Striving

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.