Books That Journalists Should Read, Definitely

The Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway

This is book is on the list of books recommended by members of the CMA listserv as a book that all journalists should read under the heading “anything by Ernest Hemingway.” A note: I am not an Ernest Hemingway fan, but in this case, I would agree: The Green Hills of Africa is definitely a must read.

Hemingway’s direct description, tight writing and thorough storytelling make this book a good example of travel reportage.

Many years ago, I read  Death in the Afternoon by Hemingway for a Spanish class. I found it to be tiresome with its minute details about each bull. I also found the bloodsport associated with bullfighting to be personally repulsive. It didn’t keep me from seeing a bullfight myself, however.

The Green Hills of Africa, which details Hemingway’s game hunting trip, contains some of the same bloodsport, so if you can’t stomach hunting, this book isn’t for you. But unlike Death in the Afternoon, there are aspects of The Green Hills of Africa that provide descriptive and captivating prose about Africa, wild animals and the trackers who help Hemingway and his wife throughout their hunting travels.

It is clear in this book that Hemingway’s drinking is problematic, but this isn’t the only book where alcohol consumption is also a major part of the drama.

Hemingway as a character is no more or less developed than many of his characters in his foray into fiction. You do get a sense of Hemingway’s love of hunting in his description of this and other hunts.

Overall, this book can offer the reader great lessons in writing—clearly stringing words together to make short, simple yet not simplistic sentences and paragraphs, and how to weave details and description into a story. 

As always, it’s Hemingway’s clipped writing style that prevails moving the storyline forward at a good pace but never hurrying the action. To see how a writer can accomplish that is worth the read.

Up next, Chip and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick.

Books Everyone Should Read, Really

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson


This is 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.

While this book is celebrating its 50th anniversary, the ideas it contains are still just as fresh as they were when Carson introduced them—our planet is still imperiled by the overuse of toxic chemicals to kill weeds, bugs and other such pests, and people have a general carefree attitude about said herbicides, insecticides and other such toxic chemicals. But that isn’t the reason why all journalists should read this groundbreaking book.

All journalists, all communicators, should read this groundbreaking book because it contains great examples of well-written prose that use many different rhetorical devices to move the reader to action. This book was the beginning of the environmental movement because it stirred people. It moved them to action. It took disparate and complex ideas, broke them into simple language, used analogy, facts, stories and statistics to explain the ideas and challenged people to think differently and ultimately to act. That’s why Silent Spring was so controversial when it was published, and that’s why it continues to resonate with people today.

Carson proved that complex topics such as chemistry, biology and entomology, just to name a few, don’t have to be written about in complex language. She showed that simple, direct and eloquent writing could be applied to science so that the masses could understand. That idea lives on today in some of the best science writing. Take Jon Franklin's Pultizer Prize winning feature articles for example, specifically Mrs. Kelly's Monster.

So why should you, humble communication student, read this book? For two reasons:
1) It’s a great example of well-researched and thorough reporting that supports a well-written and eloquent thesis. In other words, it’s good writing.

2) You will like it, or you won’t like it, depending on your view of the environmental movement. Chances are, you won’t like it, because it will make you angry, but Silent Spring will make you feel. And that, is the most important reason you should read this book.

Up next, Earnest Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa.

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 Everyone Should Read, Really

Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin


Okay, so this book isn’t on College Media Adviser’s list of books journalists should read, but this is definitely a book everyone should read—journalists, communications professionals, educators, athletes, musicians, you name it. Everyone will find the tools needed to be the best in this book. And as the title indicates, it isn’t talent.

So what is it that separates the so-so performer from the good to the truly excellent world-class performer? Deliberate practice.

Yes I know. We’ve all heard the axiom, “Practice makes perfect.” But that’s not what Colvin means. What Colvin means is deliberate, meaningful, planned, systematic and difficult practice that allows you, the performer to practice a skill over-and-over-and-over.

It’s doing as Benjamin Franklin did to practice his writing…It’s finding prose superior to anything he had seen. In this case, the Spectator by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. He read an article. Took brief notes on the meaning of each sentence. A few days later, he would look at the notes and try to express the meaning in his own words. He would then compare his words to the original to discover his faults. His discovery: a poor vocabulary.

Franklin discovered that he could improve his vocabulary by writing poetry, which required a large stock of words with extensive knowledge of meaning and hue. So he rewrote the essays from the Spectator into verse. Then, he would rewrite the verse into prose after he had forgotten the meanings.

Not content to just work on vocabulary, he discovered a method to improve his organizational skills. He would write notes on each sentence in the essay on separate pieces of paper. After a week, he would put all of the pieces together to form the essay and compare to the original. Each time, Franklin would review his work for faults and start all over again. Sounds like a lot of work.

This is precisely why most of us don’t make it to expert. It’s a lot of work. Work isn’t fun.

Deliberate practice isn’t fun, but it does produce the truly world-class performer, with or without talent.

Another such example of deliberate practice at work was one of the most prolific professional football players of all-time, Jerry Rice, who played until age 42. His personal training regime was one that the 49ers’ trainer wouldn’t release for fear that others might hurt themselves.

Here were the hallmarks of Rice’s training regime, as analyzed by Colvin:
• He spent very little time playing football.
• He designed his practice to work on his specific needs.
• It wasn’t fun.
• He defied the conventional limits of age.

So according to Colvin, deliberate practice changes people in fundamental ways, turning people into experts who exhibit these qualities:
• They understand the significance of indicators that average performers don’t even notice.
• They look further ahead.
• They know more from seeing less.
• They make finer discriminations than average performers.
• And they remember more.

What does this mean for all of us? Well we can be superstars without talent.

All it takes is several hours (read about 8 hours per day if you haven’t started in your youth) to become prodigies. Good to know I can still become a world-class concert pianist.

Well, maybe I’ll just learn to play cool music…Maybe that won’t take as much practice time. So pull up a bench. Where’s my metronome?

Books Journalists Should Read, Not Really

Never Let Them See You Cry: More from Miami, America's Hottest Beat by Edna Buchanan


This book is a continuation of Buchanan's life as a police beat reporter with the Miami Herald and all of the strange tales she experienced in America's Hottest Beat. A reminder: I am an Edna Buchanan fan.

Buchanan wrote this book after the publication of her first novel, so this book is likely designed to play on the popularity of The Corpse Had a Familiar Face, her first nonfiction book about life as a police beat reporter in Miami.

And Buchanan doesn't disappoint, providing some of the trademark razor-sharp writing and observations that keep her the reigning queen of the police beat despite more than two decades of absence from her domain.

In describing a victim of crime:
"Ethel Lottman, a no-nonsense Miami Beach widow, seventy-two, handled her heart condition, her arthritis and a homicidal maniac with the same aplomb."

A description of the new South Beach:
"Sleepy South Beach, once famous for its senior citizens, now throbs through the soft nights with a healthy and and youthful energy, more lusty and alive than it has ever been."

While this book covers familiar ground in stories of murder and mayhem in Miami, it does break new ground. The last chapter also goes into Buchanan's struggle to embrace her new life as a novelist and drop her old journalistic habits.

This book marks the end of Buchanan's nonfiction, journalistic writing as she becomes what she had always dreamed of--a writer. A great loss for journalism.

The Corpse Had a Familiar Face was vintage Edna Buchanan at her journalistic best. Never Let Them See You Cry doesn't reach that level of journalistic technique in writing, analysis and reporting. It does foreshadow the crime novel career of Buchanan, one that is still going.

Never Let Them See You Cry is a must read if you are an Edna Buchanan fan. Otherwise, stick with The Corpse Had a Familiar Face. It provides more journalistic juice from the world's best police beat reporter, which is a crying shame.

Books Journalists Should Read, Definitely

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis


Disclaimer: I have not watched the movie Moneyball, but I did pick up this book because of the movie. Let me explain.

I was reading books that had been made into movies just for pleasure-reading, when I saw this book in my local library. It was near Friday Night Lights, which is a brilliant book. I saw the cover for Moneyball, so I picked it up. What a great idea, because this book is a wonderful example of great reporting. Another plus--it's a great example of good reporting, and it's about sports, tapping into a student journalist audience that often needs some push to read books.

But this book is about more than just baseball--this book is about how different views, new ideas and a move from the "tried-and-true" to the "cutting edge" can provide surprisingly effective results (stereotypical sports cliches aside now.)

Michael Lewis, a journalist of Blind Side fame, which I did watch, Lewis tells the story of the Oakland As and their management Billy Beane-style. Yes, he tells the story, which is one reason why this book is so compelling--it's great storytelling, often at its best.

We see Beane stalking around the locker room, wheeling and dealing for undervalued players from his office, talking with and dismissing the wisdom of old-school scouts, and relying on the new wizardry of computer analysis and massive amounts of statistical data to maximize the little bit of salary monies the As have.

At heart, this is an economics book, no different than many of Lewis' other economics books, just don't tell the sports nuts. But in practice, Moneyball is a great story, brilliantly told, with colorful and vibrant characters. It's clear that exhaustive reporting and hours of research went into this book, including much detail about the history of baseball statistics. It's also clear from the critical reviews by sports junkies that this book hit a nerve.

I read this book after reading Geoff Colvin's Talent is Overrated, which I will review next week. So I read Moneyball through that filter, a filter that had me thinking about talent quite differently. Maybe that's why I found Moneyball so powerful--because it chronicles the new way that Billy Beane viewed baseball. It reminds me of how other industries need some new thinking, in particular two of interest to me: journalism and higher education.

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.

Books Journalists Should Read, Yes Indeed

The Corpse Had a Familiar Face by Edna Buchanan

Another one of the books recommended by the CMA listserv members as it falls under the category any book by Edna Buchanan.

Again, a reminder, I’m an Edna Buchanan fan. I've used parts of her stories in my classes as examples of thorough reporting. I've used her philosophy as what makes a great journalist, and I’ve read this book before.

With all of that said, I was again floored by Buchanan’s thorough review of her crime reporting. This book is a page-turner with lots of great examples and pithy one-liners. That’s what I really enjoy about Buchanan’s journalism—the thoroughly distilled yet crisp writing that makes you think: “Where did she ever come up with that line?”

Some examples:
When referring to the an editor's insistence that Buchanan report only 'major murders':
"Every murder is major to the victim."
Why she gets the urge to empty out her purse, glove box and dresser periodically:
"It is not because I am basically neat--I am not--but I am reminded from time to time that if I am hit by a bus or gunned down by some irate reader, the cops will routinely inventory the contents of my handbag. I don't want them to find the aging granola bar at the bottom..."

Of course there are others, but I don't want to ruin the entire book for you.

I must say, however, I was a bit distressed by a few comments regarding gays and lesbians. While Buchanan’s sympathetic mantra for families seems to be genuine, her view of gays and lesbians seems to be a bit dated and stereotypical. While Buchanan was a practicing journalist during less enlightened times, she was a practicing journalist in Miami, a veritable haven of homosexuality. I expected more.

While this book is clever and readable, I would never recommend it as a textbook. I know some universities have used it as a text; however, it doesn’t really give you the practical tips needed to use as a text.

It is a great read and a great example of how one reporter, probably the best at what she did, actually did her job. For that, I’d say The Corpse Had a Familiar Face is a must-read journalism book. So go out and read it my journalism friends. You won’t be disappointed.

See also Never Let Them See You Cry, the second installment of Edna Buchanan’s reporting books, and see my previous review on Legally Dead, also by Edna Buchanan.

Books Journalists Should Read, Maybe Not

Legally Dead by Edna Buchanan

This book is another one of the books recommended by the College Media Advisers listserv members as it falls under the category any book by Edna Buchanan.


I must admit that I was a huge fan of Edna Buchanan the crime reporter. I've used parts of her stories in my classes as examples of thorough reporting. I've used her philosophy as what makes a great journalist, but I don't think I'd use her crime novels as an example of either one of those things or as an example of a great crime novel.

In particular, Legally Dead has an interesting premise and some good writing, but it seems to have an ending that doesn't really fit with the intricate plot line. There's a great buildup of tension then a very unlikely bad guy with an even more fantastical reason as to why the bad guy is doing what he's doing. I just don't buy it.

None of that means that my opinion has changed about Edna Buchanan the journalist. She's one of the best and likely the best crime reporter. Some journalists are just better with the literal, and in the case, I would say Legally Dead could benefit from a dose of reality.

See also The Corpse Had a Familiar Face, Never Let Them See You Cry and Nobody Lives Forever also by Edna Buchanan.

Look for an upcoming review of The Corpse Had a Familiar Face.

Books Journalists Should Read, Maybe But Probably Not

The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer

Last semester, a wonderful listserv that I'm on through College Media Advisers, was abuzz with the books that you must have read if you're a journalist. It wasn't just the books, it was authors as well. So being the dutiful student of journalism that I am, I undertook some of this list.

Here are some of my comments on some of these books and authors. I'll be posting the list as well, just in case you want to become a dutiful student of journalism too.

I finally finished reading The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer. I started this before Christmas, but had to take a break, since the book was hurting my hands it's so weighty. I went back to it after the first of the year, and finally finished it in February. Whew...

What can I say about this book: Plodding...In need of editing.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and major motion picture aside--the microscopic look at the execution of Gary Gilmore, the state of Utah and the Mormon Church were just as weighty as the book that left me pushing to stay involved. Not that I don't like weighty material...I do. However, there are some portions of this book that just need to be tightened.

The beginning is where I'd start the whittling. Take out some of the interminable description of Gilmore and his family. One or two anecdotes could really tell the tale. The number of anecdotes and details left me not even liking these people much less wanting to go on reading the book.

The ending did whiz by a bit better, but still, I could find some room to edit here as well.

While Mailer's writing is strong, he needed a more critical editor. Good writers really need good editors so they can continue to be good writers.

That may sound a bit confusing, but writers love their writing so much, it's often difficult to kill a single word, much less thousands of words.

While my CMA colleagues might differ with me on this--some may even call for my ban from the listserv for saying this, I'd say this book isn't a must-read book for aspiring journalists.

It does give great examples of exhaustive research, but what it doesn't do is show aspiring journalists, especially young ones, the importance of picking and choosing really stirring information that tells your story. This story seems to air it all. Not my idea of well-written and well-edited journalism. But then again, I'm an editor at heart.

Up next: a quick veer from the CMA list of books journalists should read: A review of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Books Journalists Should Read, Maybe

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad follows a similar story-line as Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Instead of someone going to kill Kurtz, as is the case in Apocalypse, the company has sent a steamboat to retrieve Kurtz in Heart of Darkness.

Conrad's Heart of Darkness is at the same time the jungle that surrounds the river and the person that Kurtz has become in the wilds of Africa, miles from civilization. Africa itself becomes a verifiable character in the book, closing in on the crew, killing those with a weak resistance and coming alive with sound, light, darkness and deadly natives hidden in its depths.

While Marlon Brando's hoarse mumblings of the phrase, "The horror. The horror;" make for a much quoted part from the movie Apocalypse Now, the setup or interpretation of that famous quote comes later than when the quote is uttered in the book.

Kurtz has just died, and the narrator Marlowe is commenting on life:

"Droll thing life is--that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself --that comes too late-- a crop of inextinguishable regrets. I wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be."

Marlowe contends that he was within the last breath of life and realized that he would have nothing to say, which is why he admired Kurtz, who uttered the famous line before dying. When Marlowe visits Kurtz's intended, he lies and tells her that Kurtz's last words were her name. In this exchange, we see that Marlowe has escaped the heart of darkness, taking into account another person's feelings instead of the dark truth, providing Kurtz's intended with the humanity with which Marlowe protected Kurtz's image.

In the end, is the heart of darkness within the geographical heart of Africa, or is it within each of us? Conrad seems to say that the latter is the case,but each of us also has the capacity to spread light, much like Marlowe did in the conclusion of the book, sparing Kurtz's intended's feelings and preserving Kurtz's image.

My Network, My Community

In reviewing my blog feeds today, I found this gem from Seth Godin at his blog.

Reminds me of an experience that I had yesterday. I attended the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Conference in Dallas, where I volunteered to help with the live news contest. It's an event where students gather to report on a manufactured story, and the best reporting wins.

Standing in front of a crowd of 75-80 student reporters and photographers, I was a bit overwhelmed. Even though these were members of my community, here I was about to "perform" before them and become controversial. I had planned a live news event that would test their sense of objectivity and in the end, vilify me. I even wrote about this briefly in my Facebook account, where another segment of my community embraces me and serves as my network.

Standing outside of the community of journalists was strange. Condemning them and espousing rhetoric in total opposition to what I believe and what I teach was even stranger, but in the end, it has strengthened my network. From this experience, I have been able to build a common bridge with people in my Facebook community and advisers at the contest. I suspect that I will also be able to build a bridge to students who participated in the contest or heard about it.

The point being, commonality and difference can create bridges. Most lead to community and an expanded network, but some lead to nowhere. In the end, the things that we do, the organizations that we belong to are all about the people, the community and the network. Now I believe I can leverage this experience at TIPA to build bridges and create connections where none existed. I can only guess where this might lead.