I am reading right now ''In an Instant by Lee and Bob Woodruff. Bob being in Iraq for ABC News an explosive device goes off near the tank Bob and his photographer were in. Serious injury to both men. This memoir is about family and how thru rough times like this they come together Any of you read this? I also finished Crossing Borders by Jorge Ramos newscaster on Univision. I have more but what would you pass along? FWIW, on families coming together I enjoy reading your posts about times with your families

I will check those both out. They really sounded fascinating, but I had not heard from anyone who had read them. From one Dave to another: Thanks!

I loved "Guerrilla Radio" by Matthew Collin when it came out about five years ago. I still enthusiastically recommend it to anyone who wants to really see the power of media. It is also a damning portrait of the many sides mixed up in the Balkan conflict. To sum it up: A rock and roll station in Serbia is born through a loophole, lives on a prayer, and cannot be blown up or shut down permanently. Eventually, it plays a role in bringing change, and thanks to brave and clever radio folks, is still around today. http://www.b92.net/eng/

Thread-Jack:

Has anyone read "Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time", a memoir by Rob Sheffield? It was my book group's choice, and it's a quick read.

"A celebratory eulogy for life in "the decade of Nirvana," rock critic Sheffield's captivating memoir uses 22 "mix tapes" to describe his being "tangled up" in the "noisy, juicy, sparkly life" of his wife, Renee, from the time they met in 1989 to her sudden death from a pulmonary embolism in 1997. Each chapter begins with song titles from the couple's myriad mixes—"Tapes for making out, tapes for dancing, tapes for falling asleep"—and uses them to describe a beautiful love story: "a real cool hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl" meeting in graduate school a "hermit wolfboy, scared of life, hiding in my room with my records," and how they built a tender relationship on the music they loved, from the Meat Puppets to Hank Williams. Their bond as soul mates makes his reaction to her death deeply moving: "I had no voice to talk with because she was my whole language." But Sheffield's wonderful, often hilarious and lovingly detailed stories about their early romance and their later domestic life show how they created their own personal "mix tape" of life in the same way a music mix tape "steals moments from all over the musical cosmos and splices them into a whole new groove."

http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/mixtape/

I saw the Woodruffs on C-Span talking about their book and his recovery. Very compelling stuff. I will definitely read the book.

I just finished "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson. What a terrific book!!! Swanson gives a deliberate but gripping account of the assassination and the hunt for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators. It's not easy to breathe life into something so potentially dry, but Swanson makes it interesting.

Just bought a copy of George Tenet's new book "At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA" which I am anxious to read. In the meantime, I'm working through "And the Band Played On" by Randy Shilts, an old classic I've finally gotten around to reading (about the onset of the AIDS crisis in the early 80s and how people dealt with it - or didn't deal with it and the consequences that has had).

Andrew

I'd love to read "Manhunt", I've read such great reviews of it, and it's something I wouldn't pick up in a bookstore, but it sounds fascinating! It's on my list, but having a baby really took away all reading time, my above book is the first non-baby-related book I've read in 16 months! Yikes! Pathetic!

Kind of off topic but related to reading. As a along time comic book fan I was in a shop just the other day, have not been in years. I was astonished that just recently Marvel comics actually killed off "Captain America"! And not like Superman back in the 90's....he is Dead for sure! WHY? Why would Marvel comics pick this time to kill off the one national hero in it's lineup, Steve Rogers....aka...Captain America. I was just astonished by that!

Nuff Said Bout That!

I'm just starting "Socrate's Cafe'" by Christopher Phillips. Lots of insights that will help me in the classroom, but helpful to anyone that would participate in the Socratic Method of discussion - which is what we supposedly are trying to do here.