Absorbing and informative history of one of the bastions of public radio. The book, organized by decade, generally does a very good job interweaving the history of NPR with the stories of the wars, political currents and cultural events of the day that its reporters and commentators covered, along with oral histories by various celebrities and lesser-known folk like the hard-working reference librarians. (The glaring exception is the section on the '80s -- its transitions from one big event to another felt somehow clunky and sometimes jumped around in chronology in forced attempts to link them thematically.) One also gets some wonderful insights into the behind-the-scenes action, and the book makes sure not to paper over the occasional financial crisis or management errors -- most notably, two separate decisions not to pick up "Prairie Home Companion" and "This American Life". All in all, a good read for NPR fans and probably anyone else interested in radio journalism. ( )

When I was in high school, the only music genre I liked was classical-- hence, I put in a lot of time listening to WGUC, Cincinnati's NPR affiliate. I quickly grew to enjoy the non-music programming as well; they didn't air Morning Edition, but All Things Considered grew to be vital, especially in the time after 9/11. I didn't hear much NPR during my college years, but since acquiring a job (and hence, a commute), I find myself listening to it almost every time I drive. I even podcast it now, listening to both Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and On the Media on a regular basis.

All this is to say that maybe I'm biased, but there's not really a better source of good journalism than NPR. "This Is NPR" celebrates the first forty years of the broadcaster, from when it began as protesters swarmed D.C., up to the coverage of the Chinese earthquakes. Criticisms definitely turn up, but it's clearly written by a group of people who believe in NPR and what it does. There are a lot of great stories, large and small, from how they used to edit the tape manually-- still working on the end of All Things Considered after the beginning had started-- to battles for funding to tales of the foreign bureau in the middle of revolutions and riots. It's chock-full of fascinating details that you'll be repeating to those around you as you read (much to their chagrin).