A Bus of My Own [Paperback]

Jim Lehrer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2000

Whether the subject is a hilarious PBS NewsHour near-disaster or a personal crisis, Jim Lehrers life makes terrific copy. This memoir will have readers thinking, chortling, even getting misty-eyed, long after the final page has been turned.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Lehrer was 12 years old, his family's inter-city bus company in Kansas went bankrupt, so as an adult the TV commentator and novelist has become an ardent collector of bus memorabilia, and he recently bought a 1946 bus. In this warm, unaffected autobiography tinged with the same irreverent humor that marks his One-Eyed Mack novels, Lehrer writes of life in the Marine Corps ("a ritual to manhood") and of his 10 years as a reporter in Dallas, which taught him that murderers, sexual deviants and embezzlers have faces and families. Assigned to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy for two years, he deems both the lone-assassin theory and current conspiracy theories full of holes. Lehrer tells of his slow recovery from a heart attack and bypass operation in 1983, which prompted him to give up smoking. He defends the MacNeil/ Lehrer NewsHour against critics who fault its "rabid evenhandedness" and nonjudgmental approach. Peppered with anecdotes, this self-portrait limns a likable fellow who takes a daily nap, devours Georges Simenon novels and enjoys "aimless driving" through America's small towns. Photos. First serial to Reader's Digest; BOMC alternate; Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This is more a memoir than a formal autobiography, and its principal thrust is Lehrer's obsession with collecting artifacts of the nation's bus transportation systems, including a 1946 Flxible Clipper . Lehrer also deals with his near-fatal heart attack, and he offers anecdotal coverage of his journalistic career. Of prime interest, of course, is The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour on PBS. However, it seems that the drama of the growth and survival of the program is never fully told, and coanchor Robert MacNeil comes off as one-dimensional. The book is salted throughout with mental asides, a technique that soon becomes annoying. A publisher's blurb says this volume is "in the tradition of Russell Baker and Charles Kuralt." That's hyperbole. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/92.
- Chet Hagan, Berks Cty. P.L. System, Pa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: Hawk Publishing Group (September 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930709129
• ISBN-13: 978-1930709126
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,240,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars jim lehrer, January 17, 2012

By 

joe munguia (Westminster, CA, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Bus Of My Own (Hardcover)

Thank you for the fast delivery of my purchase. My wife has really enjoy reading "A Bus of My Own." She read it in 2 days.
tHANK YOU.

4.0 out of 5 stars Warm, Informative, Readable, June 26, 2011

By 

K.A.Goldberg (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Bus of My Own (Paperback)

This warm-hearted 1992 narrative by journalist Jim Lehrer (born 1934) is both personal and informative. Lehrer describes his upbringing in Kansas and then Texas, where his father ran a small bus company and when it failed switched to managing a bus terminal. Lehrer spent time in both college and the U.S. Marines, and seems more attached to the latter. Soon, he was working as a newspaperman for the Dallas Morning News and Times Herald. Later, Lehrer joined PBS, eventually teaming with Robin McNeil on the News Hour. Lehrer provides excellent insights into that program, plus electronic and print journalism, and he's unafraid to criticize bad reporting, journalistic arrogance, and his own shortcomings. Lehrer also reflects on his 1983 heart attack, which he blames on poor lifestyle (cigarettes, bad diet and lack of exercise). Throughout the narrative Lehrer describes his passion for intercity bus signs and memorabilia, particularly the 1946 Flexible Clipper bus (with air scoop) he pleasure drives on weekends.

This nicely readable book is hardly the pinnacle of journalistic memoirs. Still, it is a warm, humane, informative book by a very capable journalist.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars decent book...except for one thing, January 12, 2006

By 

Vince Palamara "SECRET SERVICE/JFK/STEELERS/M... (South Park/Bethel Park, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Bus of My Own (Paperback)

Jim Lehrer, a reporter who was in Dallas on 11/22/63, maintains that Secret Service SAIC of the Dallas office Forrest V. Sorrels ordered the bubbletop off JFK's limo and had regrets about it. Regrets aside, that decision was actually made by Secret Service agent Samuel A. Kinney (I spoke to both Sorrels and Kinney). That said, a decent book; worth a look.
Vince Palamara
Secret Service expert, History Channel, author of 2 books, in over 32 other author's books, etc.