I became aware of this book quite by accident a few weeks ago. I was watching a YouTube video of an interview Barbara Feinman Todd had given about the famous Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee from the HBO documentary The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee in which she gave a brief mention of Pretend I'm Not Here. That piqued my curiosity about the book, which I was delighted to find was available in my local library.

In Pretend I'm Not Here, Feinman Todd takes the reader on a journey through her journalistic career, which began with The Washington Post in the early 1980s. She, a recent graduate from UC Berkeley, was hired by The Post as a temporary 'copy aide', one of the lowliest jobs at the paper. By dint of hard work and showing a willingness to take on some challenging assignments at The Post, Feinman Todd made the acquaintance of Bob Woodward of Watergate fame after being selected by him to serve as a researcher in the paper's investigative unit. Her work there would lead to Feinman Todd later serving as Woodward's personal researcher, contributing to his 1988 best-selling book 'Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987.' What's more: Feinman Todd would subsequently be introduced to Ben Bradlee, for whom she worked as a personal researcher for his 1995 autobiography, 'A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures.'

Feinman Todd went on to work as a ghost writer for a number of notable people in Washington including Senator Bob Kerrey and First Lady Hillary Clinton. Her reflections on what ghost writing entails and the ups and downs she experienced in the role of ghost writer were raw and refreshingly candid. As someone who has spent a significant amount of time in Washington since the early 1990s, I felt almost like a vicarious observer of Feinman Todd's life because some of her descriptions of the atmosphere and tempo of life in the city were very relatable to me.

This is a book I thoroughly enjoyed reading and would recommend to anyone who enjoys reading memoirs.