Golden Girl

I could barely recall who Jessica Savitch was, but I love biographies so I read it. It was a breathtaking journey into a young girl turned celebrity's life. I read this book in one day and I couldn't get her out of my head for weeks afterward.In high anticipation, I watched the movie "Up Close & Personal" which was supposedly based on this book. Even though the movie was good, it really had very few similarities to the book. I was dissapointed. I strongly recommend this book.

Alanna Nash's biography of Jessica Savitch is a fine work, richly detailed and competently researched. In reading the story of this gifted, tragic woman one recalls the old Greek dictum, "Those whom the gods wish to destory they first make mad." I recall witnessing that now famous Sunday evening news broadcast, many years ago, when Jessica appeared in a foggy, bewildered state. I was busy with a young family at mealtime but stopped to watch as she seemed to self-destruct on the air. Jessica Savitch led a charmed life, was blessed by the gods at first. Beautiful, intelligent, and charismatic, she found all doors opening to her. She entered television journalism with expectations on all sides of great success. She died at an early age after suffering through miserable relationships and becoming addicted to drugs. This modern-day morality tale makes somber reading, but is worth your time. Recommended.

this book is written with upmost respect to the life of television anchorwomen jessica savitch and her family. alanna nash does a perfect job of researching jessica from childhood to her death in 1983.ifound this information very helpful when i did some research of my own .i feel that lifetime television could not have found a better person to explain the life of jessica savitch than alanna nash for their intimate portrait.everyone should read this book.

then you should read this book. I probably should not read biographies. They are usually too entrancing and foster the obsession that grows in me. While reading this book, I did find myself getting obsessed, wanting to know everything about Jessica Savitch, not stopping until I could actually get my hands on some footage of her work. I am only 25 so I don't remember her heyday. I wanted to see that trademark smile for myself. I don't know why I am so mystified but this book did not help. It fed me all these details that made me want to know more. I usually don't comment on how a biographhy was written as for as the techinical stuff, I can only comment on the content. I feel that biographies should read like someone is talking to you - that is how I felt about this book. Maybe that is why I couldn't get enough because Nash was telling us her story. It was truly compelling and I was completely captivated.

I remembered Jessica Savitch as a newswoman from my youth, remembered liking her immensely, and vaguely recalled her untimely death. After reading Golden Girl, however, I felt like I knew her, which is quite an accomplishment for the author since no one in her life really knew her, save, perhaps, her equally trouble soulmate. Nash's breathtaking portrait of this troubled woman is perhaps the most compelling biography I've ever read. She has told the gritty tale of this Golden Girl with the best of the journalist's skills: non-judgmentalism as the platform for truth. I came away with enormous compassion for Savitch, and dreamed of her the night I finished the book. And I not only learned about Savitch, whom I both wish I had known and am glad I didn't, I also learned about television news, the horrors of drug abuse, and the fallacies of judging a book by its cover--metaphorically speaking. This is one great read.