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Early Praise for
Throwing Bullets
"Like a good pitcher, Roy Rowan rears back and delivers---uncorking a
great story, well-told. As the father of a young middle-innings’
reliever, I found a lot to identify with. Readers of all kinds will find
a lot to love in this book.”
-Brian Williams,
Anchor and Managing Editor,
NBC Nightly News
“For most boys
(and someday perhaps girls too), the real
American Dream is to
play in the major leagues. Getting there is the gripping theme of Roy
Rowan’s Throwing Bullets. He follows two young
minor-league pitchers through the summer of 2005: one a laconic
Dominican lefty, the other an amiable righthander from a Chicago suburb,
as they scramble towards the ‘show,’ their term for the big leagues.
This wonderful book can be enjoyed for its baseball lore and insights,
but even more for its heartwarming human drama of why one player makes
it and the other doesn’t. Finding out which is which will be one of your
best reading experiences this year.”
-Richard B. Stolley,
Founding
editor People Magazine
”I loved this book by eminent and
graceful writer Roy Rowan. It contains much fascinating detail of
minor-league life, and provides insights into two young pitchers Rowan
traces through a season at a Minnesota Twins’ farm team in Connecticut.
His chapter on a scout’s view of his two subjects will educate even the
most knowledgeable fan.”
-Fay Vincent, former Baseball
Commissioner
“Roy
Rowan, a consummate pro himself, takes a major-league look at the ups
and downs of life in the minors.”
-Ray Cave, former Executive Editor, Sports Illustrated
“Throwing Bullets is a marvelous
read. It took me back to my minor-league days in Valdosta, Durham, and
Montreal. As Rowan points out, and as I told my young players, it takes
a lot of hard work to make the majors, but even harder work to stay
there.”
-E. J. “Buzzie” Bavasi, former General Manager of the
Dodgers, Padres, and Angels
High
Praise for
Chasing the Dragon
Read December 2004 review from
Smithsonian
Magazine
"Roy Rowan's
spell-binding account of China's earth rattling communist revolution
is high drama and great journalism - all that I'd expect from one of
the best."
-Tom Brokaw
"The sharp eye of a world-class
reporter, the narrative skill of an accomplished author, the
perspective of decades, and one of the most consequential,
tumultuous stories of our time - what could be a better combination?
Chasing the Dragon is
personal history at its best."
-Strobe Talbott,
President of the Brookings Institution
"Chasing the Dragon
by Roy Rowan is at once a memoir with the immediacy of fine
journalism and the considered judgment of good history. The
chapter on the million-man battle of Xuzhou is particularly
important for it is often forgotten that the Communist Revolution
was above all a military conquest that was won (and could have been
lost) on the battlefield."
-William Kirby,
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
"Roy Rowan's book is a fascinating
look at the heroes, the tyrants, and the history that shapes
America's greatest rival, potentially greatest customer and possibly
some day again, greatest ally."
-Richard B. Stolley, Founding Editor, People
magazine
"In this high-spirited
and deftly written memoir, Roy Rowan gives us a fresh look at the
adventure, duplicity, courage and bewildering shifts of fortune that
marked the Chinese Civil War between 1946 and 1949. His
chapters on his work with the United Nations relief agencies in
China are especially telling."
-Jonathan Spence, Author of The Search for Modern China
"Chasing the Dragon
is both enthralling personal history and an invaluable eyewitness
account of China. Rowan offers a riveting insider's view of
pre-Communist China and records its last death throes with a keen
eye for history and human detail. A winning and wonderfully
readable book."
-Stella Dong, author of Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a
Decadent City 1842-1949
"This colorful eyewitness account
of the Communists' 1949 takeover of China is the perfect blend of
journalism and history. Roy Rowan tells this amazing tale with
the firsthand excitement of a young reporter and the wisdom of a
veteran China watcher. In a very personal and readable way,
his book explores war, historic forces, colorful characters and the
thrill of journalism."
-Walter Isaacson, President of the Aspen Institute and author of
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
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