A good book with a very accurate sub-title. Rather than providing the usual compendium of war-is-hell reminiscences, CNN’s chief international correspondent takes us from her days as a somewhat privileged college student to the hottest war zones of the last 30 years. Along the way there are multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, a polyglot’s accumulation of languages, and a personal cost that Ward shares with both humor and candor. War is indeed hell, and Ward does provide plenty of examples of horror, but she also offers a unique perspective. There’s an awareness that constant assignments are taking an emotional toll, but there’s also a clear-eyed need to, for example, cover the Rohingya story while heavily pregnant. That she can do this without seeming reckless or damaged—the war correspondent chasing the potentially fatal high of combat—is a credit to both her and the book. Reviewed on Sept. 29, 2022