A very quick read. A nice combo of personal memoir and detailed accounts of specific horrors he’s reported on.

Here are a few quotes I bookmarked which ultimately bumped my rating from 3.5 to 4:

“I need to remind myself of it’s reality. I worry that if I get too comfortable, too complacent, I’ll lose all feeling, all sensation.” Page 87

“...I’ve been a guest on Larry King Live, and listened as politicians thanked one another for the ‘Herculean’ efforts they were undertaking in the wake of this ‘unprecedented’ and ‘unpredictable’ disaster....it doesn’t make any sense. ‘Stop thank each other’ I want to tell. ‘Grab a body bag and get down here with some soldiers.’” Page 140

“People aren’t ‘frustrated’. They are dead. They are dying...’They don’t want your sympathy,’ he said, ‘they want you to do your job.’ Page 141

Powerful and moving. This was a riveting read.
I read this book because I like and respect Anderson Cooper. Now I have an even greater understanding of what it must be like to cover the news of the world, especially catastrophic events. It takes a certain kind of person, with a combination of physical and emotional strength, to do this work and to do it well.
He writes about the humanity of these tragic events with such deep emotion. He takes you there in a way that feels unlike any news report I’ve ever watched. I realize that we learn to take in horrific stories almost every day, and then we have to move on in our own daily life, so we put it aside and carry on.
But he reminds us that we can learn from those stories and he calls out to people in positions of power to do better. The part of the book about Hurricane Katrina was the most vivid example. Unforgettable.

Disappointed because I like author - son of Gloria Vanderbilt - as a journalist

A news report would give an incident. A book would go further with names, context, mood and reflections. Which is what this memoir is.

I think Anderson Cooper's key message is on compartmentalization and grief. And how these inevitably spilled. Each chapter is structured with the duality of personal and professional - with seamless transitions and flow of a skilful cinematographer. The memoir reads like a documentary. Every word is crisply crafted and clear with simplicity like the journalist he truly is. Trigger warning for the super gory details described, which I admit are stuff that will likely give me nightmares.

From coverage on the tsunami, Iraq, Niger, Sarajevo and hurricane Katrina, I enjoyed his reflections. On death and destruction, his struggle to 'feel' and not be desensitized. But at the same time the paradoxical struggle for objectivity mixed with ethical questions of images and stories.

In the end, I think this book is Cooper's attempt to overcome the grief and trauma he experienced both personally and professionally.

My only criticism is: I would have liked to read more on his critical views related to the coverage he shared. He was philosophically reflective about existence - but his journalistic instinct limited him from sharing (political) positioning and analyses which I thought would strengthen the narrative a bit. I suppose those could be perceived as 'biases'.

I really wanted to give this a 5, but reading about how ill prepared America is to handle a crisis is not something I needed to read this week.

This is simultaneously an easy and very difficult read. Cooper's writing style flows in such a way that the pages turn quickly, but the content will make you pause to breathe every so often. Trying to fill the void from the loss of his father during childhood and the suicide of his brother as a young adult, Cooper sprints from war zones to countries devastated by famine. He only really begins to face his own demons while covering New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

To say I enjoyed the read doesn't quite feel right. It's not that kind of a book. However, if Anderson Cooper put out another memoir, I would definitely read it.

I read a glowing review of this, and hence my expectations were raised before I read it. Sorry to say I was disappointed The book is pretty superficial, and does not answer questions Anderson himself posed at the outset of the book. There is no arc to his story telling, no conflicts posed and resolved, no apparent growth of the protagonist. Cooper has written basically a travel log composed of brief accounts of disasters he reported from, with a few paragraphs about individuals he stopped to talk with along the way. All of that is interspersed with memories from his childhood. After his initial revelations of his lineage (son of Gloria Vanderbilt), the premature deaths of his father and brother, and his junkie-like addiction to covering wars and natural disasters, neither narrative thread offers anything particularly insightful or illuminating in either the professional or personal sphere. IF you've watched CNN over the years that Anderson has reported from the war/disaster du jour, you don't need to read this. And ditto if you've wondered why he feels compelled to go to these sad, desperate places, and what kind of a life he can possibly have here given how much time he's on the road; you won't find any clues in his words.

Engaging and eye-opening. I think I would have preferred to read a physical copy of the book instead of an audio book as the book read in sections and that wasn’t portrayed as clearly through an audio book.

Update February 2024:

I copied the below review from a notebook I was keeping at the time when I read this. My lasting memory of this book is that shortly after I read it, I saw Anderson Cooper speak in person. I brought it with me to ask if he'd sign it, but just as I got close enough to ask, he was whisked away by security. In the end, I'm glad I didn't get it signed because I then lent the book to someone and never got it back.

I also think Anderson Cooper is probably less lonely and sad these days.

**
Original Review, June 2013:
Anderson's autobiography as told through several 2004-2006 world tragedies. More than anything, I realized that Anderson Cooper is likely a lonely and sad person. He's introspective. An interesting read for sure, but not one for when you're already feeling blue.

Read for Read Harder 2019: “book written by a journalist”
Interesting behind the scenes stories of Anderson’s own personal life interspersed with reporting from Sarajevo, Iraq and post-Katrina Louisiana/Mississippi.

This is a memoir from Anderson Cooper covering the year 2005, but with many references to the early part of his career as a war correspondent and his early life. His story is most harrowing when he is writing about experiences in Somalia and Sarajevo; saddest when he is writing about Niger, Southeast Asia and the early deaths of his father and brother.

Despite the carnage Cooper saw in Asia, Africa and Europe, it was seeing the carnage caused by Hurricane Katrina in the United States that he had a hard time believing. In this book, Cooper documents the lack of preparation by the US federal government, the state governments in Louisiana and Mississippi and the city of New Orleans. Cooper spends perhaps a third of the book discussing this tragedy, one he clearly expected to be avoided by a country with the United States' resources.

It is always good to hear authors read their own works. Cooper does not have the voice of someone truly blessed with a great voice, such as James Earl Jones, however this is minor and I no trouble listening to the set of CDs.

A difficult read, but an important one. What struck me the most was how much we see history repeating itself when it comes to devastating events and the failure to act. From a police officer after Hurricane Katrina:

“Man, all I can pray is an independent commission comes in and looks at what happened. Whether or not there are criminal charges, at least the public knows who to vote for next time. The poor planning caused a lot of people to die. There was no plan, there was no plan.”

It happened before, it's happening now, and it will happen again. Please vote.