Reader's Digest Today's Best Nonfiction, Volume 18: 1992 Cruel Doubt/No Minor Chords: My Days in Hollywood/J. Edgar Hoover: The Man & the Secrets/Learning to Play God

The Story

CRUEL DOUBT: When Bonnie Von Stein climbed into bed beside her sleeping husband one hot summer night in 1988, it was the last time she was to see him alive. The next thing she knew, he was being bludgeoned to death by an intruder and she was fighting for her life. But Bonnie's nightmare had only begun. For as police investigated her husband's murder she had to face the possibility that someone very close to her might have been involved in the brutal killing. NO MINOR CHORDS-MY DAYS IN HOLLYWOOD by Andre' Previn - Andre' Previn was a tender lad of sixteen when he went to work as a music arranger at MGM studios. It was the golden age of musicals, and in Hollywood the young man found 'all the tawdry glamour I longed for.' Jane Powell listened attentively to his variations on 'Three Blind Mice'; Fred Astaire danced to his music; Red Skelton played the piano for him without touching the keys. And then there was the time that Lassie - But let Previn tell the rest. After all, he loves telling stories almost as much as he loves music. J. EDGAR HOOVER-THE MAN AND THE SECRETS For almost fifty years, J. Edgar Hoover was America's top cop. As director of the FBI, he was hailed for his zeal in catching killers, kidnappers, spies, and other 'public enemies.' But along the way, he acquired vast political powers, which went unchecked until the day he died. Thanks to Hoover's extensive secret files, no President dared fire him and no Congressman dared criticize him. LEARNING TO PLAY GOD-THE COMING OF AGE OF A YOUNG DOCTOR: For Bob Marion, becoming a doctor was the dream of a lifetime. Marion was an idealist. He wanted to help people. But achieving his dream with his ideals intact proved far more difficult than he had imagined. During his hospital training Marion found himself making life-and-death decisions while exhausted, ill prepared, and often just plain terrified. He also found himself growing insensitive to the very people he wanted most to help.