9780062472045
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Eve of a Hundred Midnights audiobook

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Eve of a Hundred Midnights Audiobook Summary

The unforgettable true story of two married journalists on an island-hopping run for their lives across the Pacific after the Fall of Manila during World War II–a saga of love, adventure, and danger.

On New Year’s Eve, 1941, just three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were bombing the Philippine capital of Manila, where journalists Mel and Annalee Jacoby had married just a month earlier. The couple had worked in China as members of a tight community of foreign correspondents with close ties to Chinese leaders; if captured by invading Japanese troops, they were certain to be executed. Racing to the docks just before midnight, they barely escaped on a freighter–the beginning of a tumultuous journey that would take them from one island outpost to another. While keeping ahead of the approaching Japanese, Mel and Annalee covered the harrowing war in the Pacific Theater–two of only a handful of valiant and dedicated journalists reporting from the region.

Supported by deep historical research, extensive interviews, and the Jacobys’ personal letters, Bill Lascher recreates the Jacobys’ thrilling odyssey and their love affair with the Far East and one another. Bringing to light their compelling personal stories and their professional life together, Eve of a Hundred Midnights is a tale of an unquenchable thirst for adventure, of daring reportage at great personal risk, and of an enduring romance that blossomed in the shadow of war.

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Eve of a Hundred Midnights Audiobook Narrator

Danny Campbell is the narrator of Eve of a Hundred Midnights audiobook that was written by Bill Lascher

Bill Lascher is a journalist whose work has appeared in the Guardian, Pacific Standard, Atlas Obscura, Gizmodo, Portland Monthly, and elsewhere. He was a 2011 Knight Digital Media Center multimedia and convergence fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. Lascher is a graduate of Oberlin College, the Annenberg School for Communication at USC, and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

About the Author(s) of Eve of a Hundred Midnights

Bill Lascher is the author of Eve of a Hundred Midnights

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Eve of a Hundred Midnights Full Details

Narrator Danny Campbell
Length 12 hours 13 minutes
Author Bill Lascher
Category
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date June 21, 2016
ISBN 9780062472045

Subjects

The publisher of the Eve of a Hundred Midnights is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Biography & Autobiography, Editors, Journalists

Additional info

The publisher of the Eve of a Hundred Midnights is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062472045.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Elizabeth

November 08, 2016

Two facts: (1) I'm not a history buff. (2) This is a good book.Eve of a Hundred Midnights has history, Hollywood, love, adventure, and a panda bear. Above all else, it has exceptional reporting and journalism. Even in some of the early sections when I had trouble keeping the names of foreign people and places straight (again, not a history buff), I caught myself admiring the research and storytelling. Fortunately or unfortunately, I also learned some history.I also had to keep reminding myself that it's a true story because it's pretty exceptional. I can easily picture the movie version. To the reviewers who write there's too much detail, I'd say it's not a script, it's a life--a really incredible life.

Rob

July 30, 2016

Looking for a strong four-star summer read about pre-WWII in the Orient? From Japan’s occupation of Manchuria in 1939, their evolution south, taking over Peking, the rape of Nanking, and onto Shanghai and Canton, through Indochina – Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos – and finally to Manila, Corregidor and Bataan. Lascher does a great job of telling the story of two young journalists caught up in the upheavals of World War II Asia. It’s an historic story – a little too heavy on personal detail – but a good read for history buffs.

Janel

March 09, 2017

Excellent book about two war correspondents in China during the break out of WWII. Mel and Annalee Jacoby had a love for both China and journalism. The nonfiction book reads like a thriller. Hard to place down. I need to go find their published works to read now.

Chelsea

August 01, 2016

More reviews available at my blog, Beauty and the Bookworm.I recently realized I haven't read a lot of nonfiction this year. This is actually kind of strange for me because I really like nonfiction, and Eve of a Hundred Midnights is a great example of why.This is the true story of two news correspondents during WWII. The first, and main one, is Mel Jacoby, who was a relative of the author's. Mel worked for his college newspaper and went to China on a study abroad during his junior year, at which point he absolutely fell in love with the country. After his graduation, he found his way back, working as a reporter for a propaganda station in China's wartime capital. He continued to move around in various reporting capacities, coming and going from different points in Asia for several years. Eventually, he convinced a girl, Annalee, who had also worked at the college newspaper, and who he had connected with during a stop back in the United States, to also move to China in a news capacity. But as the war intensified, Mel ended up stationed in the Philippines, and Annalee ended up joining him there and the two got married. And then the United States suddenly joined the war, and the two found themselves stuck in the islands, with the Japanese army--who were likely to kill Mel if they caught him--growing ever closer.This book has a lengthy subtitle, "The Star-Crossed Love Story of Two WWII Correspondents and Their Epic Escape Across the Pacific." Well, that's part of the story. It's not all of it, and it's really not even most of it. The actual escape across the Pacific takes up a relatively small part of the book, and it's probably actually one of the most uneventful portions. It must have been nerve-wracking at the time, I'm sure, but in retrospect, with more than a half a century between us and the story, it wasn't nearly as exciting as reading about dodging falling bombs in China. The book also isn't really the story of two star-crossed lovers. First off, star-crossed implies there was something keeping them from each other, and there wasn't. Second, Annalee is NOT very prominent in this book. The focus is definitely on Mel, which is understandable, given the author's relation to him, but it's a bit misleading to make it out like Annalee was more of a player than she was.Most of the book is really about Mel and how he ended up in Manila prior to the US retreat and Japanese army's arrival. It's a very interesting story, about living in a war capital, navigating the different censors and political bodies, and seeing war grow ever closer, all the while trying to report the news in a way that no one back home was actually doing. I really enjoyed this, because it was a perspective that we don't usually get. Lascher includes a hefty reference section in the back, and it's a pretty good bet that Mel and Annalee actually did think and feel as he portrays them, because he quotes their letters and cables extensively. Lascher is a very engaging writer, and makes Mel and Annalee's story into just that: a story. I think he does wax poetic a couple of times; the epilogue is a great example of this. It's very purple and completely unnecessary to the content of the book. Overall, though, this was a really great book that offered a fairly unique perspective into a part of the war, and the lead-up to it, that we don't typically get to see. Very interesting. I just found myself wishing that the part of the story that was actually advertised had been a little more prominent and gripping!4 stars out of 5.

Susan

December 10, 2016

My dad served in World War II in the Pacific and our family dentist growing up was a survivor of the Bataan Death March so I was drawn to this book. It is the first I have read on the subject and so can't comment on its completeness or bias. I definitely enjoyed it and have already bought another book on the subject which is more of a pure history. But be aware that the escape across the Pacific doesn't begin until the last third of the book. The first part is Mel Jacoby's college life and early adventures in China during their war with Japan in the 1930s. Annalee his future wife doesn't enter the story until the second part of the book. And all though I wish the author had explained the meaning behind the book's title, he never does.

Lucy

November 09, 2017

This is an absolutely wonderful book! If you like historical non-fiction, you will really appreciate the writing of this book. A delight to read. I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

Jacqueline

July 27, 2016

A very interesting read about the trials and tribulations of war correspondents. This is a true story but reads like exciting fiction. Hard to put down.

Elisabeth

December 27, 2016

Really great story of these two journalists, but the writing was kind of dry which is why it took me FOREVER to get through it.

Tom

February 27, 2017

I couldn't put it down, as this very fine author,Bill Lascher, introduced two remarkable human beings: Mel and Annalee Jacoby, "star-crossed lovers," journalists in China as the war between China and Japan grew increasingly violent, America's uncertain role, the eventual attack on Pearl Harbor, their flight to the Philippines, a retreat to the Bataan Peninsula following the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, and eventually their escape through Japanese dominated seas to safety in Australia.This was my first major foray into the Pacific War.As I read, I often read aloud to my wife, and the ease with which it can be read aloud is, for me, a characteristic of good writing.Well-reserched and documented, the author begins his work when a family member gives to him a typewriter used by his great uncle Mel, and that gift opened doors of thought and work, eventually giving to us this book, filled with notes and quotes from both of them, photos taken by them, or others, loaded with insights into how journalism sought both the truth and, as well, served American interests. Often what was submitted to the New York offices was rewritten to serve national interests - both Mel and Annalee were aware of this, but in order to remain in the thick of it, there was no luxury of either protest or quitting. They soldiered on.If you're interested in history, biography, journalism or just want a good love story, this is it.Filled with lots of tangential characters and detail, bits and pieces, covering China, Indochina, and the Philippines ... and the New York offices of Time and Life, and Mel's family in Los Angeles ... and Annalee's family in California and then Maryland, their student days at Stanford (they knew of one another, but didn't know one another until a few years later), generals and GIs, journalists galore - so many people who have become a part of American story.Mel came from a family wealth ... Annalee from a Depression family which had lost everything ... from this unlikely mix, both Mel and Annalee discovered common interests in China, a desire to see the world, and a fundamental compassion for the suffering. They fell in love, got married in China and spent the remaining months in the midst of war. Theirs is a story worth knowing.

Chynadolly

May 01, 2017

The first half of this book was a little slow and hard to get through, but the second half made up for it! Would have liked as much information about Annalee in the second half as there was in the first half. Otherwise, it is an excellent story and one that I was particularly interested in because my grandparents, mother and aunt were in Indochina during the same time period and had to leave due to the invasion by Japan. My grandfather was a doctor and had to stay behind while my grandmother, mother and aunt traveled by night and hid by day to make their escape. This book went a long way to explain what was going on in the region at that time. Besides the personal story of the main characters, there is much to be learned from the history so that hopefully we won't repeat it. Well worth the read!!

Susy

February 08, 2018

I loved this book! Mel Jacoby might well have crossed paths with my father. Born a year after my dad, they both studied journalism in college - Mel at Stanford & my father at USC. Mel sought assignments at the San Francisco Chronicle where my dad worked after graduation. Mel headed to China to report on the rising aggression of Japan to the Chinese mainland. My father went on a fact finding trip to Germany and Poland. He was denied entry to Poland and asked to leave Germany. My father joined the Navy as an officer, mostly writing press releases and Mel fought the war with his typewriter. But the similarity ends there as my father apparently managed to stay out of harm's way while Mel and his bride Annalee, a fellow Stanford journalist, found themselves trapped in Manila after the events at Pearl Harbor. Their story was so well researched by Mel's distant cousin and reads like fiction. I've read so much about WWII from the European perspective but this book opened my eyes to such sorrow and hardship. For anyone who maintains an interest in the Pacific theatre of the war, this book is a must read.

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