This was a brilliant and fascinating book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book which covered the authors life. Living as a CBS journalist during the cold War. I listened to the audiobook which was read by the author. I love both his pitch and tone of voice. I enjoyed the relaxed approach to the reading of the audiobook it really allowed me to take in everything he was saying. 

It was a brilliant autobiography/memoir story that had me engrossed from the beginning. I tried my hardest to finish it in one day but tiredness took over lol.

Marvin and his wife have definitely lead an incredible and some time very frustrating life. This book follows his life from starting his career as a journalist writing for radio news through to his life as a journalist living in Russia during the cold War. Telling all the fascinating trials and tribulations of living and working in a communist state. I especially loved all the hotel issues, it really had me chuckling but I won't give that much away. I love read books about living and working in Russia as it is such a secretive country and the author really brings these facts to light with great stories. I really do recommend this book to all those who live reading what it's like living and working in Russia, those who are interested in journalism and those with an interest in the cold War.

So much praise goes out to the author and publishing team for bringing us this very interesting and fascinating book. I will definitely be looking out for more books by this fantastic author. 

The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog today https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/assignment-russia-by-marvin-kalb-booksgosocial-independent-author-4-stars either under my name or ladyreading365

Assignment Russia
With thanks to NetGalley, Marvin Kalb, and his publishers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book feels like an adventure movie. It is written with immaculate precision, emotive language, and an overall tone of frank honestly. I loved the experience of reading this book, I felt like I was listening to Kalb tell me this story over a dinner table but with a fabulous attention to detail.

The Cold War, Russia, and the ongoing impact of both are deeply interesting and this first person account brings the realities of history into sharp relief.

I can’t recommend this book enough, I now want to read Kalb’s entire back list.

As a person who feels an infinity for the hustle and fossil of the Ford is in 50s, I couldn’t wait to get in to Marvin Kalb‘s career. I must say I wasn’t disappointed. From his first day at the new station to him meeting his wife tell him finally arriving in Russia it was all interesting and held my attention the whole time. I must say I have found a new respect for Mr. Kalb and although I wasn’t extremely familiar with him I knew I had heard his name somewhere. I thought his memories that he shares in this book were detailed and worth listening to. I loved it and highly recommend it. Memoirs do not get much better than this. I gave it five stars and it deserves everyone of them. I was giving this book by Net Gally and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Please forgive any grammatical a punctuation errors as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

Marvin Kalb joined CBS Radio in New York, in 1957, to write “electronic journalism” which included local news and television. He got a crash course in news writing and discovered old boys’ networking after leaving his PhD program at Harvard in Russian history. My, what a career he was about to enter. Hired a year later by Edward R. Murrow, then landing his dream job as Moscow correspondent for CBS network after that, there was no stopping him. Kalb’s memoir harkens back to the bygone days of broadcasting bringing back memories of Dallas Townsend, Walter Cronkite, Charles Kuralt, Lowell Thomas, Howard K. Smith, and others. You could feel the excitement during the period of time when news was brought to the public in a whole new way. Tension from the Cold War period, emanating from U.S relations with Khrushchev and the Soviet Union, was high, and then the U2 incident occurs. Relive history in this most interesting and exciting book by Kalb. Better yet, listen to the book read by Kalb, as I did. His accent is also historical.

What a timely and fascinating book! Legendary journalist Marvin Kalb weaves the story of his early years at CBS with great detail that keeps the reader (or listener, in my case) engaged. (He narrates the audiobook, which I can't recommend highly enough.) His telling is of his own story, sure, but it also gives great nuggets of information that explain a lot of what's happening today geopolitically. The story of his time in Russia is ideal for understanding today's events and is compelling enough not to sound like a history book. As a journalist, I found his work to be entertaining (getting first hand knowledge of Edward R. Murrow !!!) and makes me want to seek out other ones he's written.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC.

Assignment Russia is a detailed memoir by Marvin Kalb about his time in Russia, and then acting as a 'Russia Expert' in several other situations thereafter. It is an interesting look at the early days of broadcast television and some of the struggles to adapt from what had previously been a radio-dominated industry. Great read!

Surprised myself by how much I enjoyed this. I don't remember Kalb; however I did grow up with Cronkite. Mr. Kalb narrates this himself, and is a perfect fit. I enjoyed the behind the scenes and his raw descriptions of news rooms and his experiences.

Kalb to my delight did not speak over my head with his Russian knowledge and experiences, nor was I bored.


Thank you NetGalley for accepting my request to read and review Assignment Russia.

Assignment Russia by Marvin Kalb
I had purchased and read the two recent books by Marvin Kalb. This one as well as The Year I was Peter the Great. While reading both books in my head I could hear Mr. Kalb with his deep, serious and relaxing voice reading the book to me. So, given the chance by NetGalley to actually listen to this book I was very much excited. I was not disappointed. Mr. Kalb is the speaker of his book and nobody could have done better. Why not. He is a professional journalist both print and on television. Often when I listen to a book, my mind will wonder. Not the case this time. Even though I had already read the book, I sat quietly with my eyes closed listening to Mr. Kalb tell me his story. The book is an interesting story how a partly humble young but confident academic oriented young guy learns the trade of first local radio news broadcasting all the way through being the Moscow Correspondent for CBS News. Along the way he meets and tells us about his interactions with Edward R. Murrow who hand picked him to join him at CBS. In addition, gentlemen of my youth; Eric Severeid, Howard K. Smith, Richard Hottelet, Charles Kuralt and Daniel Schorr all of whom were professional before the start of the Cold War and then all the way through this time of tension. I highly recommend the book or the audio in either case it is pure Marvin Kalb.

Marvin Kalb of CBS News tells his story of covering the Cold War in Russia at the beginning of his career. Kalb narrates the audiobook and does an admirable job narrating his autobiography.

Marvin Kalb has led an incredible life. And this book was such an inspiring insight into the start of his career. I really appreciated the little details he provided on his travels and on living in Russia. I also loved the narration. Thanks to Netgalley for sharing!

What a wonderfully fascinating book. It’s incredibly relevant to the things going on in the world right now and I felt like I got such a good insight into the person Malvin Kalb was when he was younger. I also really enjoyed the narrator and felt they did a wonderful job. This has definitely got me interested in learning more about the Cold War and Russia as well as the author himself.