Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable Memoir
Review: I really enjoyed Tim Russert's wonderful memoir. In all lot of ways I felt as though I was reading about someone I had grown up with. He does a tremendous job of capturing the mood of growing up Irish Catholic in the '50's and '60's. A VERY ENJOYABLE READ!!
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but not great.
Review: I watch Meet the Press, so when I found out Tim Russert was writing a book about his life, I decided I wanted to read it. I picked up this book this morning and read right through it, cover to cover. It is an okay book, and a very easy read written at the 8th grade level (I do not mean that as an insult, I think he was writing this book for a wide audience). It tells the story of Tim Russerts life and the lessons he learned. For example, it talks about his father holding down two jobs, and how he had accumulated over 200 unused sick days by the time he retired. Yet it goes over the top, suggesting that anyone who takes a day off has a bad work ethic. The book does have a few passages that made me chuckle, like one of Russert's bosses in the sanitation department who last name was Mr. Scalavzeviz (or something like that) which nobody could pronounce, so they all called him Mr. Sonuvabitch. I hesitantly recommend this book, and forwarn people that there is a preaching like quality to the book that might rub some the wrong way, even though I do not think Russert intended it that way. But all in all, it was a good read. If you watch Meet the Press, this book is a good opportunity to gain some insight about the moderator.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing - surprising lack of insight
Review: Let me just state that I have no axe to grind -- I like Tim Russert as a journalist, I generally agree with his politics, and I live in upstate New York -- so I was really looking forward to this book. I read it from cover to cover and was very disappointed at the pedestrian writing and lack of insight about world events and personal events. When Russert writes about earth-shaking world events, such as the assassinations of King and Kennedy, his pedestrian observations and inability to provide intelligent commentary leave one almost angry. And when he writes about personal events, he renders even potentially moving moments completely mundane. One isolated example: when his son tells Russert that, despite Russert's love for baseball, his son is more interested in NASCAR and golf, Russert expounds that our children are individuals and we can't expect them to be carbon copies of ourselves. The anecdote was so mundane that, rather than tears running down my cheeks as Russert possibly intended, I could barely bring myself to keep reading. Spare yourself and read something else instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Rings so True...
Review: my mom gave me this book for my 43rd birthday, and i've enjoyed every minute reading it.
in large part this it could be the story of my life growing up on the south side of milwaukee in the 60's: Family, Neighbors, Church, Fish Fries, VFW Posts, and of course the Nuns and Jesuits who taught us life's lessons so well.
very refreshing. boy do we need more of this stuff in America today!
Rating:
Summary: A TOUCHING TRIBUTE TO A FATHER
Review: Tim Russert reads this touching tribute to his father with humor, understanding and love. "The older I get," Russert says, "the smarter my father seems to get. Hardly a day goes by when I don't remember something that Big Russ taught me." With those words and more Russert recalls a childhood in South Buffalo, New York, a predominantly Irish Catholic neighborhood where families shared with and cared about one another. A veteran of World War II the elder Russert fathered four children and provided for them by his day job with the Sanitation Department and a night job with the local newspaper. Along the way he instilled in his offspring his basic beliefs in duty, responsibility, patriotism, and courage. Most of us know Tim Russert as a celebrated television newsman and moderator of Meet The Press. Now, we meet him as a devoted and appreciative son. Listen and be reminded of what really matters in life. Many sons might want to say to their fathers much of what Russert is saying to his but cannot find the words. Suggestion: give your father this CD and he'll understand. - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: "Whatever we achieve . . . we stand on their shoulders."
Review: Tim Russert's delightful memoir, "Big Russ and Me," is a heartwarming and deeply felt tribute to his father, who instilled in his four children the values that ultimately shaped their adult lives. It is also a book about other influential people who had an impact on Tim Russert, both the boy and the man.
Big Russ, as Tim calls his dad, fought in World War II, although he rarely talked about his days in the army. When he came home from the war, he raised his family in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in South Buffalo. Everyone knew one another and looked out for one another. Kids played on the street without fear, and front doors were left unlocked. Priests and teachers were figures of respect and reverence, and children were taught to look up to their elders.
Big Russ worked two jobs, one with the sanitation department and the other as a delivery truck driver for the Buffalo Evening News. He took pride in providing for his family and he taught his children the value of a dollar. The Russert children learned the importance of honesty, self-discipline, and faith.
With his humorous and anecdotal style, Tim Russert beautifully captures the wonderful memories of his youth, nostalgically looking back at the television programs he watched, the odd jobs he held, and the schools he attended. He gives special mention to a teacher named Sister Lucille, who taught Tim to love and appreciate English literature. She also gave Tim his first important job in journalism when he was in the seventh grade.
After college, Russert went to law school and he began a love affair with politics. He describes his association with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Mario Cuomo, two statesmen whom he both admired and respected, and he traces his rewarding career as a broadcast journalist.
"Big Russ and Me" is a book that will bring pleasure to readers of all ages. It is a touching and colorful journey into a more innocent past. It is also a beautiful and fascinating look at the threads that make up the fabric of a full and meaningful life.
Rating:
Summary: Ah Drats
Review: Tim Russert's new book about his father and the lessons of life, Big Russ and Me, was an incredible disappointment. In reading this book, one is drawn to the current Walgreens Drugs commercial that features an ideallic life devoid of problems and inconveniences. That's not the way it was in South Buffalo (I'm sure), anymore than it was in New York, Chicago, Detroit or even Nashville neighborhoods.
Face it. Tim wrote a Buffalo version of the television show "The Wonder Years." At least the TV show made a pass at representing itself as fiction based on fact.
Admittedly, Russert is a truly remarkable person and a quintessential American success story. His parents were not atypical of most nuclear Catholic families in America. Most reasonably successful people have very similar stories to tell.
Until, that is, the "secret," which off-handedly appeared toward the end of the book -- his parents separation.
The cavalier attitude with which Author Russert treats this central fact in his household was reason enough to send the book back to the publisher with the inevitable angel stamp Nuns put on their charges' inadequate papers back then, "You can do better... I know you can."
One almost thinks there was a lot more going on in the Russert household than Tim was admitting. This is a huge fatal flaw in a nationally published book leading one to wonder whether too much of the book might be almost idealized romance from a man well into middle age longing for a simpler time.
It would be nice if we knew more about the "inner workings" of these people,notably his mother and father. Why they are who they are -- what the core source of the values were and are. In short, Tim needs to be a good reporter and now just ask who, what, when, where and how, but also "why."
One of the "why" questions is the comparatively minimal and stereotypical role Mrs. Russert played in his life. She came off as a traditional housewife who cooked, cleaned and supported but who comparatively had little impact. Who was she? How did she formulate his thinking and who he is. It's amazing that she gets so little press in the book, especially given that she was with him in gross terms far more than his father was. She almost seems like a blue collar June Cleaver.
Another disappointing fact was Tim' attitude toward some of the priests with whom he came in contact, specifically those who "might have been a bit different." Given what's happened between priests and schoolboys, a four paragraph kiss-off of this subject is surprisingly light. Perhaps Mr. Russert could have shed some light on some of the more hidden secrets of the 1960s era Catholic church too, if he was so inclined.
If Russert approached his Meet the Press job the way he approached this book -- he'd be the Larry King of Sunday morning television. One hopes someday Tim writes a sequel and tells us everything he did not tell us in this book about life in the 1950s and 1960s in South Buffalo.
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