ALL THINGS AT ONCE (Mika Brzezinski)

During the time that Mika Brzezinski was a reporter and news anchor in the Hartford  area, she married, had her first child, and then moved on to, presumably, bigger and better things in the the New York metro news market.  Today she is co-host on MSNBC's Morning Joe, well paired with conservative Joe Scarborough.  This very readable memoir, which covers the major events of her childhood and the pitfalls and rewards of trying to "have it all", should be required reading for anyone who yearns for the glamour and excitement of a career in television news, and especially for any woman who wants marriage and a family in addition to a successful career in broadcasting or any other field.

Brzezinski is well-grounded.  Her parents, a former National Security Advisor and a talented sculptor, raised her in an atmosphere of intellectual richness and instilled her and her two brothers with an admirable work ethic and solid values,  Her life has not been a fairy tale, but her own commitment to marriage and career has enabled her to overcome setbacks that might have caused a different type of person to choose another path.  The book opens with a description of Mika's horrific fall down a flight of stairs with her infant daughter in her arms, a fall caused by total exhaustion and resulting in months of medical treatments for her daughter, whose leg was broken .  Initially doctors suspected a spinal injury and Brzezinski was investigated for child abuse as a result of the incident.  She makes no excuses for the accident and expresses both profound regret and vast relief over the outcome.  This accident was a wake-up call, jarring her into the realization that no one can work for 24 hours a day at a job and as a mother, and that she needed to pull back and take a look at what she was doing to herself and her family.  Her fabulous, understanding husband hovers in the background of the story throughout.

Mika Brzezinski is a woman who has worked hard, personally and professionally, not just at a career, but at her life.  She has been the victim of an attack by a pedophile, the privileged daughter of a government official, a struggling reporter, a loved and cherished daughter, wife, and mother, a down and out has-been, and a confident on-air partner.  Most of all, she has been and is a work in progress.  Her book is a wonderful insight into real life, its rewards and consequences, its ups and downs.  Two-way strong family ties are and always have been at the center of her life.  I hope that she gives us an update in twenty years or so.