Books That Journalists Should Read, Absolutely

Slouching Towards Bethlehem  by Joan Didion

This book is on the list of books recommended by members of the CMA listserv as a book that all journalists should read, and I would agree.

I’ve read some of Joan Didion’s most recent books, including the previously reviewed The Year of Magical Thinking, but this is the first one of Didion’s early books that I’ve read. This book is a compilation of essays Didion wrote, mostly about 1960s California.

For those who were children, or rather teens and young adults of the 1960s, this book will remind them of life during the days of drugs, alcohol, rock ‘n roll and free love. Since I don’t really remember those days, this collection of essays gave me another view of the counterculture movement, but what this really gave me was an indication of the lyrical writing style that Didion developed.

While her latest books display a fully developed writer undertaking some of the most difficult subjects anyone has to deal with such as death, dying and the grief process, this book shows Didion in the early stages of her craft but with talent to spare.

Didion’s use of language and style to display tone and mood are superior. Her finely tuned reporting ability gives you the feeling that you are there with her as she interviews Joan Baez, John Wayne and “average” people with the hopes of getting to the heart of life in 1960s America.

This collection gives a great perspective on the history of the United States and the history of a great writer and reporter. Didion shows a keen eye for detail, facts and lyrical voice, providing some of the best narrative writing you will ever read.

A must read for journalists—I’d say absolutely. Unlike the crazy antics and writing of Hunter Thompson, who also wrote about this time period, Joan Didion provides facts and truth, describing the world as it exists and dissecting its meaning, something that all journalism students would be advised to learn.

Up next, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

Books Journalists Should Read, Definitely

Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis


This is the second Michael Lewis book I have read, with a previous review of Moneyball.

Lewis is a bestselling author and journalist, specializing in business journalism. His forte from the two books that I’ve read is transforming complex economic and business issues into easy-to-understand prose. Lewis also displays a wicked sense of humor in this book, sometimes veering toward scathing, but always entertaining. The title alone demonstrates his sense of the absurd. Look at the table of contents and the countries covered—the new Third World includes Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany and the United States.

If you’ll notice, three of the five countries Lewis includes in his list have already experienced severe financial meltdown, and some would probably argue that all five are headed in that direction, which is why Lewis considers them part of the new Third World.

This book details his travels into this new Third World to discover why financial meltdown has occurred or is occuring.

Boomerang shows a top-notch reporter’s skills at their best. Using statistics and personal anecdotes, this book details the economics behind the global financial meltdown and the cultural imperatives that drove it.

Whether it was the unregulated ability for Icelanders to become investment bankers—the overconfidence of the traditional fishermen to learn anything quickly—or the idea that Irish from throughout the world would find their way back to Ireland to buy the massive numbers of second homes being built, it’s easy to see how cultural imperatives, lax loan standards and just plain delusion led many of these countries and to financial disaster.

While this book wasn't on the CMA list of books journalists should read, I think it should be added. Lewis tells a compelling story, using great reporting and clear analysis. If that isn't a great example of good communication, especially for young journalists, I don't know what is.

Up next, the previously promised review of Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem.

Books Journalists Should Read, Yes

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

So I'll make a confession: This is the first Joan Didion book I've read. Ever.

I know, I know. Hard to believe for someone who teaches journalism courses, but there it is. I've said it.

Now on to more important things. Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking is a literary memoir following Didion for the year after her husband's death. As a good journalist, she copes with the grief by searching for knowledge and then writing about that knowledge and analyzing what happens.

This book plumbs the depths of grief and mourning. In this case, the grief and mourning for a spouse of many years, 40 to be exact. You see the true partnership through Didion's eyes, and how great love and great friendship can cause the greatest pain when a partner dies.

As Didion goes through the year researching grief and mourning, she also lives it, giving this book the raw emotion and insightful deductions that oftentimes clarify and confuse as you see things through Didion's confused mind. But through the year, the clarity with which Didion illuminates the acts of death and grief touches anyone who has experienced the death of someone close.

An example of some of Didion's magical thinking:

"We do not expect this shock to be obliterative, dislocating to both body and mind...we do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return and need his shoes."

While the book provides a thorough investigation of the literature on grief and death, it also explores the more personal nature of the subject, coming to some startling, yet inevitable conclusions:

"Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it."

And in the final chapter and final pages of the book:

"I know why we try to keep the dead alive: we try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us. I also know that if we are to live ourselves there comes a point at which we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead."

As a must read book for journalists, this book tackles a difficult subject, uses beautiful language and style, clear description, strong reporting, and insightful analysis that demonstrates the kind of critical thinking we all want our students to understand and practice. For this, The Year of Magical Thinking won the National Book Award.

As a must read book overall, I'd recommend this book for it's thoughtful, brutal, sensitive and frank portrayal of grief and mourning. 

We may not truly know grief until we get there on our own, but The Year of Magical Thinking can certainly help us understand the passage a little bit better and not feel so alone as we take the journey.