Valachi's book, and Valachi himself, gets a lot of criticism, but I like it.

There are a lot of problems with the Valachi book: he actually doesn't know that much, a lot of speculation, also (and most importantly) who was the "Buster from Chicago" character? Was it Valachi himself?

For a lot of people of a certain age, Valachi was the first book they read about the mob. That's too bad because it started them off with a bunch of shaky facts. I was lucky enough to read some great books like Five Families, Wiseguy and Donnie Brasco BEFORE Valachi.

The good thing about that is I already had a bunch of knowledge that allowed me to fish through the shaky facts and enjoy the story. There's so much there. People always say he was a "nobody," just a soldier, etc... But in the story, (true or not) he interacts with so many huge and famous mobsters from those early times. I especially like the first 10 pages or so when he talks about his childhood. A lot like "Angela's Ashes."

The Vinny Teresa book is similar in that way. /end of rant.