Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit



Books by David Halberstam


THE COLDEST WINTER by David Halberstam
HISTORY
Released: Sept. 25, 2007

"Another memorable slice of 20th-century history, measuring up to such earlier Halberstam classics as The Best and the Brightest (1972) and The Powers That Be (1979)."
The master journalist's 21st and final book: a magisterial account of the Korean War. Read full book review >
THE TEAMMATES by David Halberstam
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: May 14, 2003

"A string of pearly anecdotes that reverberate far beyond the diamond."
Affectionate, informed, and smooth-as-cream portrait of four Boston Red Sox greats and their abiding friendship over many years. Read full book review >
FIREHOUSE by David Halberstam
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Released: June 3, 2002

"Fine work that will leave most readers with even higher esteem for firefighters. "
Peeled emotional energy characterizes this portrait by Halberstam (War in a Time of Peace, 2001, etc.) of a firehouse that lost 12 of 13 men in the initial response to the World Trade Center attack. Read full book review >
WAR IN A TIME OF PEACE by David Halberstam
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Released: Sept. 1, 2001

"Excellent, as is Halberstam's custom, and instructive for those seeking to understand geopolitical realities."
Another weighty tome from the noted journalist and historian, this one chronicling the sometimes confused, always complex junction of foreign policy and military might. Read full book review >
THE BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING OF THE CENTURY by David Halberstam
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: May 27, 1999
edited by David Halberstam

"Readers who want to read more will be aided by the participating writers' biographical notes and the list of additional selected notable works and sportswriters."
This fine collection of sportswriting honors the genre's ability to create word pictures not only of athletes and their achievements but also of their individual era. Read full book review >
PLAYING FOR KEEPS by David Halberstam
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: Feb. 1, 1999

"Given only limited access to his subject (he speculates that the ever-competitive Jordan "wanted to save his best stuff for his own book"), Halberstam, one of our premier social commentators, still manages to compose a transcendent sports biography."
As astute and objective an examination as we're likely to get of the rise and professional career of basketball and media superstar Michael Jordan. Read full book review >
THE CHILDREN by David Halberstam
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Released: Feb. 18, 1998

"A powerful account of a critical time in American history, related in both close-up and wide view."
Another sprawling book from a master journalist and historian (The Fifties, 1993, etc.), this one focusing on the early years of the civil-rights movement and some of its unlikely heroes. Read full book review >
OCTOBER 1964 by David Halberstam
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: Aug. 1, 1994

"A powerful and entertaining examination of the forces transforming baseball, and the country, in a pivotal period in the history of America and its national pastime."
The riveting story of how two very different baseball teams, reflective of the times in America, got to the 1964 World Series. Read full book review >
THE FIFTIES by David Halberstam
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: June 1, 1993

"Compulsively readable, with familiar events and people grown fresh in the telling."
In The Best and the Brightest, The Powers That Be, and The Reckoning, Halberstam proved that he can master intimidating subjects with aplomb—and in this massive tome on a convulsive decade in American life, he meets with equal success. Read full book review >
THE BEST AMERICAN SPORTS WRITING 1991 by David Halberstam
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: Nov. 11, 1991
edited by David Halberstam

"In the meantime, modest pleasures aplenty for fans of all seasons."
A uneven but generally engaging collection featuring two dozen examples of American sportswriting, which the publisher projects as the first in an annual series. Read full book review >
THE NEXT CENTURY by David Halberstam
Released: Feb. 20, 1990
by

A short (224-page) series of low-key essays that offer random reflections on America's recent past rather than any systematic appreciation of what's in store for the country. Read full book review >
THE NEXT CENTURY by David Halberstam
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Released: Feb. 20, 1990

"State-of-the-union jottings that, while sporadically analytic, afford a less than coherent perspective, owing mainly to their limited focus and oddly enervated tone."
A short (224-page) series of low-key essays that offer random reflections on America's recent past rather than any systematic appreciation of what's in store for the country. Read full book review >
SUMMER OF '49 by David Halberstam
Released: May 15, 1989
by

Standout account of the tight 1949 American League pennant race between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, by the author of The Reckoning, The Best and the Brightest, etc. This is baseball just before its 1950's heyday: radio linked the nation, blacks entered the game, the legendary Yankee/Red Sox rivalry entered a new era as the extraordinary Joe DiMaggio neared retirement and Ted Williams ("the philosopher-king of hitting") stormed the record books. Read full book review >
SUMMER OF '49 by David Halberstam
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: May 15, 1989

"Such unexpected touches—Halberstam's eye for the exemplary detail—help make this a baseball book to cherish."
Standout account of the tight 1949 American League pennant race between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, by the author of The Reckoning, The Best and the Brightest, etc. This is baseball just before its 1950's heyday: radio linked the nation, blacks entered the game, the legendary Yankee/Red Sox rivalry entered a new era as the extraordinary Joe DiMaggio neared retirement and Ted Williams ("the philosopher-king of hitting") stormed the record books. Read full book review >
THE RECKONING by David Halberstam
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Oct. 15, 1986

"An impressive investment with a rich return: this is first-class journalism all the way."
Another sparkling slab of history as high drama from powerhouse journalist (The Best and the Brightest, The Powers that Be) Halberstam. Read full book review >
THE AMATEURS by David Halberstam
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Released: July 31, 1985

"In writing about an arcane sport, the author tells us more about life than we had bargained for."
In this age of the million-dollar amateur, lucrative endorsements, media adulation and huckstering, there is, believe it or not, such a thing as a real amateur. Read full book review >
THE BREAKS OF THE GAME by David Halberstam
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS
Released: Nov. 16, 1981

"No, you don't need to be a fan to start with—but you might be before you finish."
The game is professional basketball, as represented by the Portland Trail Blazers' 1979-80 season—a microcosm, in Halberstam's wide-angle rendering, of the commercialization of all that was once genuine in American life. . . at the cost, often, of human lives. Read full book review >
THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST by David Halberstam
HISTORY
Released: Nov. 16, 1972

"Portions have appeared in Harper's and Esquire; BOMC alternate."
James Thurber once remarked that "We live in a time when in the moth-proof closet dwells the moth." Read full book review >
HO by David Halberstam
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Released: March 1, 1971

"Those interested in a more intensive look at Ho's career must go back to Jean Lacouture's Ho Chi Minh (1968)."
"The higher he rose, the simpler and purer Ho seemed." Read full book review >
THE UNFINISHED ODYSSEY OF ROBERT KENNEDY by David Halberstam
BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR
Released: Jan. 27, 1968

"Halberstam mourns him."
The Pulitzer prize-winning newsman's analysis of Kennedy's ideological journey toward "increasing radicalism" and a personal account of his subsequent successes (and single major defeat) along the campaign trail. Read full book review >
ONE VERY HOT DAY by David Halberstam
Released: Jan. 15, 1967

"Perhaps with strong promotion and Literary Guild selection."
This spends One Very Hot Day in Vietnam (Halberstam, it will be remembered, wrote The Making of a Quagmire-1965) with a small unit as the war "gets steadily a little older and uglier"; with Captain Beaupre, whose combat fatigue shows in a nervous thirst; with Negro Big William, a real swinger with a lust for the life he loses before he fires a shot; with Anderson, attractive, competent, motivated; and with Vietnamese Lieutenant Thuong who knows that "we are not an easy people to save." Read full book review >
THE MAKING OF A QUAGMIRE by Daniel Joseph Singal
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Released: June 15, 1965

"Perspicacious, pertinent."
This is a book about Vietnam, and for straight, readable reportage, it is beyond doubt the best so far: It is also a book about reporting, specifically the difficulties involved in reporting on so confusing and misunderstood a story as Vietnam has been for so long. Read full book review >
THE NOBLEST ROMAN by David Halberstam
Released: March 21, 1961

Angelo Bonatura, a perfectionist in all he did—fishing, turkey shooting, politicking, murder and bootlegging—was understandably put out when his sheriff, the incumbent Big Turk, lost the election to young McCalla the candidate of the "dry" element in the county. Read full book review >
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