Striving - by Jo Thomas (Hardcover)

About the Book

New York Times reporter Jo Thomas tells the true story of a journalist facing American mobsters, racists, and terrorists in pursuit of the truth.

Book Synopsis

Readers who loved the fictional Jo March in Little Women will love this thrilling memoir by New York Times journalist Jo Thomas, a real-life Jo March who refused to give up when men said journalism was not for a woman. Jo was a young housewife when she first went to work for an Ohio newspaper that had not hired a woman in 20 years. The men shunned her, but she discovered people and issues they ignored and wrote about them. Follow her through ruined neighborhoods in Cincinnati, the underworld of Detroit, the office of a scientist who did covert experiments for the CIA, the admiral responsible for finding survivors of America's nuclear tests, the Cuban side of the Mariel boatlift, Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and the white right-wing enclaves in the American heartland after the Oklahoma City bombing. At home, Jo loses and gains a family. At work, she never becomes "One of the boys." Her story speaks to the struggles of women of all ages. Come along for the journey.

Review Quotes

The Real Thing. Forget Alaska Daily. "This is the journalism story that should be a TV series. Jo Thomas made a difference as a reporter, and she often put her life on the line doing it. Her book provides a compelling look at how reporters get the job done, as well as an intimate look at how the work can affect both the people in the news stories and the reporter who wrote them."

-Susan Jo Keller, The New York Times Washington Bureau Assistant News Editor, retired.

"Who knew that invisibility is a superpower? Jo Thomas, of course, in this compelling story of a life doing work that men considered "not for a woman." That work, as Thomas describes it with equal doses of honesty, horror, and humor, was journalism: the art and craft of being in the wrong places at the right times and using common sense, courage, and compassion to better understand what folks are saying. The result is more than a memoir for women. It's for anyone looking for a good read."

-Margot Slade, Co-Founder/Deputy Editor, Special Sections for The New York Times, where she worked for 22 years

"The story of how Jo Thomas broke into the traditionally male province of newspapering and became one of the country's leading investigative journalists is the subject of her utterly engrossing memoir, Striving. A journalist at The New York Times for over twenty years, Thomas brings to her memoir-whether she's recounting the Timothy McVeigh trial or the age-old conflict between Protestant and Catholics in Northern Ireland-a rare capacity for analysis and a writer's eye for the telling detail."