Growing Up

by Russell Baker

I thought that was a model memoir. I know he was sort of stuck on it for a while, and then he found these letters that his mother had exchanged during the Depression. And there was a lot of reporting in that book. Russell Baker, who has spent his life mainly as a reporter, is much more concerned with “Hey, did that really happen or am I just making it happen?” Also, it’s establishing place that I often find the most satisfying part of any book. Baker really captures the era he’s writing about. You really felt a time in America from reading that book.