Article
Journalists and Journalism: A Collection of Recommended Books
Although many among us no longer read through a daily newspaper, the work of journalists around the world, ranging in media from print to digital to radio and television, remains one of the main ways that we discover information about the news and issues of the day. This month’s list of recommended titles includes a variety of novels and nonfiction focusing on the craft, lives, and challenges faced by journalists in the pursuit of this important profession.
Although many among us no longer read through a daily newspaper, the work of journalists around the world, ranging in media from print to digital to radio and television, remains one of the main ways that we discover information about the news and issues of the day. This month’s list of recommended titles includes a variety of novels and nonfiction focusing on the craft, lives, and challenges faced by journalists in the pursuit of this important profession.
Digital book (DB), braille (BR), large print (LT), and audio described videos (DVD) copies of these titles are available from the Perkins Library or the Worcester Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of these books.
Prepared by Leah Ellenbogen
Children’s Resource and Service Librarian
Perkins Library
The Accidental Life: An Editor’s Notes on Writing and Writers
by Terry McDonell
DB 85255, Available as BARD Download
Former editor at Time, Newsweek, Esquire, and other publications recounts his work experiences and the people he knew, including Hunter S. Thompson, David Carr, and Steve Jobs, among others. Provides advice on developing a career in journalism and publishing. Strong language. 2016.
After Visiting Friends: A Son’s Story
by Michael Hainey
DB 79371, Available as BARD Download
Michael Hainey used his reporter skills to uncover the truth behind his newspaperman father’s death decades earlier when Michael was six. Bob Hainey was found alone near his car on Chicago’s North Side, dead of an apparent heart attack “after visiting friends,” but it was surrounded by mystery. 2013.
All the President’s Men
by Carl Bernstein and Robert Woodward
DB 50574, BR 13143, Available as BARD Download
Two Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters chronicle their investigation of the Watergate scandal, which began as a burglary of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters on June 17, 1972. They explain the events that precipitated their first suspicions and led them to ascertain the truth. Some strong language. Bestseller. 1974.
American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell
by Deborah Solomon
DB 78042, Available as BARD Download
Author of Jackson Pollock: A Biography (DB 27937) examines the life and work of Norman Rockwell, preeminent illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post. Examines Rockwell’s struggles with depression and the ways the disorder influenced his work. Chronicles the evolution of visual journalism from illustration to photography and television. 2013.
Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels
by Paul Pringle
DB 109684, Available as BARD Download
In April 2016, a salacious tip arrived at the L.A. Times that reporter Paul Pringle thought should have taken, at most, a few weeks to check out: a drug overdose at a fancy hotel involving one of the University of Southern California’s shiniest stars-Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the head of the prestigious medical school. Pringle, who’d long done battle with USC and its almost impenetrable culture of silence, knew reporting the story wouldn’t be a walk in the park. USC is the largest private employer in the city of L.A., and it casts a long shadow. But what he couldn’t have foreseen was that this tip would lead to the unveiling of not one major scandal at USC but two, wrapped in a web of crimes and cover-ups. 2022.
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
by Susannah Cahalan
DB 76074, Available as BARD Download
New York Post reporter’s account of the mysterious disease that mimicked mental illness and almost killed her in 2009, when she was twenty-four years old. Describes her eventual diagnosis–NMDA-receptor autoimmune encephalitis, a rare brain infection that causes seizures and paranoia–and her successful treatment and recovery. Some strong language. 2012.
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators
by Ronan Farrow
DB 97040, DB 101827 (Spanish), LT 27145, Available as BARD Download
In 2017, a routine network television investigation by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author revealed that one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers was a predator. Describes the surveillance and intimidation tactics deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability, and silence victims of abuse. 2019.
Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom
by Carl Bernstein
DB 106783, LT 31710, Available as BARD Download
The Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of All the President’s Men (DB 50574) reflects on his formative years as a teenage newspaper reporter at the Washington Star and the subsequent trajectory of his career. He discusses covering grisly crimes, political rallies, the civil rights movement, and more. Bestseller. 2022.
Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine that Rewrote America
by Stephanie Gorton
DB 100096, Available as BARD Download
A history of the rise and fall of the influential Gilded Age magazine McClure’s, which was responsible for many groundbreaking stories of its time. The author also profiles the magazine’s staff and argues in favor of the importance of investigative journalism in a democracy. 2020.
Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America; From the Age of the Pullman Porters to the Age of Obama
by Ethan Michaeli
DB 84186, Available as BARD Download
Former editor and reporter for the Chicago Defender examines the history of the publication which was founded in 1905 and spoke out on many race issues in the twentieth century. Its writers across the decades included Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, and Martin Luther King, Jr. 2016
Dirty Headlines
by L. J. Shen
DB 93604, Available as BARD Download
With no job, a sick father, and a cheating ex, Jude is happy to enjoy a scorching one-night stand with handsome Frenchman Célian. Then she lands a job as an intern in a TV newsroom–and finds Célian is her new boss. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. 2018.
Don’t Blink
by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
DB 71941, LT 11135, Available as BARD Download
Magazine reporter Nick Daniels is interviewing a legendary baseball player at Lombardo’s Steakhouse when a horrific murder occurs at the next table. After Nick realizes his tape recorder captured the killer’s words, he is drawn into the dangerous mob-related case. Violence and strong language. Bestseller. 2010.
Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World
by Matthew Goodman
DB 77521, Available as BARD Download
Chronicles the historic 1889 around-the-world journeys of New York World reporter Nellie Bly and her rival Elizabeth Bisland at the Cosmopolitan magazine, as the women attempted to break the record of Jules Verne’s fictional hero Phileas Fogg in the novel Around the World in Eighty Days (DB 53171). 2013.
Everybody’s Got Something
by Robin Roberts with Veronica Chambers
DB 78864, Available as BARD Download
Cohost of Good Morning, America, Roberts (born 1960) details her childhood growing up in Mississippi, her life as a television reporter, her health crises including breast cancer and a bone marrow disorder, and the support of friends and family. Bestseller. 2014.
The Fervor: A Novel
by Alma Katsu
DB 107806, Available as BARD Download
1944. Meiko and her daughter, Aiko, attempt to hold on to elements of their old life in a Japanese internment camp when a mysterious disease begins to spread. They team up with a newspaper reporter and widowed missionary to investigate, but it becomes clear something more sinister is afoot. 2022.
Following Christopher Creed
by Carol Plum-Ucci
DB 104511, BR 23923, Available as BARD Download
Seven blind persons recall how they have reached the summit as they scaled “personal mountains.” “To Climb Every Mountain” describes Erik College reporter Mike, who is legally blind, hopes to get a story about a body found in the strange town of Steepleton, believed to be that of long-missing teen Christopher Creed. Sequel to The Body of Christopher Creed (DB 52758, BR 13389). For senior high and older readers. 2011.
Front Row at the Trump Show
by Jonathan Karl
DB 99743, Available as BARD Download
A White House reporter discusses his views on how the Trump administration has reshaped the presidency and relates behind-the-scenes moments that he feels define Trump’s presidency. Bestseller. 2020.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
DB 82666, BR 19413, Available as BARD Download
When investigative reporter Ava’s company is bought out, she is reassigned to a tabloid magazine. During her first assignment, a celebrity wedding in Aruba, Ava is accompanied by photographer Cliff. The irregularities they discover involving pop star India’s manager and the groom put them both in danger. Some strong language. 2010.
Hilde on the Record: Memoir of a Kid Crime Reporter
by Hilde Lysiak
DB 108676, Available as BARD Download
Young crime reporter Hilde Lysiak shares, for the first time, how she started her own newspaper, the Orange Street News, and how she was able to not only survive the ups and downs of her youth but emerge from it all with a renewed sense of purpose and confidence. For grades 4-7. 2022.
Hollow Fires
by Samira Ahmed
DB 108627, Available as BARD Download
After discovering the body of fourteen-year-old Jawad Ali in Jackson Park, seventeen-year-old journalism student Safiya Mirza begins investigating his murder and ends up confronting white supremacy in her own high school. For senior high and older readers. 2022.
How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future
by Maria Ressa
DB 113157, Available as BARD Download
For decades, Maria Ressa challenged corruption and malfeasance in her native country, the Philippines, on its rocky path from an authoritarian state to a democracy. As a reporter from CNN, she transformed news coverage in her region, which led her in 2012 to create the news organization, Rappler, which used social media to crowdsource breaking news, find pivotal sources and tips, harnessed collective action for climate change, and helped increase voter knowledge and participation in elections. But by their fifth year of existence, Rappler had gone from being lauded for its ideas to being targeted by the new Philippine government, and made Ressa an enemy of her country’s most powerful man: President Duterte. 2022.
The Huntress: The Adventures, Escapades, and Triumphs of Alicia Patterson: Aviatrix, Sportswoman, Journalist, Publisher
by Alice Arlen
DB 85379, Available as BARD Download
Biography of Alicia Patterson, founder and editor of Newsday. Discusses her early childhood in Chicago as part of a legendary journalism family, multiple marriages, adventures in early aviation, renown as a big-game hunter, and the development of her own newspaper. 2016.
The Ingenious Mr. Pyke: Inventor, Fugitive, Spy
by Henry Hemming
DB 81778, Available as BARD Download
Journalist describes the life of Geoffrey Pyke (1893-1948), known for his journalism and escape from a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War I, attempts at educational reform, inventions for use by the military, and spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. Some violence. 2015.
It Had to Be You
by Susan May Warren
DB 93033, BR 22352, Available as BARD Download
Eden Christiansen has been looking after her reckless younger brother Owen, a rookie in the NHL, even if that meant neglecting her own career in journalism. If only she could get his team captain, Jace Jacobsen, to mentor her brother. 2016.
Journalism: A Very Short Introduction
by Ian Hargreaves
DB 86477, Available as BARD Download
Journalist-turned-academic sums up the history of journalism and the challenges it faces in the twenty-first century. Discusses the upheaval caused by the rise of “born-digital” news and advertising platforms, the “mediatization” of war, the tension between news and public relations, and the growing popularity of celebrity-focused infotainment. 2014.
The Lions of Fifth Avenue
by Fiona Davis
DB 99608, LT 28629, Available as BARD Download
1913. Laura Lyons has made a home for her family within the august walls of the New York Public Library thanks to her husband’s job. But her world is opened when she’s accepted to journalism school. Eighty years later, her granddaughter Sadie reckons with choices made. 2020.
Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms, and Governments Control the News
ed. Anya Schiffrin
DB 104398, Available as BARD Download
Collection of sixteen essays exploring the intersections of journalism, media, government, and technology across the globe. Topics include the rise of Silicon Valley, the decrease in local journalism outlets, the rise and fall of blogging, the role of funding, and defending the role of independent journalism. 2021.
Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life
by Margaret Sullivan
DB 111276, Available as BARD Download
Sullivan, who began her career at the Buffalo News where she rose from summer intern to editor in chief, chronicles her years in the trenches battling sexism and throwing elbows in a highly competitive newsroom from The New York Times to the Washington Post. Recounts how she navigated paper’s controversies, from Hillary Clinton’s emails to Elon Musk’s accusations of unfairness to the need for greater diversity in the newsroom and her front-row seat to the rise of Donald Trump in American media and politics. 2022.
Notorious
by Allison Brennan
DB 85160, Available as BARD Download
Nationally renowned investigative reporter Maxine “Max” Revere tackles cold cases. But the one unsolved murder that still haunts her is a case from her own past. When Max was a high school senior, one of her best friends was strangled and another accused of the crime. 2014.
On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist
by Clarissa Ward
DB 112078, Available as BARD Download
The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter who has covered conflicts in Syria, Egypt, and Afghanistan. Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. Follows Ward’s singular career and her views on journalism in this age of extremism. 2020.
Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison–Solitary Confinement, a Sham Trial, High-Stakes Diplomacy, and the Extraordinary Efforts It Took to Get Me Out
by Jason Rezaian
DB 94676, LT 25328, Available as BARD Download
Memoir from journalist who was imprisoned in Tehran for eighteen months and whose eventual release was part of a nuclear deal. Recounts his arrest, interrogations, and trial; his time in captivity; and the efforts to secure his freedom. 2019.
Reporter: A Memoir
by Seymour Hersh
DB 91349, LT 24600, Available as BARD Download
Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Dark Side of Camelot (DB 45157) and Chain of Command (DB 59238) recounts his experiences in the journalism industry and major stories he has covered, including the Vietnam War massacre at My Lai and horrors committed at Abu Ghraib prison. 2018.
Saved: A War Reporter’s Mission to Make It Home
by Benjamin Hall
DB 114606, Available as BARD Download
When veteran war reporter Hall woke up in Kyiv on the morning of March 14, 2022, he had no idea that, within hours, Russian bombs would nearly end his life. As a journalist for Fox News, Hall had worked in dangerous war zones like Syria and Afghanistan, but with three young daughters at home, life on the edge was supposed to be a thing of the past. Yet when Russia viciously attacked Ukraine in February 2022, Hall quickly volunteered to go. A few weeks later, while on assignment, Hall and his crew were blown up in a Russian strike. With Hall himself gravely injured and stuck in Kyiv, it was unclear if he would make it out alive. Recounts Hall’s time at the front lines of our world’s conflicts, exploring how his struggle to step away from war reporting led him back one perilous last time. 2023.
Since We Fell
by Dennis Lehane
DB 88110, BR 21886, LT 22216, Available as BARD Download
Rachel credits her new husband, Brian, for getting her through the aftermath of her on-air panic attack in Haiti that signaled the end of her journalism career and sent her into shut-in mode. Then she learns something sinister about Brian. Violence, strong language, and some explicit descriptions of sex. Bestseller. 2017.
Standing in the Shadows
by Peter Robinson
DB 114919, LT 33440, Available as BARD Download
In November 1980, Nick Hartley returns home from a university lecture to find his house crawling with police. His ex-girlfriend, Alice Poole, has been found murdered, and her new boyfriend Mark Woodley is missing. Nick is the prime suspect. The case quickly goes cold, but Nick cannot let it go. He embarks on a career in investigative journalism, determined to find Alice’s murderer-but his obsession leads him down a dangerous path. Decades later, in November 2019, Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his team are called in to investigate an unearthed skeleton. Left with few clues, Banks and his team must rely on their wits to hunt down a killer. 2023.
Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR
by Lisa Napoli
DB 104433, Available as BARD Download
A journalist profiles four women who were trailblazers for women in news reporting. When National Public Radio came into existence in the 1970s, journalism was dominated by men. Despite their different upbringings, personalities, and career paths, broadcasters Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg, and Cokie Roberts helped change that. Some strong language. 2021.
Truth in Our Times: Inside the Fight for Press Freedom in the Age of Alternative Facts
by David Edward McCraw
DB 94455, Available as BARD Download
A New York Times newsroom lawyer recounts his experiences leading the paper’s fight for freedom of information, providing legal counsel to its reporters, determining what controversial stories are fit to print, and defending the organization against libel suits. Recounts the legal decisions behind impactful stories of the early twenty-first century. 2019.
Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News
by Lisa Napoli
DB 100038, Available as BARD Download
A journalist examines the founding of the cable news channel, CNN. Focuses on the efforts of founder Ted Turner to make the channel a reality and how the advent of an outlet that provides live updates to news stories twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, changed journalism. Strong language. 2020.
Weather Girl
by Rachel Lynn Solomon
DB 106324, LT 31294, Available as BARD Download
TV meteorologist Ari Abrams looks up to her boss, legendary weatherwoman Torrance Hale, but the constant bickering between Torrance and her ex-husband has her at her wit’s end. She teams up with sports reporter Russell Barringer to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. 2021.
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