Pops: Learning to Be a Son and a Father

A deeply personal exploration of fatherhood, addiction, and resiliency from Craig
Melvin, news anchor of NBC’s Today show. 

For Craig Melvin this book is
more an investigation than a memoir. It's an opportunity to better understand
his father; to interrogate his family's legacy of addiction and despair but
also transformation and redemption; and to explore the challenges facing all
dads--including Craig himself, a father of two young children.

Growing up in Columbia, South
Carolina, Craig had a fraught relationship with his father. Lawrence
Melvin was a distant, often absent parent due to his drinking as well as his
job working the graveyard shift at a postal facility. Watching sports and
tinkering on Lawrence's beloved (but unreliable) 1973 Pontiac LeMans were two
ways father and son connected, but as Lawrence's drinking spiraled out of
control, their bond was stretched to the breaking point. Fortunately, Craig had
a loving, fiercely protective mother who held the family together. He also had
a series of surrogate father figures in his life--uncles, teachers, workplace
mentors--who by their examples helped him figure out the kind of person and
father he wanted to be.

Pops is the story of all
these men--and of the inspiring fathers Craig has met reporting his "Dads
Got This Series" on the Today show. Pops is also the story
of Craig and Lawrence Melvin's long journey to reconciliation and
understanding, and of how all these experiences and encounters have informed
Craig's understanding of his own role as a dad. 

“An emotionally and atmospherically deep celebration of a family that has stuck together through thin and thinner.” - Kirkus Reviews

“[A] celebration of fatherhood…deeply personal, heartwarming.” - Shondaland