly Tilting Planet," 1978, which won an American Book Award; and "Many Waters," 1986.

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Here are some links to additional L'Engle information:

• The official Madeleine L'Engle website
• Bibliography of Madeleine L'Engle's works
• Madeleine L'Engle's wikipedia entry
• http://www.awrinkleintime.com/