Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom by Carl Bernstein
Nonfiction
What it’s about: Before he became famous for his Watergate reporting at the Washington Post, Carl Bernstein started his newspaper career as a teenage copy boy at the Washington Star. This engaging, spirited memoir tells the story of a young man finding his calling in the rollicking newsrooms of the early 1960s. Bernstein provides a wide-eyed, first-hand, behind-the-scenes view of reporting major 20th century news stories, including the Civil Rights Movement, Sputnik, and the Kennedy assassination.
Why you might like it: Bernstein is a great storyteller, and the people of the newsroom are quirky, larger than life, and unforgettable—so this memoir reads like fiction (even though it’s true).
You might also like: While the timeframe and setting are completely different, Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi is another exuberant memoir of mastering skills through on-the-job training.
Visit Stacey’s My Librarian Page
Comments