by Ruben Castaneda (Get the Book)
When D.C. mayor Marion Barry was arrested for smoking crack, journalist Castaneda was in that hotel's lobby, phoning in the details to the Washington Post, where he'd recently landed a job, moving from L.A.'s now defunct Herald-Examiner. What Castaneda also brought to D.C. back then was his own crack addiction, and it is a nonchalantly and honestly detailed part of his memoir. While he's running down the stories and writing them well, he is also getting wasted. D.C.'s S Street is where the drug-selling action takes place, and Castaneda parallels his story with that of pastor Jim, who promises not to rat on the dealers but invites them to church, and that of honest, tough homicide cop Lou. There are scenes in this book that depict people acting in ways that are as low as one can humanly go, but they are related matter-of-factly, almost impersonally. There are also instances of incredible goodness, but the good guys don't always win. Castaneda's page-turner, told with easygoing charm and great skill, is an unstinting unveiling of who got away with what and when and how Castaneda followed the action and found himself. --Booklist
by Nina Stibbe (Get the Book)
With a who's who at the beginning that ranges from film director Stephen Frears to Maxwell, the author's ex-pony, you might guess this is not your typical memoir. Not only that, but it comprises the tuneful, descriptive letters Nina wrote in the 1980s, while she tried her hand at nannying in London, to her sister, Vic, who stayed basically at home, near Leicestershire, England. The nannied children were young Sam and Will Frears their arty, daffy children's conversations fill the pages living with their sharp, blunt mother, Mary-Kay Wilmers, deputy editor of the London Review of Books. Nina herself, then just 20 and new to the task of being a nanny, was a lover of London and quite the observer, documenting for her sister back home the who, the when, and her full-blown, clever, open-eyed take on the what of life at the Wilmers-Frears. Stibbe notes that nannying is not like a job really, just like living in someone else's life, but what a funny, artist-filled life she lived, and how well she watched and participated. This is an offbeat paean to families, real and cobbled-together, to sisters and siblings, and to communicating with love. It's also a rare and wholly delectable epistolary slice of life. --Booklist
by James H. Webb (Get the Book)
This memoir takes the author from his birth shortly after World War II to the present, and is a rumination on the changes that the world, the United States, and the military have endured in the interim. Webb (Fields of Fire) was a marine, a company commander in Vietnam, a committee counsel for the House, an assistant secretary of defense, and a democratic senator from Virginia. Webb is a clear and accessible writer who credits his history, and that of his family and forebears, with molding his convictions and guiding his career choices. Combat in Vietnam still dogs him, both mentally and physically. The contradictions and failures of that war informed his later writings and eventual political pursuits, and led him to oppose the Iraq war as "a bad place in a bad war." Concerned with the rising inequality and inequitable division of wealth in America today he tried, unsuccessfully, to introduce measures like taxing capital gains as ordinary income. VERDICT A convincing memoir filled with ideas by a man who might be called a contrarian in today's politics. --Library Journal
by Mariano Rivera (Get the Book)
From humble roots in Panama, Mariano "Mo" Rivera went on to become the greatest closer in baseball history, notching 652 total saves, 13 all-star appearances, and five World Series rings with the New York Yankees over 18 seasons. But in this entertaining, admirably subdued autobiography, the glory is God's: Rivera's story brims with examples of his faith. Sure, there is plenty of baseball for fans to feast on, too. The pitcher tells stories about his teammates (including Derek Jeter, A-Rod, and Joe Torre); championship moments, including the 2000 subway series against the Mets, and the startling game-seven loss in 2001 to the Arizona Diamondbacks; as well as instances of heated pitching rivalries against the Red Sox. He also recalls struggling through injuries, including an elbow issue that threatened his career early on and a blown knee that almost ended his career in 2012. Intensely competitive and a gifted athlete, Rivera will delight baseball fans. But the memories recounted here-both on the field and off-ultimately reveal something deeper: Rivera's almost incredible humility, unshakeable faith, and devotion to his family (he married his childhood sweetheart, Clara). In an age of bravado and bluster in professional sports, he is one of the few athletes who has earned a right to brag. Yet Rivera's elegance and class manage to somehow outshine his accomplishments. --Publishers Weekly
by John F. Ross (Get the Book)
Once upon a time, aviator Eddie Rickenbacker was the most famous man in America, the kind of hero that songs were written about and schoolchildren dreamed of emulating. In this entertaining biography, historian Ross (War on the Run, 2009) returns to the dawn of the twentieth century, when cars and aircraft burst onto the scene. Aviation aficionados and war buffs will expect Ross to focus on Rickenbacker's WWI flying-ace achievements; instead, he takes a long look at the aviator's early success in the automotive field as both a brilliant mechanic (Put simply, engines have always talked to me, Rickenbacker explained) and a daring race-car driver. Drawing heavily on his subject's interviews and writings, while also noting areas of his personal life that Rickenbacker publicly fabricated (most notably his father's life and death), Ross peppers the text with quotes that place readers right alongside the ace through nearly every moment of his life. Obviously this is exciting material to work with after all, Rickenbacker was a man who drove in the first Indy 500 and dueled with the Red Baron's flying circus but Ross is never fawning in this thoroughly enjoyable and downright rollicking read. --Booklist
by Kai Bird (Get the Book)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bird (coauthor, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer) pre-sents CIA intelligence officer Robert Ames (1934-83) as a serious intellectual, a devoted family man, and a hardworking, idealistic professional. After preparing readers for Ames's death in the massive 1983 bombing of the American embassy in Beirut, Bird takes us back through Ames's development as an expert in Arabic languages, history, and politics who increasingly -focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict. By 1980, he was a recognized policy advisor within the CIA, state department, and White House. Bird interweaves his subject's commitment to finding a solution to the Palestine dilemma with tracking the mounting unrest in Lebanon and increasing terrorism by Palestinians, Israelis, and militant Shiites. Readers are drawn to Ames and his effort to be a "good spy," building solutions, even as the U.S. government, buffeted by partisan pressures, adhered to no one constructive policy. VERDICT This is a moving biography within a balanced presentation of the complex diplomacy over the Palestinian quest for statehood and the Israeli need for security, complicated by a disintegrating Lebanon and a revolutionary Iran. Bird's view of a CIA committed to analysis and policy development contrasts with the agency depicted in Hugh Wilford's recent America's Great Game. --Library Journal
