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Summary: A cousin of mine was an embedded journalist in the war
Review: A cousin of mine, Andrea Catherwood, was an embedded journalist with the US Army in Baghdad and during the war - she was the person who broke the news about the poor little boy who was so badly injured. We all ought to read books on what happened in Baghdad during these crucial weeks if we are to have any idea of what is going on now and how that should affect what happens in the future. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)
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Summary: excellent fast paced read
Review: After following Anne Garrels honest and intelligent NPR reports from Baghdad during the early days of the war in Iraq, this book had my attention from page one. Anne Garrels is courageous in her story telling and focus of something other than the obvious politics...the Iraqi people and the reality of her day to day experience. She reported this journal with both compassion and chutzpah. We need more journalists like Anne Garrels.
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Summary: amazing
Review: Amazing, what a greatr account of the war from inside the Iraqi capitol. THis brings us right into the action so we can feel the 'shock and awe' that was unleashed with terror and hardship for average Iraqis.
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Summary: Anne and Amer
Review: Anne Garrels read from this book at the Madison Book Festival this year. We were especially lucky that Vint, her husband, was also there to read, his pride and concern and affection for Annie was a joy to witness. I wanted to attend the reading just to be able to stand and applaud and honor Anne Garrels for her courage and voice of humanity in her reporting from Iraq. Thank you Anne.This book gives us insight into the patience,courage and creativity of a good journalist. The people of Iraq are made real, the effects of war on people's lives is described with compassion. The messages from Vint go out to form a supporting net of concern for Anne. The relationship and friendship of Amer and Anne gives us hope of bridging the cultural gap. Knowing the other person's shoes might not fit us, learning about and from the differences and grasping hands in the middle. The importance of the real story of war being told grows every day. The reports from Anne Garrels to so many NPR listeners took the machines out of war and made it's horror visible on a human scale. For that we owe her greatful thanks.
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Summary: Very Informative and harrowing
Review: Anne Garrels' book (a/k/a documentary) with the assistance of the confidential information she'd sent via e-mail to her husband bank in the U.S. to share with her family "et al" was very moving and harrowing..The "Naked" is just referring to her decision to type one of her NPR deadline messages in the still of the night with clothes close by, so that if anyone demanded her to open her door she'd be able to say she'd have to get dressed first.This did speak well of the fact that she was saying "morality was a code of ethics there", and she could use that excuse with no problem of being demanded to open the door immediately. It showed a humanistic view of "another people" whom we've seem mostly through viewing and assessing their top leaders and is a more clear picture of how 3rd World Countries are torn between so many different ideologies due to support groups around the world which fraction them in such a way that "civil wars" run even more rampant that wars with foreigners{although apparently ever so often they stop the civil wars to fight the foreigners, then back to the civil wars).
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Summary: Anne Reveals Her Truth And Hers Alone
Review: Anne Garrels: "I think a curious high point was in the weeks afterwards when I realized that all the months of staying there had really been worth it because Iraqis had so accurately predicted what was going to happen; Iraqis knew themselves and made it very clear. So in a perverse kind of way I guess that was a high point. I was astonished at how ill-prepared the Bush administration was for the aftermath from the very beginning. And that continues to this day." Think about this. Garrels witnessed the fall of one of the more evil regimes of the past century. Even for the most staunch opponent of the war, the end of Saddam's power and the beginning of the Iraqi people's freedom must be recognized as a huge achievement for human decency. But what was Garrels emotional high point? That's right: when she felt reassured that yes, things really are going badly for Iraq -- and the U.S. When her view that America was screwing things up was confirmed. It is human to want to validate one's own actions; to feel some smug self-justification if events do indeed turn out badly when one has been predicting they would. But in Garrels situation, with all the things she must have seen and experienced, to declare that feeling to be the high point? It is honorable of Garrels to admit this honestly. But that doesn't make it any less pathetic
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Summary: Perfect Read for Those Against the Liberation of Iraq
Review: Anti-US/Anti-Bush whine from one of the in-house Bush haters at NPR. Writing from the safety of a Baghdad hotel and during her 3 week vaction on the East coast,this former major network reporter riles against the forces that liberated Iraq from the Butcher of Baghdad. Garrels whines endlessly about her personal inconveniences and seems to think that alone was reason enough not to overthrow Saddam & Sons. Those who heard her reports during GWII will remember her as harried,ill-informed and quick to falsely charge the US with the killing of Iraqi citizens--all of which is rehashed in this rush to print book. Don't waste your money buying this self-righteous bemoaning as you will soon be able to get your fill of the author's dull car battery stories and misreporting on US "atrocities" as the she shills this book on countless public subsidized radio venues.
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Summary: Insightful Memoir
Review: Anyone who listened to NPR during the 2003 Gulf War probably heard many of Anne Garrels' reports from Baghdad. She could be heard two or three times a day reporting on events before, during, and after the bombing campaign and subsequent invasion of the city. Garrels reported primarily from the Palestine Hotel, calling in on an illegal satellite phone that she managed to keep hidden from the constant Iraqi security sweeps. The book is a fascinating account of Garrels' time in Baghdad, told through her own journal entries and email updates sent to friends by her husband. It is more about the experiences of a veteran war correspondent than the war itself. As one of only a few American reporters who decided to remain in Baghdad when the bombing campaign began, Garrels displayed remarkable bravery and ingenuity in continuing to file her reports to NPR from a city under seige. I often found myself listening to her reports during the war and wondering what in the world it must be like to be hiding in a hotel room while broadcasting halfway around the world to NPR - and hoping you don't get caught (or killed) while doing so. After reading Naked in Baghdad, it sounds like that wasn't even the most difficult part of her job. The risks she took in going out into the streets to collect the information in order to have something to report every day sounds comparably more difficult. It sounds like Garrells has many more stories to tell from other wars zones (Afghanistan, Chechnya, Pakistan, etc). I look forward to reading more from this reporter.
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Summary: Given a choice...
Review: As much I strongly admired Ms. Garrel's intrepid journalism under fire account in her book (the title however makes me think of some '60s strip club in San Francisco, a place also known as Baghdad by the Bay), and though there are many choice passages in her NPR written-word narrative, for my money and historical value, I much prefer "Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq," by Bill Katovsky and Timothy Carlson, which packs an emotional wallop of 60 interviews with reporters from across the globe, including a revealing and harrowing account also from embedded NPR correspondent Eric Westervelt. Grenades, RPGs, sniper fire, and dodging death punctuate these 60 personal stories behind the news stories from the battlefield. Talk about deadlines. Sorry, Ms. Garrels, Embedded works because it reminds me of the best of Studs Terkel.
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Summary: Most Advised Reading
Review: Before I purchased this book, I read the reviews and noted the folks who just hated her and believe that she was anti-American and Left wing biased. Now after reading the book I have to say how unfair some of these review were. She gives a compassionate account of how this war affected people, regardless of their nationality. It seems that whenever someone speaks or writes out of compassion towards others, they are labeled Liberals, but if you talk big Business and morality, (what an oxymoron that is) you are Conservative and the right to call yourself a good Christian. This has always eluded me to someone's rational of their ideology. Some question Annie's integrity, questioning here motives and what to believe. I wonder how many of them are diehard FOX News viewers and still believe today that WMD were founds and used against are brave fighting troops, that still prevail the dangers in Iraq today. If given a choice of Fox or Ann Garrels, along with the whole NPR crew, logics money is on Annie and NPR. Anyone wanting to know the true effects of war should read this book. Thanks Ann, Great Book!!!!!
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