About this item
Highlights
- IPPY Awards Gold Medal Winner in the memoir categoryColorado Independent Book Publishers Association (CIPA) Gold Medal Winner in the memoir categoryNational Indie Excellence Awards finalist in the new non-fiction categoryA deeply personal memoir about finding family and belonging from White House staffer Robin F. Schepper.
- Author(s): Robin F Schepper
- 288 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, Political
Description
Book Synopsis
IPPY Awards Gold Medal Winner in the memoir category
Colorado Independent Book Publishers Association (CIPA) Gold Medal Winner in the memoir category
National Indie Excellence Awards finalist in the new non-fiction category
A deeply personal memoir about finding family and belonging from White House staffer Robin F. Schepper.
Growing up torn between her single Pan Am-stewardess mom and brothel-owning grandmother in 1960s New York City, Robin F. Schepper never imagined that she'd one day have an office in the East Wing of the White House. Her childhood in a German American neighborhood on the Upper East Side was peppered with half-truths, from the family secrets surrounding her grandmother's immigration to deceptions about her biological father.
In a world of self-absorbed adults, Robin largely raised herself: she secured a scholarship to a prestigious private school and worked several jobs as a teenager to pay her own living expenses before finally escaping to California for college. Street-smart and undeniably driven, once in the professional world Robin quickly ascended in the male-dominated political sphere, traveling the globe while being subjected to sexual harassment and assaults that echoed obstacles her mother and grandmother had faced. Through it all, Robin searched for her biological father. She felt that if she could understand why he abandoned her, she could free herself from secrets, lies, and shame.
Robin eventually rose to work for the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama and, in the meantime, created her own family by adopting two sons from Kazakhstan. Intimate and captivating, Finding My Way follows an ambitious woman who reached the highest pinnacles of a political career while simultaneously fulfilling her own quest to heal from family trauma and discover her true identity.
Review Quotes
"Marvelous read, amazing journey!" --Dottie Lamm, former first lady of Colorado
"I couldn't put it down. Robin Schepper's life story weaves a personal history of growing up in New York City in the 1970s, a lifetime [spent] searching for her biological father until Ancestry.com and 23andMe provided her with answers, and [a career] at the highest level of American politics, breaking down barriers for women in that field for my generation." --Sweta Chakraborty, president, US operations, of We Don't Have Time and climate, behavioral scientist
"Finding My Way is more than a book. It is storytelling from an author who brings readers into her closest circle of friends, sharing the details of her life that [give her] questions, challenge her values, and demonstrate her capacity to achieve and willingness to love in spite of the obstacles in her path from her earliest days of childhood. Schepper trusts her readers with her story the way so many . . . in her family, community, and profession have trusted her. We're all the better for knowing her story and will be less fearful of our own because of her courage." --Kiki McLean, public affairs and political strategist
"Written with gravitas, the memoir Finding My Way is about leading a purposeful life and imparting knowledge with dignity and honesty." --Clarion Reviews