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9781517922023

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Reviews

""Laurie is a top notch storyteller and this book is an intimate and entertaining look at a wonderful career in journalism.""—Cathy Wurzer ""This affectionate and insightful memoir may recount Laurie Hertzel's days at the Duluth News Tribune but it will resonate with anyone who has loved newspapers and newspaper reporting.""—Louise Kiernan ""Salty characters abound in this charming, picaresque tale of the shy girl growing up mentored by the smoky, boozy, old-style reporters that populated the newsrooms of the '70s. Her loving portraits of these denizens never fail to charm.""—mnartists.org ""The most poignant chapters in this compelling memoir relate how Hertzel chanced upon the story of her career: in 1986 she accompanied to the USSR a group of Duluthians wanting to establish a Soviet sister city relationship. While there, she discovered a community of American expats, taken as children to Russia in the 1930s by their communist parents, some of whom were later executed. Her 2004 book, They Took My Father: Finnish Americans in Stalin's Russia made an accidental journalist an accidental author, but her storytelling abilities are no accident.""—Publishers Weekly ""I thought journalists' lives—aside from the stories we write about others—were ho-hum affairs. That was before I read Laurie Hertzel's honest, engaging and witty memoir about working at her hometown newspaper in Duluth.""—Lake Superior Magazine ""After reading Hertzel's account of her lifelong affair with words, I found myself jonesing for newsprint. She may deem her career ""accidental,"" but how can anyone who coined the term ""Magapaper"" for a childhood publication have been destined for anything else? Delightful.""—Bethanne Patrick, The Book Studio ""Whatever her focus, Hertzel is a powerful storyteller, with an eye for the radiant details that conjure an entire way of life. As she journeys from journalist to award-winning fiction writer, she shows us that these accidental particulars, if we care for them properly, are the stuff of real romance.""—Charlotte Observer ""News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist is a wonderful (and often funny) memoir of a woman at work in a world where the next story is always breaking now!""—Melissa Westemeier, Green Girl in Wisconsin ""It's a 224 page love letter to her hometown.""—Duluth Superior Magazine ""Hertzel's a naturally gifted storyteller with an eye for telling detail and a way with words.""—Nancy Pate, On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever ""In this equable memoir, Laurie Hertzel looks back to her youth as a neophyte newspaperwoman at the Duluth News-Tribune on frigid Lake Superior in Minnesota. Still a teenager, she started in 1976 as a clerk, then moved on to the copy desk, and ultimately became a full-fledged regional reporter. She makes it all sound wide-eyed and inadvertent, and her personal rise is winningly told.""—Columbia Journalism Review ""Call it coming-of-age, call it confessions of an ink-stained wretch; whatever you call it, you will root for her. And wait to see what she does next.""—Seattle Post-Intelligencer ""News to Me is a thoroughly entertaining look at not just journalism, but life. Anyone who reads the book will be happy that Hertzel took [them] along on the journey.""—Cook County News-Herald ""[Hertzel's] contemporaries will enjoy the trip down memory lane and young, aspiring journalists will learn a lot from her journey.""—Media Report to Women ""Hertzel tells the story of her career with a voice that is both humorous and provocative. Historically relevant and extremely readable.""—Superior Telegram ""This is a great book for those who love writing, are interested in newspaper history/evolution,the Northern Midwest U.S., or the emigration of Finns during the Great Depression.""—Girl Detective ""News to Me could be the story of anyone who enters the workforce at a young age and gets a load of on-the-job training in how to deal with office politics, people, and the disappointments that come with the daily grind.""—The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

""Laurie is a top notch storyteller and this book is an intimate and entertaining look at a wonderful career in journalism.""--Cathy Wurzer ""This affectionate and insightful memoir may recount Laurie Hertzel's days at the Duluth News Tribune but it will resonate with anyone who has loved newspapers and newspaper reporting.""--Louise Kiernan ""Salty characters abound in this charming, picaresque tale of the shy girl growing up mentored by the smoky, boozy, old-style reporters that populated the newsrooms of the '70s. Her loving portraits of these denizens never fail to charm.""--mnartists.org ""The most poignant chapters in this compelling memoir relate how Hertzel chanced upon the story of her career: in 1986 she accompanied to the USSR a group of Duluthians wanting to establish a Soviet sister city relationship. While there, she discovered a community of American expats, taken as children to Russia in the 1930s by their communist parents, some of whom were later executed. Her 2004 book, They Took My Father: Finnish Americans in Stalin's Russia made an accidental journalist an accidental author, but her storytelling abilities are no accident.""--Publishers Weekly ""I thought journalists' lives--aside from the stories we write about others--were ho-hum affairs. That was before I read Laurie Hertzel's honest, engaging and witty memoir about working at her hometown newspaper in Duluth.""--Lake Superior Magazine ""After reading Hertzel's account of her lifelong affair with words, I found myself jonesing for newsprint. She may deem her career ""accidental,"" but how can anyone who coined the term ""Magapaper"" for a childhood publication have been destined for anything else? Delightful.""--Bethanne Patrick, The Book Studio ""Whatever her focus, Hertzel is a powerful storyteller, with an eye for the radiant details that conjure an entire way of life. As she journeys from journalist to award-winning fiction writer, she shows us that these accidental particulars, if we care for them properly, are the stuff of real romance.""--Charlotte Observer ""News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist is a wonderful (and often funny) memoir of a woman at work in a world where the next story is always breaking now!""--Melissa Westemeier, Green Girl in Wisconsin ""It's a 224 page love letter to her hometown.""--Duluth Superior Magazine ""Hertzel's a naturally gifted storyteller with an eye for telling detail and a way with words.""--Nancy Pate, On a Clear Day I Can Read Forever ""In this equable memoir, Laurie Hertzel looks back to her youth as a neophyte newspaperwoman at the Duluth News-Tribune on frigid Lake Superior in Minnesota. Still a teenager, she started in 1976 as a clerk, then moved on to the copy desk, and ultimately became a full-fledged regional reporter. She makes it all sound wide-eyed and inadvertent, and her personal rise is winningly told.""--Columbia Journalism Review ""Call it coming-of-age, call it confessions of an ink-stained wretch; whatever you call it, you will root for her. And wait to see what she does next.""--Seattle Post-Intelligencer ""News to Me is a thoroughly entertaining look at not just journalism, but life. Anyone who reads the book will be happy that Hertzel took [them] along on the journey.""--Cook County News-Herald ""[Hertzel's] contemporaries will enjoy the trip down memory lane and young, aspiring journalists will learn a lot from her journey.""--Media Report to Women ""Hertzel tells the story of her career with a voice that is both humorous and provocative. Historically relevant and extremely readable.""--Superior Telegram ""This is a great book for those who love writing, are interested in newspaper history/evolution, the Northern Midwest U.S., or the emigration of Finns during the Great Depression.""--Girl Detective ""News to Me could be the story of anyone who enters the workforce at a young age and gets a load of on-the-job training in how to deal with office politics, people, and the disappointments that come with the daily grind.""--The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

Author Information

Laurie Hertzel grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, and spent nearly twenty years at the Duluth News Tribune as a newsroom clerk, librarian, copy editor, beat reporter, feature writer, news editor, and columnist. Her journalistic work has won numerous national awards, and her short fiction was honored with the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize. Currently books editor for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Hertzel is coauthor of They Took My Father: Finnish Americans in Stalin's Russia, also available from University of Minnesota Press.

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