Enjoyable and insightful look at a young man's life

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	• Growing Up Russell Baker Congdon & Weed/Distributed by St. Martin's Press, 1982 - 278 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews
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highly recommended

very touching and humorous

My three favorite books about growing up, "My Dog Skip", "The Old Man and the Boy", and this book, "Growing Up" by Russell Baker, were all written by newspaper and magazine journalists with Southern roots. There must be some southern storytelling tradition that turns out writers of great memoirs. This is a charming book, full of love of family, humor, and growing up during the difficult history of the depression. I have read and re-read this book, and always find something to laugh about or something that touches me deeply. I expected the reviews of this book to be all five-star accolades, and I am shocked and alarmed by the several reviewers who found the book "boring" and "repetitive". I can't help but wonder what comprises excitement in such readers' lives.

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GIve yourself time to enjoy "Growing Up"

WHen I first encountered "Growing Up" in 1983, I thought it was dull. Once I allowed myself to be patient, I realized how wrong I had been. When I allowed myself the time to read, "Growing Up" became a pleasure and a classic I have since read several times. Baker spent his early years in Virginia, in a time before modern communication. People in that time and place took their time telling a story, but good storytellers always get to a point. Those of us born after WWII have to learn not to expect instant gratification. A book like "Growing Up" teaches you that if you will let the storyteller tell his story, you will be caught up in his magic. Take the time to read "Growing Up" and I bet you will be sorry when you get to the end, hungering for more about Russell Baker and his family. Like all families, there is pain and anger, conflict and crisis, but at the core, in "Growing Up" and in the Baker family, there is deep love.

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Enjoyable and insightful look at a young man's life

Wanting to have a little more insight into the life of someone living through the Great Depression (besides my father) I found this book "filled the bill". The book isn't exciting and doesn't really have a plot, but is more like a "day in the life" of a young man living in hard circumstances and being too young to understand the depth of the hardships. The author has an engaging writing style that kept me from putting the book down. I found I felt like I knew him and could feel his fears, embarassments,and his insecurities.

A Great American Biography, Highly Recommended

Note: Some immature Mormon has been slamming my reviews because I wrote some negative reviews of books attempting to defend the Book of Mormon.

So your "helpful" votes are greatly appreciated. A shorter review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great book. I've just noted the general theme. Thanks

Inside my paperback copy of Russell Baker's book, I wrote "Great Book!"
This was in 1985, and I would rank this memoir as one of the best I have ever read.

From his youth in rural Virginia through the Depression in Baltimore, the very best of America shines though in this charming autobiography. I laughed till I cried at Baker's description of living above his uncle's funeral parlor. Whenever families gathered, he provided shrimp, and so whenever the young Russell smelled shrimp, he knew there was a funeral.

Mrs. Baker's determination to raise a good family after her husband's death was inspiring. My own father died when I was fifteen, so I could see my mother in her--even though my story was set in the 1960s, not the 1930s.

Highly recommended. I would also highly recommend the "Autobiography of Malcolm X." A very powerful account of Malcolm X's life. I do not agree with his religion, but I was inspired at how he turned away from a life of crime and made a better man of himself. In the last few years of his life, he turned away from the racism against whites that he had earlier believed.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X : As Told to Alex Haley
The Autobiography of Malcom X

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Russell Baker is the 1979 Pulitzer Prize winner for Distinguished Commentary and a columnist for The New York Times. This book traces his youth in the mountains of rural Virginia.

When Baker was only five, his father died. His mother, strong-willed and matriarchal, never looked back. After all, she had three children to raise.

These were depression years, and Mrs. Baker moved her fledgling family to Baltimore. Baker's mother was determined her children would succeed, and we know her regimen worked for Russell. He did everything from delivering papers to hustling subscriptions for the Saturday Evening Post. As is often the case, early hardships made the man.

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