{"id":974,"date":"2009-04-26T10:28:29","date_gmt":"2009-04-26T15:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/?p=974"},"modified":"2024-12-26T15:07:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T20:07:15","slug":"good-read-telling-true-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2009\/04\/26\/good-read-telling-true-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Good read: Book review of ‘Telling True Stories’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Telling<\/a>“Telling True Stories<\/a>” is a collection of essays by the most thoughtful and talented people in the business. It’s essentially a how-to book written by giants like Tom Wolfe<\/a>, who wrote the “The Right Stuff<\/a>;” David Halberstam<\/a>, who wrote “The Best and the Brightest<\/a>;” and Gay Talese, who wrote legendary celebrity profiles such as “Frank Sinatra has a Cold.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

There are chapters by Katherine Boo, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her stories “Invisible Lives<\/a>,” which combined investigative and narrative journalism<\/a> to reveal shocking abuses of people with mental retardation who were trapped in Washington D.C.’s privately run group-home system. Here’s how her first story started in the Washington Post: <\/p>\n

Elroy lives here. Tiny, half-blind, mentally retarded, 39-year-old Elroy. To find him, go past the counselor flirting on the phone. Past the broken chairs, the roach-dappled kitchen and the housemates whose neglect in this group home has been chronicled for a decade in the files of city agencies. Head upstairs to Elroy’s single bed.<\/p>\n

“You’re in good hands,” reads the Allstate Insurance poster tacked above his mattress — the mattress where the sexual predator would catch him sleeping. Catch him easily: The door between their rooms had fallen from its hinges. Catch him relentlessly — so relentlessly that Elroy tried to commit suicide by running blindly into a busy Southeast Washington street.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How do reporters find stories like this? Well, in the book, Boo tells you:
\n
\nRelated: Top five books every student journalist should own right now<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\nA friend once told me that I find my stories because I never learned to drive. It’s true. I take the bus. I walk around. By being out there — not the driver of my story but the literal and figurative rider — I have the opportunity to see things that I would never otherwise see.<\/p>\n

I found the group home story because I missed a bus in a housing project. Someone gave me a ride home. He had to stop at a group home because he was having some disagreement with the staff there. I entered the group at eight in the evening. What I saw there led to my story.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Telling True Stories” is full of gems like that one.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I blog about stuff that helps journalists<\/a>. I pay for all the products I review on my blog. To help defray those costs, I use Google ads and Amazon\u2019s affiliate advertising program, which provides a way for sites to earn commissions by linking to Amazon.com. There\u2019s no extra cost to you, and I\u2019ll never link to stuff I don\u2019t like or try to make you buy something that sucks. These reviews are my honest opinions. Thanks for reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Telling True Stories” is a collection of essays by the most thoughtful and talented people in the business. It’s essentially a how-to book written by giants like Tom Wolfe, who wrote the “The Right Stuff;” David Halberstam, who wrote “The Best and the Brightest;” and Gay Talese, who wrote legendary celebrity profiles such as “Frank … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,744,7],"tags":[70,76,340,745,505],"class_list":["post-974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","category-reviews","category-students","tag-books","tag-brian-chasnoff","tag-narrative-journalism","tag-reviews","tag-telling-true-stories","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"yoast_head":"\nGood read: Book review of 'Telling True Stories' | John Tedesco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2009\/04\/26\/good-read-telling-true-stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good read: Book review of 'Telling True Stories'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Telling True Stories” is a collection of essays by the most thoughtful and talented people in the business. It’s essentially a how-to book written by giants like Tom Wolfe, who wrote the “The Right Stuff;” David Halberstam, who wrote “The Best and the Brightest;” and Gay Talese, who wrote legendary celebrity profiles such as “Frank ... 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