cover image Move on

Move on

Linda Ellerbee. Putnam Publishing Group, $21.95 (269pp) ISBN 978-0-399-13623-8

In a the brash, iconoclastic voice familiar to fans of her TV show Our World, Ellerbee delivers commentary on her life in this entertaining, often moving collection of essays. From her childhood in Texas to her start on radio in Alaska, on to network TV and then her own production company, she tells of the people and events that helped shape her career, including details of her move from ABC to CNN, for which she covered the ``shallow'' political conventions and the ``no-hitter presidential campaign'' of 1988. More interesting, however, are her wry views of a personal life that encompasses four marriages, two children, a stint in a commune in the early '70s, a much-loved alcoholic father and a session at the Betty Ford Clinic, all powerfully recounted here. Courage, intelligence and a dash of light, sure humor are the ingredients of Ellerbee's unsentimental observations of both a self and an era. First serial to People. (May)