Reviews for Whicker's World Take 2

The average rating for Whicker's World Take 2 based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-12-13 00:00:00 Daken Jennings Just like Tom Brokaw's darn-the-torpedoes parents, my Dad and Mom were card-carrying members of the Greatest Generation. Bless them, they wanted their kids to be just like them. Sometimes, though, stuff happens. Being the oldest, I was taught that I, too, had it in me to be Great. I was like Muhammad Ali, I was the Greatest. Yikes! Trouble is, I just didn't have Ali's quick reflexes or KO wallops. There I was, a clumsy, ordinary kid trying to work wonders with my dozy little brain. And stuff happens. Away from home, I was the unhonoured recipient of many a Darwin Award and, for my pains, was served a steady diet of Humility Sandwiches with side orders of Embarrassment. Sorry, Tom - I just didn't have your gifts. And you can't go far on loads of sensitivity and intuition, with no street smarts. But you know what? In the end, I learned that, as it turned out, I didn't HAVE to go so far! I learned that if you believe, you'll eventually have eyes to see. And then - maybe, just maybe - you'll know as you are known. And you'll see what's right there, all around you - as if for the very FIRST time. You'll see that the most lasting crowns of success are truth, beauty and goodness. And Real Happiness? It's right here in the present. You'll see that love is not a thing that happens to your body, but to your heart and to your soul. Love's not about achieving something, Tom, it's about just being there. And, you'll see that If you're searching for meaning, you just might find it - right there in your heart, where you left it so very long ago, and not in the outward trappings of success. No, Tom - I just can't agree with you. And no one really has to go such "a long way from home"'to find it! For as my life nears its end, day by day, I've rediscovered the place I started from, and I now know it for the first time - with all its veils torn away. It's a simple place, without any pushing or shoving. It's so very good. And it's Home!

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-25 00:00:00 Julia Santos "Tell me where you come from and I will tell you what you are." Saul Bellow This is the theme of the book. Tom Brokaw looks at his youth in South Dakota in the 1940s and 50s. Brokaw is today a well-known television journalist. He has been the managing editor and anchor for NBC Nightly News for twenty-two years. In this book he writes not only of his own youth, but also of his parents and grandparents. Each generation influences the next. He writes of life on the Great Plains, the work ethic and the moral code by which he was raised. He was born in 1940 in Webster, South Dakota. We follow him through to the early 1960s. In 1962 he married Meredith Lynn Auld, a girl he had had his eye on for many a year. After their marriage they move east, but their upbringing on the Great Plains shaped them forever. "All regions and all eras influence those who live in them." This is a line taken from the book. While the book is about Brokaw, it will also speak to those of us who grew up in the 1940s and 1950s in the Midwest. Brokaw's prose is simple and clear. Historical events are woven in, but not excessively. He speaks of political and historical events that came to influence him. He speaks of race and women's rights. His mother was strong-willed and all three of her sons were raised to know how to cook, clean, iron and do all those chores often relegated to women. In closing, when he moves East, he says: "We managed to keep our bearings because of the way and the place in which we had been raised. Since that muggy night in August 1962 we have come to many more bridges into the unknown and we have learned that crossing them is almost always more rewarding than staying on the familiar side of the river." I like Brokaw's prose and easily relate to what he says. Don Cashman narrates the audiobook. He does a marvelous job. He reads slowly and clearly, exactly how I like a book to be read. I have given the narration performance five stars. I cannot help but wonder why though Brokaw has not chosen to read the audiobook himself. I definitely recommend this book, not only to learn about Brokaw but also because how he was raised will speak to readers of his generation. I have no real complaints, only that perhaps it could have gone further. How it was to acclimatize to the NYC scene is not covered.