1 post tagged “alex kotlowitz”
Reading literary and narrative journalism books as an entry-level journalist can inspire you to strive for greatness in this field. To make your work important and have the courage to tackle unpopular issues and bring them to light, as well as tell extraordinary accounts of people who truly matter.
These journalists show you the kind of reporting and writing that's possible and even just for a second, makes you believe that someday...you might just be able to do it too.
Here are some of the best that are in my personal library:
*Please Note* Some books are compilations of articles
*Please Note* Some books are compilations of articles
"There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children" By Melissa Fay Greene
Book Description from the inside flap of the hardover:
"With the grace of a novelist and the reportial instincts of a seasoned journalist, two-time National Book Award nominee Melissa Fay Greene gets to the heart of the AIDS crisis in this powerful story of a woman working to save her country's children, one at a time.
There Is No Me Without You is the story of Haregewoin and her children: a story of struggle, but also of the triumph of saved lives and the renewed happiness of children welcomed by adoptive parents in Ethiopia, America, and around the world. It is the story of what one human being can do in a time of crisis. And at heart, it is a book about children and parents, wherever they may be, however they may find each other."
"Somebody Told Me" By Rick Bragg.Book Description from the back cover:
"Rick Bragg has spent the last 20 years establishing himself as one of the most interesting and influential journalists in America. Moving yet unsentimental, his stories depict the struggles of ordinary individuals at the moments that they are most revealing.
Here are men and women who have survived the cruel whims of tornados, bombs, and other injustices. Sometimes they prevail, sometimes merely endure, but they always exhibit remarkable resilience, courage, and humor. Written with incisive, unadorned prose, these memorable pieces rise above journalism to become literature."
"There Are No Children Here" By Alex KotlowitzBook Description from Library Journal:
"In this powerful and moving book (an expansion of his 1988 Wall Street Journal series), reporter Kotlowitz traces two years in the lives of 10-year-old Lafeyette and 7-year-old Pharoah Rivers as they struggle to beat the odds and grow up in one of Chicago's worst housing projects.
Confronted with violent gangs, persistent poverty, and personal tragedies (a beloved older brother is convicted on robbery charges), the brothers differ in their attempts to survive. Lafeyette replaces his frequently absent father as the man of the house, trying to help his mother and to protect his younger siblings from the dangers of the project. Sensitive and imaginative Pharoah seeks escape through his daydreams and schoolwork. Unless they have hearts of stone, few readers will fail to become emotionally involved with these boys, as Kotlowitz did..."
"Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival" By Anderson CooperBook Description at BarnesandNoble.com:
"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.
But recently, during the course of one extraordinary, tumultuous year, it became impossible for him to continue to separate his work from his life. Writing with vivid memories of his childhood and early career as a roving correspondent, Cooper reveals for the first time how deeply affected he has been by the wars, disasters, and tragedies he has witnessed, and why he continues to be drawn to some of the most perilous places on earth.
Striking, heartfelt, and utterly engrossing, Dispatches from the Edge is an unforgettable memoir that takes us behind the scenes of the cataclysmic events of our age and allows us to see them through the eyes of one of America's most trusted, fearless, and pioneering reporters."
"Alcohol: Cradle to Grave" By Eric NewhouseBook description at Amazon.com:
"This disturbing book is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper series on alcohol abuse and its social impact. This book is a diary of Newhouse's reporting, including interviews with alcoholics as they struggle day-to-day with their illness.
His subjects reveal their darkest secrets and frightening recollections of alcoholism in their families. He includes statistics on the overt and hidden costs of alcoholism in hospital and program treatment, police enforcement, social services, and the proliferation of one of the most dangerous legal substances taken by Americans."
OTHER IMPORTANT READS
"With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military"
By Michael L. Weinstein and Davin Seay
"With God on Our Side is shocking exposé of life inside the United States Air Force Academy and the systematic program of indoctrination sanctioned, coordinated, and carried out by fundamentalist Christians within the U.S. military....An important book at a critical time in our nation’s history, it is the story of one man’s courageous struggle to thwart a creeping evangelism permeating America’s military and to prevent a taxpayer-funded theocracy in which only the true believers have power." -from Amazon.com
"Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America"
By Barbara Ehrenreich
"To understand life beyond boom-time America, Barbara Ehrenreich spent months laboring as a cleaning woman; as a waitress; and as a Wal-Mart sales clerk. Her revelations about these hard, supposedly "unskilled" jobs and the difficulty of making ends meet in the U.S. gives this book a powerful, personal edge.
Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity--a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor."
-from Barnesandnoble.com
