Politics & Government
![Katy Tur - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_katy_tur.jpg)
Rough Draft: A Memoir
From MSNBC anchor and New York Times bestselling author Katy Tur, a shocking and deeply personal memoir about a life spent chasing the news.
"By the time I was two years old, I knew to yell ‘Story! Story!' at the squawks of my parents' police scanner. By four, I could hold a microphone and babble my way through a kiddie news report. By the time I was in high school, though, my parents had lost it all. Their marriage. Their careers. Their reputations."
When a box from her mother showed up on Katy Tur's doorstep, months into the pandemic and just as she learned she was pregnant with her second child, she didn't know what to expect. The box contained thousands of hours of video-the work of her pioneering helicopter journalist parents. They grew rich and famous for their aerial coverage of Madonna and Sean Penn's secret wedding, the Reginald Denny beating in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and O.J. Simpson's notorious run in the white Bronco. To Tur, these family videos were an inheritance of sorts, and a reminder of who she was before her own breakout success as a reporter.
In Rough Draft, Tur writes about her eccentric and volatile California childhood, punctuated by forest fires, earthquakes, and police chases-all seen from a thousand feet in the air. She recounts her complicated relationship with a father who was magnetic, ambitious, and, at times, frightening. And she charts her own survival from local reporter to globe-trotting foreign correspondent, running from her past. Tur also opens up for the first time about her struggles with burnout and impostor syndrome, her stumbles in the anchor chair, and her relationship with CBS Mornings anchor Tony Dokoupil (who quite possibly had a crazier childhood than she did).
Intimate and captivating, Rough Draft explores the gift and curse of family legacy, examines the roles and responsibilities of the news, and asks the question: To what extent do we each get to write our own story?
"By the time I was two years old, I knew to yell ‘Story! Story!' at the squawks of my parents' police scanner. By four, I could hold a microphone and babble my way through a kiddie news report. By the time I was in high school, though, my parents had lost it all. Their marriage. Their careers. Their reputations."
When a box from her mother showed up on Katy Tur's doorstep, months into the pandemic and just as she learned she was pregnant with her second child, she didn't know what to expect. The box contained thousands of hours of video-the work of her pioneering helicopter journalist parents. They grew rich and famous for their aerial coverage of Madonna and Sean Penn's secret wedding, the Reginald Denny beating in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and O.J. Simpson's notorious run in the white Bronco. To Tur, these family videos were an inheritance of sorts, and a reminder of who she was before her own breakout success as a reporter.
In Rough Draft, Tur writes about her eccentric and volatile California childhood, punctuated by forest fires, earthquakes, and police chases-all seen from a thousand feet in the air. She recounts her complicated relationship with a father who was magnetic, ambitious, and, at times, frightening. And she charts her own survival from local reporter to globe-trotting foreign correspondent, running from her past. Tur also opens up for the first time about her struggles with burnout and impostor syndrome, her stumbles in the anchor chair, and her relationship with CBS Mornings anchor Tony Dokoupil (who quite possibly had a crazier childhood than she did).
Intimate and captivating, Rough Draft explores the gift and curse of family legacy, examines the roles and responsibilities of the news, and asks the question: To what extent do we each get to write our own story?
Editorial Reviews
"It's a hell of a story."
- New York Times
"Introspective and bitingly funny...a thrilling ride."
- Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
"Raw...deeply personal... Memoir readers will be captivated by Tur's story." -Library Journal
"[Tur's] family story is thoroughly involving."
- Booklist
Praise for Unbelievable:
"A must-ride roller coaster of a memoir"
- The Washington Post
"Compelling . . . This book couldn't be more timely."
- The New York Time Book Review
"A quite revealing and powerful book."
- The Atlantic
"A cross between The Boys on the Bus and Miss Lonelyhearts"
- New York Review of Books
- New York Times
"Introspective and bitingly funny...a thrilling ride."
- Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
"Raw...deeply personal... Memoir readers will be captivated by Tur's story." -Library Journal
"[Tur's] family story is thoroughly involving."
- Booklist
Praise for Unbelievable:
"A must-ride roller coaster of a memoir"
- The Washington Post
"Compelling . . . This book couldn't be more timely."
- The New York Time Book Review
"A quite revealing and powerful book."
- The Atlantic
"A cross between The Boys on the Bus and Miss Lonelyhearts"
- New York Review of Books
Readers Top Reviews
Kit V.
Katy's writing style matches her on-air style - factual and analytical interspersed with dry honest humor. She grabbed me in the first paragraph and I went along with her emotionally on all of her adventures and relationships. Since most of her journalistic adventures and those of her parents involved well-known news stories it was easy to connect with those experiences. So much of what she experienced is universal, at least to working women - families are complicated/crazy, professional life seems to be about always proving yourself, and finding the balance between work and home is elusive. I enjoyed this memoir very much. A great read!
kem
Katy writes and the reader is suddenly in a conversation with her. The memoir is honest, painful, joyous, funny, thoughtful. It's real. Pick up this book, you won't regret it.
J.Kgammyjill
Tur opens up about her chaotic childhood, being the daughter of helicopter paparazzi parents. I give her credit for revealing private things about her life and her parents. I have very little respect for any type of media today and reading the voyeur tactics of her parents didn’t help any. I appreciate her ability To share her story.
Desert Rat
I've just started reading this book and I find it's really good. I've liked Katy The since the first time I saw her in MSNBC. She is one the most professional newscasters around, which really increases her credibility. I was a little out off by her use of the ``F`` word in the forward but haven't seen it since.
C
This book is mostly a memoir about Katy Tur's life, but also focuses quite a bit on Tur's famous “helicopter journalist” parents: Zoey (formerly known as Bob) and Marika Tur. The book has 20 main chapters, and a total of about 254 pages, not including the Acknowledgments. The book starts in Chapter 1 with Tur telling the story about her reporting on the Boston Marathon bombing, when her father called her to let her know that she was transitioning and was now known as Zoey. This was obviously a very memorable day for Tur. The next chapter goes all the way back to Tur's childhood, as she describes her early years. She covers her early memories, her parent's relationship, and what it was like being the daughter of these wild “rock star” reporters flying around in a helicopter. She recalls two of the biggest events that her parents covered: the Reginald Denny beating during the 1992 LA riots, and the O.J. Simpson car chase; both of which they were the first to cover from the air. The next few chapters go into more detail about conflict in the family, including Tur's father being violent and abusive. She includes a few rather upsetting stories about her father striking Tur and/or her mother. The book goes on to chronicle some of the major events in Tur's personal and professional life. She recalls working and living in various parts of Europe, her strained relationship with her father, and meeting her eventual husband Tony Dokoupil. There is a some information about Dokoupil's family as well, as he also had a very unusual upbringing with an infamous father. Overall this was a fairly interesting book. Personally I wasn't really the biggest fan of Tur's writing style; as it seemed rather dry and fact-based (I suppose this is not surprising coming from a journalist), with very little humor. I wasn't blown away by entertaining storytelling, or amused by witty remarks; instead it is a very cut-and-dry memoir that also covers some difficult times in Tur's life. Tur's unusual upbringing and unique parents make the book more interesting; though at times I wished the book was written by a more exciting storyteller. If you are a big fan of Tur's though, or want to know more about her wild parents(especially her father), then this book will probably not disappoint you.
