Arts & Literature
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Going There
Heartbreaking, hilarious, and brutally honest, Going There is the deeply personal life story of a girl next door turned household name.
For more than forty years, Katie Couric has been an iconic presence in the media world. In her brutally honest, hilarious, heartbreaking memoir, she reveals what was going on behind the scenes of her sometimes tumultuous personal and professional life - a story she's never shared, until now. Of the medium she loves, the one that made her a household name, she says, "Television can put you in a box; the flat-screen can flatten. On TV, you are larger than life but smaller, too. It is not the whole story, and it is not the whole me. This book is."
Beginning in early childhood, Couric was inspired by her journalist father to pursue the career he loved but couldn't afford to stay in. Balancing her vivacious, outgoing personality with her desire to be taken seriously, she overcame every obstacle in her way: insecurity, an eating disorder, being typecast, sexism . . . challenges, and how she dealt with them, setting the tone for the rest of her career. Couric talks candidly about adjusting to sudden fame after her astonishing rise to co-anchor of the TODAY show, and guides us through the most momentous events and news stories of the era, to which she had a front-row seat: Rodney King, Anita Hill, Columbine, the death of Princess Diana, 9/11, the Iraq War . . . In every instance, she relentlessly pursued the facts, ruffling more than a few feathers along the way. She also recalls in vivid and sometimes lurid detail the intense pressure on female anchors to snag the latest "get"-often sensational tabloid stories like Jon Benet Ramsey, Tonya Harding, and OJ Simpson.
Couric's position as one of the leading lights of her profession was shadowed by the shock and trauma of losing her husband to stage 4 colon cancer when he was just 42, leaving her a widow and single mom to two daughters, 6 and 2. The death of her sister Emily, just three years later, brought yet more trauma-and an unwavering commitment to cancer awareness and research, one of her proudest accomplishments.
Couric is unsparing in the details of her historic move to the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News-a world rife with sexism and misogyny. Her "welcome" was even more hostile at 60 Minutes, an unrepentant boys club that engaged in outright hazing of even the most established women. In the wake of the MeToo movement, Couric shares her clear-eyed reckoning with gender inequality and predatory behavior in the workplace, and downfall of Matt Lauer-a colleague she had trusted and respected for more than a decade.
Couric also talks about the challenge of finding love again, with all the hilarity, false-starts, and drama that search entailed, before finding her midlife Mr. Right. Something she has never discussed publicly-why her second marriage almost didn't happen.
If you thought you knew Katie Couric, think again. Going There is the fast-paced, emotional, riveting story of a thoroughly modern woman, whose journey took her from humble origins to superstardom. In these pages, you will find a friend, a confidante, a role model, a survivor whose lessons about life will enrich your own.
For more than forty years, Katie Couric has been an iconic presence in the media world. In her brutally honest, hilarious, heartbreaking memoir, she reveals what was going on behind the scenes of her sometimes tumultuous personal and professional life - a story she's never shared, until now. Of the medium she loves, the one that made her a household name, she says, "Television can put you in a box; the flat-screen can flatten. On TV, you are larger than life but smaller, too. It is not the whole story, and it is not the whole me. This book is."
Beginning in early childhood, Couric was inspired by her journalist father to pursue the career he loved but couldn't afford to stay in. Balancing her vivacious, outgoing personality with her desire to be taken seriously, she overcame every obstacle in her way: insecurity, an eating disorder, being typecast, sexism . . . challenges, and how she dealt with them, setting the tone for the rest of her career. Couric talks candidly about adjusting to sudden fame after her astonishing rise to co-anchor of the TODAY show, and guides us through the most momentous events and news stories of the era, to which she had a front-row seat: Rodney King, Anita Hill, Columbine, the death of Princess Diana, 9/11, the Iraq War . . . In every instance, she relentlessly pursued the facts, ruffling more than a few feathers along the way. She also recalls in vivid and sometimes lurid detail the intense pressure on female anchors to snag the latest "get"-often sensational tabloid stories like Jon Benet Ramsey, Tonya Harding, and OJ Simpson.
Couric's position as one of the leading lights of her profession was shadowed by the shock and trauma of losing her husband to stage 4 colon cancer when he was just 42, leaving her a widow and single mom to two daughters, 6 and 2. The death of her sister Emily, just three years later, brought yet more trauma-and an unwavering commitment to cancer awareness and research, one of her proudest accomplishments.
Couric is unsparing in the details of her historic move to the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News-a world rife with sexism and misogyny. Her "welcome" was even more hostile at 60 Minutes, an unrepentant boys club that engaged in outright hazing of even the most established women. In the wake of the MeToo movement, Couric shares her clear-eyed reckoning with gender inequality and predatory behavior in the workplace, and downfall of Matt Lauer-a colleague she had trusted and respected for more than a decade.
Couric also talks about the challenge of finding love again, with all the hilarity, false-starts, and drama that search entailed, before finding her midlife Mr. Right. Something she has never discussed publicly-why her second marriage almost didn't happen.
If you thought you knew Katie Couric, think again. Going There is the fast-paced, emotional, riveting story of a thoroughly modern woman, whose journey took her from humble origins to superstardom. In these pages, you will find a friend, a confidante, a role model, a survivor whose lessons about life will enrich your own.
Editorial Reviews
"Going There is jam-packed with honesty, humor, and helpful advice for every woman blazing her own path. I admired Katie Couric before, but after reading Going There, I absolutely love her. When you read about the real Katie in these pages, you will too."―Glennon Doyle, author of the #1 bestseller Untamed and host of the We Can Do Hard Things podcast
"Couric's actual living voice-one of the most human and wise of our times-is on every single line of this memoir, but "memoir" is reductive. This is memoir as time capsule, memoir as therapy session, memoir as masterpiece. Memoir as Necessity. It is aggressively, gorgeously human, the very book we needed for this time. You will feel thankful, as though Katie Couric has been an angel on your shoulder, she's been with you this whole time, and now, thank God, she's ready to show you the other side."―Lisa Taddeo, bestselling author of Three Women
"The secret to Katie Couric's success is that there are no secrets. While the dogged determination she has called upon her whole life is an invaluable asset, there are other ingredients in Katie's not-so-secret sauce: humor, concern, sincerity, steadfastness, and devotion to her daughters, family, and friends. If Katie is "going there," no matter where "there" is, we're along for the ride."―Michael J. Fox, bestselling author of No Time Like the Future
"The woman we've counted on for decades to tell the most important stories of our time is finally telling her own. And nothing is off the record. This no-holds-barred account of Katie's rise to TV fame-while juggling motherhood, crushing loss, and brushes with failure-delivers on its title. She writes with a raw honesty and been-there-lived-that sensibility that every woman on the rise will benefit from. Brimming with heart and sheer grit, it's a masterclass in resilience and overcoming every obstacle on the way to success."―Elaine Welteroth, bestselling author and award-winning journalist
"Fast-paced and riveting, Going There is an intimate memoir that chronicles the once magical world of TV news. Every young woman should read this book to understand what ambition really feels like and the work it takes to fulfill it."―Tina Brown
"Funny, sincere, heartbreaking - Couric chronicles her upbringing, career in TV journalism, cutthroat pressures and boys club hazing of the biz, the downfall of her co-anchor Matt Lauer, as well as the death of her husband at the young age of 42 and finding love again. Looking for a new BFF? You'll find one here."
―Lesley Kennedy, CNN
"Longtime ‘Today' co-anchor Couric, once known as ‘America's Sweetheart,' shows tha...
"Couric's actual living voice-one of the most human and wise of our times-is on every single line of this memoir, but "memoir" is reductive. This is memoir as time capsule, memoir as therapy session, memoir as masterpiece. Memoir as Necessity. It is aggressively, gorgeously human, the very book we needed for this time. You will feel thankful, as though Katie Couric has been an angel on your shoulder, she's been with you this whole time, and now, thank God, she's ready to show you the other side."―Lisa Taddeo, bestselling author of Three Women
"The secret to Katie Couric's success is that there are no secrets. While the dogged determination she has called upon her whole life is an invaluable asset, there are other ingredients in Katie's not-so-secret sauce: humor, concern, sincerity, steadfastness, and devotion to her daughters, family, and friends. If Katie is "going there," no matter where "there" is, we're along for the ride."―Michael J. Fox, bestselling author of No Time Like the Future
"The woman we've counted on for decades to tell the most important stories of our time is finally telling her own. And nothing is off the record. This no-holds-barred account of Katie's rise to TV fame-while juggling motherhood, crushing loss, and brushes with failure-delivers on its title. She writes with a raw honesty and been-there-lived-that sensibility that every woman on the rise will benefit from. Brimming with heart and sheer grit, it's a masterclass in resilience and overcoming every obstacle on the way to success."―Elaine Welteroth, bestselling author and award-winning journalist
"Fast-paced and riveting, Going There is an intimate memoir that chronicles the once magical world of TV news. Every young woman should read this book to understand what ambition really feels like and the work it takes to fulfill it."―Tina Brown
"Funny, sincere, heartbreaking - Couric chronicles her upbringing, career in TV journalism, cutthroat pressures and boys club hazing of the biz, the downfall of her co-anchor Matt Lauer, as well as the death of her husband at the young age of 42 and finding love again. Looking for a new BFF? You'll find one here."
―Lesley Kennedy, CNN
"Longtime ‘Today' co-anchor Couric, once known as ‘America's Sweetheart,' shows tha...
Readers Top Reviews
M. Fischer
Turned her back on her co-workers and who editorializes news while reporting it? You are there to be objective and report the facts. I don't tune in to get your opinion, if I wanted an opinion I would have talked to my girlfriend. For the news I turn on the News. Just the facts Ms. Couric. You must have missed that course in college. All this time I thought you were someone that had integrity and stuck to the facts and did not let your personal "opinions" get in the way of presenting the story.
sloane
This book is beautifully written, especially the parts about losing her husband. She never tries to paint a perfect picture of anything, including her marriage, in which there was natural tension about professional success and earnings. Relationships are complicated, and her writing about her love for her first husband and his illness is poignant and painful. Her exploration of his interest in the Civil War/Confederacy (and visit to Virginia with her daughter) is fascinating. She hopes he would have evolved from the romanticized Lost Cause vision so many even liberal Americans embraced in the '90s (much of which can be ascribed to Ken Burns' Civil War series and its dependence on historians like Shelby Foote). But what is difficult is that there is no way to know for sure, which is something she and her daughters must reckon with. There are many other interesting parts of the book (especially sexism of TV news, particularly in the 1980s when she was starting out, which echoes still in her days at CBS). But her writing about Jay and the tremendous loss of him at just 42 is what will stick with me.
ALF
Beautifully written, honest, introspective, and Laugh out loud funny. A book to read over and over again… I have been waiting for this for years and it did not disappoint… ❤️
Sara White
As a pop culture junkie, my curiosity about this book was peaked by the buzz surrounding it, so I went into it wanting all the juicy details. Judging by the fact I devoured this over the past 36 hours, I’d say it met this expectation, but the book actually exceeded it in surprising ways. There are few things that peeve me more than a puff piece trying to pass as a memoir, but I’ve been fortunate to read plenty that are the complete opposite of that, particularly this one. She’s not just giving a retelling of her life, she’s reflecting on it. It takes a humble person to be able to say they handled things wrong, and there are several instances of this in the book. I feared that this would be a blood bath as it was portrayed by the media, but I really didn’t think she said anything really salacious. She was the harshest critic to herself, which is how a memoir should be. When did being honest about your perception of things turn into allegedly being intentionally mean or vile?? I can’t recommend this book enough
