Reviews!

“More Riffs, Rants, and Raves”

Live! From the Golden Apple
(More Radio Signals from the Heart of the Eastern Establishment)

by
William O’Shaughnessy

published by
Fordham University Press
www.fordhampress.com

“His personal commentaries, written with casually elegant language, make you wish the whole country was hearing and reading his work. He is a journalist, commentator, connoisseur, strong political presence and forceful advocate of great causes.”
Governor Mario M. Cuomo

“I know I will enjoy this book. I have already savored the warm references to a former president. I was also touched by what Mario Cuomo said about me on p. 451.”
President George H.W. Bush

“One of the many things I like about O’Shaughnessy’s book is that I can open it anywhere and find an interesting person, even if it is someone I have never met. And when it is someone I know, I am impressed by how well, with a couple of questions or well-chosen words, he can sketch the subject’s character with amazing accuracy. If O’Shaughnessy weren’t so clearly an Irishman, I would think he were Jewish!
Henry A. Kissinger

“Bill O’Shaughnessy’s new book is chock full of good writing, good humor … and wisdom. What a terrific read!”
Dan Rather,
CBS News

“This book – at 800 pages – weighs more than my cat! It’s a stupendous compendium! The ‘O Man’ is the Samuel Pepys of the suburban experience.”
Phil Reisman, Journal-News feature columnist

“Incredible … full of esoterica, humor, pathos, guffaws and goose bumps … the stuff of tears, gut laughs, nostalgia, most of all civility and honor. If you’ve missed O’Shaughnessy’s fab commentary on our cosmos and his remarkable output on the airwaves and in print … read and reread this book often.”
James J. Sheeran
editor-in-chief, Palm Beach Society magazine

“These interviews, tributes, essays and thoughts off the top of Bill’s handsome head are the stuff of New York history, direct from his radio bully pulpit. This is one for any library!”
Liz Smith,
nationally-syndicated columnist

“I’m going to be on a lot of planes this summer and the book will accompany me … despite its substantial heft!”
Governor Ann Richards,
former Governor of Texas

“Another insightful and interesting book from Bill O’Shaughnessy.”
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General,
State of New York

“O’Shaughnessy uses his great Gaelic gift of words, a sharp mind, deep conviction and the capacity for powerful advocacy, to inspire the fainthearted, guide the eager and charm almost everyone he meets. As a broadcaster and author he has written and spoken simple truths and powerful political arguments with a good heart.”
Governor Mario M. Cuomo

“He has an easy writing style that still conveys a real passion for matters like the First Amendment and a genuine appreciation for what we can learn from folks like Mario Cuomo and Jimmy Breslin. In fact, that’s the most pervasive message here. If we want a better world, O’Shaughnessy suggests, we should look to build on ideas and things that are working well already.”
David Hinckley,
critic-at-large, N.Y. Daily News

“Book III has all the usual suspects of the O’Shaughnessy universe – a cross-pollinated collection of clerics, columnists, crooks, kooks and politicos. There’s a lot on Mario Cuomo and other big shots, but despite his refined tastes in areas of class and style, the author is no elitist. He clearly enjoys what he calls ‘Runyon-esque characters’ and he always allows the hoi polloi into the party if they’ve got something interesting or funny to say. His tent is big and there is always space reserved for those whose ship came in and drifted back to sea long ago.”
Gannett Newspapers

“This is a great book … really very interesting. It had a fabulous launch in New York … at Le Cirque, of course!”
Bob Hardwick
society bandleader

“Observations by a professional broadcaster … provocative and candid revelations often evaded by other interviewers.”
ForeWord Magazine

“The poet Keats feared his name would be writ on water. I’ve often thought of that sentiment during the years I’ve been in broadcasting. As Bill O’Shaughnessy so nicely points out, there’s certain impermanence to what we do. Our words are sent shivering out into the ether at the speed of light and are lost. Be it a report on a desperate life-and-death drama, a cogent idea, a politician’s oration, or a felicitous turn of phrase, they all exist only for the millisecond they are heard and then vanish. Except, when someone of discriminating intellect, conviction, and enterprise takes it upon themselves to preserve for the rest of us some of what is truly important. In this case, it was Bill O’Shaughnessy. Not only did he save this anthology of word and thought that matters, but he enriched it with his own observations. Hooray!”
John Cameron Swayze
commentator,CBS Radio

“An interesting, accurate, inside look at some riveting characters and colorful times …”
Hon. Walter J.P. Curley,
former U.S. Ambassador to France and Ireland

“New book . . . same old charm! Bill O’Shaughnessy’s wealth of experience is actively in evidence in the broadcaster’s third book . . . full of the din of the fray, both past and present, and it offers samples from what seems like the forgotten zeitgeist of some distant generation, some strange time when commentators were respectful toward subjects they didn’t agree with and criticized ideas, not people.”
Asa Fitch
Litchfield County Times

“Bill O’Shaughnessy’s speech is remarkable for its good sense and clear vision.”
Neil Hickey,
Columbia Journalism Review

“A thousand flowers and a million thanks for Bill O’Shaughnessy’s latest book.”
Kerry Kennedy

“I always like Bill O’Shaughnessy’s style. I agree wholeheartedly with him that specific individuals may not be worth defending, but principles like freedom of speech most certainly are.”
Joseph N. Hankin
president, SUNY Westchester

“Bill O’Shaughnessy’s ability to ask the right questions at the right time and get the real answers rank him among the great interviewers like Barbara Walters and Tim Russert.”
Louis O. Schwartz
president, American Sportscasters Association

“The new Bill O’Shaughnessy book is surely suited to accompany us during our impending football trips this fall…”
Wellington Mara,
president, N.Y. Giants, Football Hall of Fame

“The third book is a huge collection of interviews, character sketches and tributes to some of America’s most visible citizens – all told from the vantage point of O’Shaughnessy’s beloved “Golden Apple … Westchester County, N.Y.”
Talkers Magazine

“In an increasingly homogenized world encroached by multimedia corporations, Bill O’Shaughnessy’s WVOX shines like a beacon over dark waters. In his latest book he continues to preserve his idea of radio as a place for education and freedom of speech. The book covers a whirlwind of issues and people … a colorful ensemble of characters grace this book including politicians, other journalists and celebrities. The pieces done in the aftermath of 9/11 take on a more personal and pressing tone than his first two books.”
Michelle J. Lee,
The Gannett Standard Star

“While its size – 800 pages – may seem daunting, we managed to pick up this treasure trove many times. This is a perfect Father’s Day gift. We’re putting Mr. O’Shaughnessy’s new tome on the shelf next to his two very worthy previous books.”
Ann LaFarge
Connecticut Newspapers

“Bill O’Shaughnessy is the sage, the voice and undisputed conscience of Westchester. His latest book is a magnificent read and my own personal passport to a time of wonderful memories, and nostalgic recall …”
Nils Hanson, philanthropist
East Hampton and Manhattan

“As an interviewer, Bill O’Shaughnessy is a magic miner of fascinating nuggets coaxed from a host of extraordinarily interesting people, some of them celebrities and others previously undiscovered neighborhood gems.”
Governor Mario M. Cuomo

“Bill O’Shaughnessy’s three books are a monumental trilogy and the stuff of history. Oscar Wilde in his APHORISMS held that ‘Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it!’ … and that puts O’Shaughnessy on sacred ground.”
Monsignor William B. O’Brien
founder and chairman, Daytop International

“Bill O’Shaughnessy is a one of a kind public figure who keeps radio as a place where you can think and talk without shouting.”
Robert Oppedisano
Director, Fordham University Press

“We are all indebted to the author for his ramrod reaction to the current trampling of our First Amendment Rights. Too many broadcasters go hiding in their bunkers … afraid to stand up and speak up … as he does so readily and passionately. In my days as a CBS Affiliate, we were damn proud to have Frank Stanton always out front on controversial issues – just like Bill O’Shaughnessy is today. It’s an elegant book.”
Frank Boyle, president
Eastman Radio and station broker

“You can hear Bill O’Shaughnessy’s very special voice through the written words of his wonderful books. They bring back memories of some very exciting years …”
Robert Rosencrans
Founder, C-SPAN and United Artists-Columbia Cable

“Bill’s previous books were so good, I couldn’t put them down. This one, his third, when you put it down … you literally can’t pick it up again! If they get any thicker … we’ll have to put them on wheels!
Governor Mario M. Cuomo

“Bill O’Shaughnessy really titillates the risibilities of the cognoscenti with his jocund persiflage, delivered in swift concatenation of anecdotal asides …”
Richard H. Walker
Bronxville Press Review

“O’Shaughnessy is a man of his words.”
A.J. Parkinson

“To read ‘More Riffs, Rants, and Raves’ is to stroll through New York and America over the past 40 years, from the assassination of JFK to 9/11. In these days of partisan bickering – make that bellowing – they don’t seem to make politicians like they used to. And they certainly don’t make broadcasters like Bill O’Shaughnessy who, until someone similar comes along, remains in a class by himself. The new book is a chance to rub elbows with the elite of East Coast politics, publishing and society. It is O’Shaughnessy.”
Tom Deignan, Irish Voice

“A worthy successor to his first two books. And just as much fun … crammed with stories about politicians, prelates, entertainers, television personalities, writers and marvelous ‘characters’ from Westchester and New York City. His conversations with Mary Higgins Clark, Pete Hamill and Jimmy Breslin will delight fans!”
Claudia McDonnell
CATHOLIC New York

“His charm conceals a bitingly clear understanding of human character. . . His voice is unmistakably the people’s voice.”
Litchfield County Times

For Review Copies and Interviews

Contact:
Fordham University Press
Kate O’Brien
bkaobrien@fordham.edu
718-817-4782
or
Cindy Hall Gallagher
cindy@wvox.com
914-636-1460

WVOX
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New Rochelle, NY 10801
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e-mail: don@wvox.com