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A 38 Day Education (The Scope) Paperback – July 22, 2018

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

For one student, college is about to become the education of a lifetime. When Jay Ferragamo becomes Editor of The Scope, South Central College’s campus newspaper, he quickly learns the financial disaster he’s been handed. Rather than giving up, Jay embarks on a mission to secure the needed funds to revive the newspaper, and receives a lesson in both campus and small-town politics. Complicating matters, Jay learns the source of The Scope’s financial travails; thievery by a former staffer who belongs to one of the college’s most generous families. Calling this person to account will mean not only exposing one of the most notorious scandals in the city’s history, but could also destroy Jay’s college career. Will Jay be able to get The Scope back in business and get justice, or will he and his newspaper become the big story?
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John E. Guzzardo has been writing, in one form or another, for over 20 years. His writing career began in high school, continuing to college as Editor of his campus newspaper from 1994 through 1996, and again in 2011. After moving to Atlanta he signed his first publishing contract the day after a major snowstorm stuck, crippling the city. John received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in History from Georgia Southwestern State University in December 2017. John spends much of his free time writing, playing with his cats, and enjoying different blends of coffee. His favorite writers include David Barry, Peter David, and indie author Olivia Gracey. He has lived in Cleveland, Ohio and Northeast Pennsylvania. He has been married for more than 20 years and enjoys spending time with his wife, Tanya, and their cats. John now lives in Orlando.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crimson Cloak Publishing (July 22, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 294 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1681605635
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1681605630
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 - 18 years
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.67 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

About the author

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John E. Guzzardo
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John E. Guzzardo has been writing, in one form or another, for over 20 years. His writing career began in high school, continuing to college as Editor of his campus newspaper from 1994 through 1996, and again in 2011. History, politics and art are some of John's favorite subjects, and he is an avid highway and cat enthusiast, as well as a fan of baseball's Tampa Bay Rays. Personal causes include the fight against Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), diabetes awareness and constitutional law. Among the writers John counts as his inspiration for pursuing his dream of being a published author are Peter David, Dave Barry and George R.R. Martin.

He currently resides in the Florida Keys

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
16 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2015
    John Guzzardo's A 38 Day Education is a great read. He puts into black and white the struggles and financial burdens on what it takes to keep a college newspaper running, while also giving an insight as to what the process of financial assistance and politics of running a paper involves.
  • Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2015
    I really enjoyed this book. The characters were great and so was the plot. It needs some editing though.
  • Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2015
    Author John E. Guzzardo has captured the agonies and ecstasies of growing up and learning leadership in the middle of a crisis. When we meet the book's hero, Jay Ferragamo, he's a college sophomore with very little self-confidence and limited life experience. He’s honest about his usual pattern of avoiding confrontation and preferring to follow rather than lead. At the beginning of the book he is assistant editor of the school newspaper, happy to play a supporting role. But the editor leaves school and Jay finds himself in charge. Worse yet the paper has less than 50 cents in its account. He has to scramble simply to find a way to start publishing it again. He also needs to solve the mystery of where the money went, a quest that takes him into the deep waters of university politics. He also faces the dangers of being an outsider, a New York kid, challenging class privilege in a Southern institution.

    A 38 Day Education took me back to the feeling of being young and idealistic but uncertain how to meet challenges that you never could have imagined existed. I was rooting for Jay to find a victory as he worked and puzzled out how to cope with the rules both written and unwritten. It seemed pretty hopeless each time another catastrophe dropped in Jay’s lap to wonder, “How the heck is he going to cope with that one?” He always did and never in a way I might have guessed.

    I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed reading it and recommend it. Those of us who worked on student newspapers will find particular pleasure in remembering the passionate pursuit of truth and the satisfaction of a news story well told.
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2020
    Back in the late 1970s, early 1980s, there was a TV series called The Paper Chase. A student at a prestigious law school becomes involved at various levels of authority with the school’s Law Review newspaper. His life, as I recall, was a series of hectic, heart-in-mouth episodes, trying to meet study deadlines, Law Review deadlines, juggle girlfriends ... it was a series I really enjoyed.

    Thus, when I came across A 38 Day Education by John E Guzzardo, with a very similar theme, I was predisposed to enjoy it. And enjoy it I did. The story is not unlike The Paper Chase. A student at South Central College, Jay Ferragamo, becomes Acting-Editor of the school’s newspaper, The Scope, a journal that has no money, no staff and is about to close down. Despite the problems, a college enquiry about misappropriated funds, and opposition from various influential sources, Jay takes on the challenge of rescuing the fifty-year-old college journal.
    His life, during the thirty-eight days of the story, is lived at a frenetic pace. Each day, events conspire to ensure that he runs a full and exhausting gamut of emotions and stresses. He can flit from glorious highs to panicked desperation, from confident love to heartbreak, from fist-pumping success to the mind-numbing dread of unforeseen complications, all literally in the space of seconds. The pace never lets up. The reader experiences the highs and lows with Jay, and just can’t stop turning pages to see how the next ... and the next ... setback will be dealt with.

    Guzzardo is a very professional writer, at ease with his craft. He knows how to suck his readers into the vicissitudes of his characters’ lives, giving all of them real and credible personalities. (Well, one or two episodes stretched my credulity somewhat. During a conversation with a forty-something female lecturer, the nineteen-year-old Jay suddenly found himself being questioned at length and in detail about intimate aspects of his sex-life with Vanessa. Really? And, if that wasn’t strange enough, he later finds himself conversing with Vanessa’s mother who shares way too many details about her own sex-life as well as probing Jay for information about his sexual experiences with her daughter. All a bit much for this reader.)

    Guzzardo is obviously well educated, although I experienced something of a shock when the well-read Jay attributed Inferno and The Divine Comedy to Shakespeare. I’m not sure Dante would be happy about that. That said, the book operates in an intellectual domain that would entitle it to be described as literary. The writing is erudite, and the youthful idealism, the insecurities and angst of late teens and early twenties that are part of college life, are all skillfully exposed. The constant self-analysis by the main protagonist, his introspective examination of his acts and their consequences, give the book an added intellectual and moral dimension that many readers would enjoy.

    For readers not fixated on romance, crime, or sy-fi, this book offers a hugely enjoyable and clearly authentic glimpse at American college life. Well worth a read.

Top reviews from other countries

  • professor
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Frenetic Glimpse at life in a US College
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 25, 2020
    Back in the late 1970s, early 1980s, there was a TV series called The Paper Chase. A student at a prestigious law school becomes involved at various levels of authority with the school’s Law Review newspaper. His life, as I recall, was a series of hectic, heart-in-mouth episodes, trying to meet study deadlines, Law Review deadlines, juggle girlfriends ... it was a series I really enjoyed.

    Thus, when I came across A 38 Day Education by John E Guzzardo, with a very similar theme, I was predisposed to enjoy it. And enjoy it I did. The story is not unlike The Paper Chase. A student at South Central College, Jay Ferragamo, becomes Acting-Editor of the school’s newspaper, The Scope, a journal that has no money, no staff and is about to close down. Despite the problems, a college enquiry about misappropriated funds, and opposition from various influential sources, Jay takes on the challenge of rescuing the fifty-year-old college journal.
    His life, during the thirty-eight days of the story, is lived at a frenetic pace. Each day, events conspire to ensure that he runs a full and exhausting gamut of emotions and stresses. He can flit from glorious highs to panicked desperation, from confident love to heartbreak, from fist-pumping success to the mind-numbing dread of unforeseen complications, all literally in the space of seconds. The pace never lets up. The reader experiences the highs and lows with Jay, and just can’t stop turning pages to see how the next ... and the next ... setback will be dealt with.

    Guzzardo is a very professional writer, at ease with his craft. He knows how to suck his readers into the vicissitudes of his characters’ lives, giving all of them real and credible personalities. (Well, one or two episodes stretched my credulity somewhat. During a conversation with a forty-something female lecturer, the nineteen-year-old Jay suddenly found himself being questioned at length and in detail about intimate aspects of his sex-life with Vanessa. Really? And, if that wasn’t strange enough, he later finds himself conversing with Vanessa’s mother who shares way too many details about her own sex-life as well as probing Jay for information about his sexual experiences with her daughter. All a bit much for this reader.)

    Guzzardo is obviously well educated, although I experienced something of a shock when the well-read Jay attributed Inferno and The Divine Comedy to Shakespeare. I’m not sure Dante would be happy about that. That said, the book operates in an intellectual domain that would entitle it to be described as literary. The writing is erudite, and the youthful idealism, the insecurities and angst of late teens and early twenties that are part of college life, are all skillfully exposed. The constant self-analysis by the main protagonist, his introspective examination of his acts and their consequences, give the book an added intellectual and moral dimension that many readers would enjoy.

    For readers not fixated on romance, crime, or sy-fi, this book offers a hugely enjoyable and clearly authentic glimpse at American college life. Well worth a read.