Remembering Charles Kuralt

"Remembering Charles Kuralt provides an off-screen look at the CBS newsman whose folksy reports from the back roads of America endeared him to millions."--BOOK JACKET.

A collection of essays by television reporter Charles Kuralt that profile the people, places, and ideas that define the national spirit.

Since 1967, when he set off in a battered motor home to explore America and talk to its people, Charles Kuralt has been one of our premier chroniclers, a man who has helped us to see our country in a way we never had before. Though he retired from CBS News in 1994, he never retired from his wanderings. “I keep thinking I will find something wonderful just around the bend,” he explains, and so he set out again to revisit some of his favorite places in their favorite seasons, to rediscover slices of America that have always been closest to his heart. And with the warmth and humor and uncommon insight that have always been his hallmarks, he shows them to us now—from Montana in autumn, Alaska in summer, Cajun country in winter, and the North Carolina mountains in spring, Kuralt takes readers on a beautiful adventure through a wide swath of American terrain. Filled with people, stories, and experiences, suffused by a poet’s love of language, Charles Kuralt’s America is a celebration of the spirit and flavor of this vast, varied land. “A honey of a book . . . a celebration of life in America.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch “Written with the same simple grace that made Kuralt such a rarity on TV.”—USA Today

From one of China’s most acclaimed writers: a unique, intimate look at the Chinese experience over the last several decades. Framed by ten phrases common in the Chinese vernacular, China in Ten Words uses personal stories and astute analysis to reveal as never before the world’s most populous yet oft-misunderstood nation. In "Disparity," for example, Yu Hua illustrates the expanding gaps that separate citizens of the country. In "Copycat," he depicts the escalating trend of piracy and imitation as a creative new form of revolutionary action. And in "Bamboozle," he describes the increasingly brazen practices of trickery, fraud, and chicanery that are, he suggests, becoming a way of life at every level of society. Witty, insightful, and courageous, this is a refreshingly candid vision of the "Chinese miracle" and all of its consequences.

The Midwest in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s was a special place-a place where parents and children worked side by side to eke out a living from the land, and neighbors stuck by each other through good times and bad. In this affectionate, insightful collection of stories, Jerry Apps takes us to that world. He relives the toughness of farm life-plowing the soil with horses, milking cows by hand, putting in long days with heavy, dangerous machinery. He shows us the lighter side too, as he peddles his father's massive rutabaga harvest and gets to know the neighbor boys-and their personal dictionary of cuss words. We meet Frank, Pinky, and Harry, three farmers whose love of music could transform an entire community; Morty, the odd loner whom only a few wild animals could understand; and Fanny, the extraordinary collie whose role on the farm was as important as that of any human being. Withing each story we see just how warm, loving, and supremely educational growing up on a farm could be, for it is here that a young child learns not only how to take the head off a chicken and drive a tractor like a grown-up, but to deal with illness, disability, and death. Resonating with poingnancy and humor, When Chores Were Done contains stories you'll want to read over and over again. Jerry Apps is a master storyteller who writes through the eyes of a child and with the wisdom of a man. Through the tales are personal, their lessons are universal.

In Hello, It’s Me, pop culture historian Chris Epting celebrates the cultural touchstones of the past 40 years—the music, movies, television, hobbies, and fads that have defined recent generations. Whether it’s shooting hoops with NBA legend Elgin Baylor, drinking whiskey in a Radio City Music Hall broom closet with Ron Wood and Rod Stewart while thousands of fans scream from below, sharing a milkshake with Jerry Lewis, running into Alfred Hitchcock’s stomach as a young child, or jumping on a trampoline with Sally Struthers, Chris Epting takes us on his own strange trip through time, space and hula hoops. Beginning in the 1970s and continuing through the 1980s, 1990s, and up to the present day, Epting writes about the humorous, ironic, poignant, and inspiring moments he’s experienced with a host of pop-culture icons—Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jay Leno, Johnny Thunders, Edward Albee, John Cheever, Milton Berle, etc.—as well as his personal memories of the era’s most famous pop-culture fads, products, and gimmicks—Pet Rocks, lava lamps, mood rings, 8-track tapes, bootleg records, Zotz, halter tops, strawberry wine. . . .

Smith - invented the craft of radio reporting as they went along, winning the hearts of Americans.