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Rough Draft
Rough Draft: A Memoir | Katy Tur
15 posts | 5 read | 1 to read
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “It’s a hell of a story.” —The New York Times “A stunning and revelatory memoir.” —Oprah Daily 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?
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review
keithmalek
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I really enjoyed Tur's first book, "Unbelievable," and I really enjoyed this one as well. Tur has a fascinating family history.

Suet624 I‘m glad you liked it. I was curious how you were going to feel about the second part of the book. I still wanted to hear more about her mother. 14mo
keithmalek @Suet624 I actually wanted to hear more about her father. She mentioned a few times that he was violent, but I got the impression that it was far worse than she was letting on. For example, the fact that she kept a knife by her bed???? 14mo
Suet624 Right! So wild. Maybe I‘m not remembering accurately but I felt as if she talked more about him than her mother. I felt like her mother, who was a total badass, was overtaken in the story because of how overpowering the dad was. I wanted her to have more space in the book. 14mo
keithmalek @Suet624 Correct. 14mo
8 likes5 comments
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek

No one can choose the gifts of their childhood. But everyone can work to reject its worst lessons.

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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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Suet624 Still enjoying the book? 14mo
keithmalek @Suet624 Yeah, I love it! I'm 43% into it (page-wise, not enthusiasm-wise 🤣). 14mo
6 likes2 comments
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keithmalek
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keithmalek
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🤣 Here, Tur is referring to the time that her parents filmed the O.J. Simpson chase.

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Suet624
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Pickpick

I liked Tur‘s first book quite a bit. In that book she briefly mentioned her parents and I wanted to know more about them. They were the first to report news from a helicopter with Katy in tow and delivered a number of important videos to news outlets. This book provides greater detail on her childhood, her troubled relationship with her father, her marriage, having children, and the pressure of delivering news even when things are surreal.

keithmalek I just started reading this today, and I love it. I also loved her first book, and, like you, I had wanted her to delve more into her parents' story. Her childhood was fascinating! 1y
Suet624 @keithmalek I‘m really glad you‘re liking it. I look forward to seeing your review. She is impressive. 1y
45 likes2 comments
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Suet624
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Reading about the kindness, stability, levelheadedness, and support that Ron Howard‘s father provided and then moving on to reading about the angry, violent, adventurous, self-pitying father of Katy Tur is jarring. Both of their fathers were in the same line of work as their children and offered such a different approach to mentoring their children.

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MallenNC
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I went to journalism school (but work in PR) so I love a journalist memoir. Katy Tur grew up around the news, with infamous parents who invented helicopter news reports in Los Angeles, famously covering OJ‘s Bronco chase, She is now an MSNBC anchor and her husband is on CBS. I enjoyed learning more about her career, her difficult childhood, and my favorite chapter was her worries about going on, and returning from, maternity leave.

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MallenNC
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#Two4Tuesday on Sunday bc I just realized I never posted this!

1. Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones. I‘ve read it multiple times and always love it.

2. memoir of an unconventional childhood

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks I need to read that one! It‘s on my shelf! 2y
TheSpineView Never too late to play! 2y
yash_sy Hi,
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2y
17 likes3 comments
review
tphil10283
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It‘s an interesting book about a very courageous woman and to a large extent her relationship with her father. That relationship helped and hurt her in different ways and is perhaps the reason that she is able to have the courage to speak truth to power. Trump attempted to bully her but she was inoculated from most of that by her father as is explained in the book. She was nevertheless put in serious danger by it. It‘s an inspiring book.