Years of Minutes

October 20, 2003
Rooney fans aren't the only readers who will appreciate this massive collection of missives. Anyone who's ever rolled their eyes at the absurdities of modern society will find a soul mate in the legendary curmudgeon, whose on-camera commentaries translate surprisingly well to the printed page (if you can get past his personalized punctuation, which he takes pains to explain in the foreword, but which will likely irritate grammatical purists). Perhaps because Rooney's appearances at the tail end of 60 Minutes
are so brief and often caustic, it's tempting to dismiss him as a small-minded whiner who gets paid big bucks to rant about whatever has just crossed his mind. What will surprise readers is how thoughtful and well-constructed his opinions are, and that he is capable of sentimentality and bewilderment, and has a big and generous heart. Of course, it's easy to overlook that when he's lobbing politically incorrect grenades—about door-to-door census takers in Afghanistan, he writes, "Some of them dont even have doors"—, while the late Kurt Cobain is dismissed thusly: if he "applied the same brain to his music that he applied to his drug-infested life, its reasonable to think that his music may not have made much sense either." That's mean-spirited, maybe; but even at his most outrageous, there's usually a grain of truth in Rooney's taut and well-constructed musings.

January 1, 2004
Rooney began his 26th year as the commentator for the CBS show 60 Minutes in 2003. This book collects a number of those commentaries, aired from 1982 to 2003, with most years including 15 to 20 selections. Since many of them depend on visuals, pictures from the original broadcasts are sometimes included. Otherwise, they are presented with no additional commentary. Given their place on a news show, Rooney's writings often refer to current events and thanks to his excellent job of establishing his topics, few of them suffer from the lack of introduction. The book also includes a short forward by Rooney, much of which consists of his aversion to using apostrophes with contractions. Recommended for larger libraries.-Joel W. Tscherne, Cleveland P.L.

Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

November 15, 2003
Here's another collection of essays from Rooney, the guy who appears at the end of "60 Minutes" to talk about all things great and small. It's hard to imagine something he hasn't talked about: true-false tests, gloves (and the losing thereof), mail-order catalogs, magazine covers, pennies, minority groups, the war on Iraq, cloning, Abe Lincoln, the democratic process. Rooney cultivates his reputation as a curmudgeon--or, at least, as an entertaining whiner--but reading him, we realize that he has a sharp intellect, a knack for spotting life's little inconsistencies and annoyances, and a downright charming way of putting words together. There is one little quirk, though, that is certain to seem self-indulgent to many readers: contractions appear throughout the text without apostrophes ("dont, doesnt, wasnt"). That's the way he spells them when he writes his essays--which are meant, after all, to be read aloud--and that's the way he insisted his publisher spell them, too. Curmudgeons can get away with that kind of thing, especially if they have as many fans as Rooney does. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)