John Joseph Brady

While most of the stories in this book are in other books on either Sinatra or Gardner, it was nice having them in this volume. At times you felt you were right there due to the writing style of the author.

This begins as a guilty pleasure but ends as a look at the effects of fame and age. Ava Gardner was a force of nature, Sinatra was Sinatra, and the two of them were made for each other in the best and worse senses of the phrase. Don't give this as a gift to your maiden aunt: it's far more raunchy than the cover and St. Martin's Press would have you believe. Recommended.

A bit dated, given the advances that have been made with computer-assisted reporting. Many of Brady's otherwise excellent anecdotes are also quite dated. But I still occasionally use this text as a supplement in a college-level information news-gathering class that I teach. It's a no-nonsense and user-friendly manual that provides some great tips to help novices tackle the tricky task of interviewing.