The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon

It's been a long wait, or at least it seems like one to a nervous first-time author, but the New York Times Book Review is about to publish a review of "The Commission." And it's a rave. "Mezmerizing account ... vivid portraits of everyone from Henry Kissinger to Samuel Berger ... vividly illuminates the obstacles to holding high-level intelligence and government officials accountable for their bungling." The Book Review is the Book Review, and it may be the best place on earth to find praise of your book. The review takes up a full page, with a nice color photograph of Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton taken by my NYT colleague Doug Mills, and was written by Jacob Heilbrunn, author of the new "They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons." (For the record, I don't think I've ever met Mr. Heilbrunn, but I'm grateful to him.) I got a taste of the good news last week, when I received an invitation to travel to New York this Wednesday to appear on "New York Times Close Up," the weekly television show produced by The Times and NY1, the local all-news station. The host is an old friend, Sam Roberts. The show is broadcast on Saturday night and Sunday morning, and it previews what is in the Sunday edition of the paper. The show's producer explained that I'd be talking about the book, which would be reviewed the following Sunday, April 13. I didn't dare ask if the review was good, but I hoped and assumed I wouldn't be asked up to New York if I were about to be panned. On Tuesday, I got a call from Cary Goldstein, the terrific publicity director at Twelve, my publisher, who read out portions of the review. He was excited. I was excited. Off to New York in the morning. I'll post the electronic link to the review as soon as it's up in the NYT website. Phil Shenon