Don't Make Me Stop This Car!: Adventures in Fatherhood

Roker, Al

ISBN 10: 0743500288 ISBN 13: 9780743500289

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2000

Synopsis

In Don't Make Me Stop This Car!, Al Roker takes us home. Here we meet his wife, Deborah, and his daughters, Courtney and Leila. Just like men all over the country, Al is a modern father, and in this book, he takes an affectionate look at the joys and perils of fatherhood. Al provides an unprecedented, intimate look into his experiences with infertility treatments, adoption, and the normal fears and wonders of an expecting parent. As Al manages the needs of his daughters from two marriages and the demands of a high-profile career, he is like millions of others who fantasize about the newest sport utility vehicle, struggle with a GapKids addiction, and bask in the golden moments of first steps and special Father's Day meals. Of course, being a father brings back memories of his own childhood, and Al reminisces about riding his father's bus route in Brooklyn, disobeying his parents' command "Do not let Andrew watch Psycho," and the beginnings of his passion for cartooning. Along the way, Al comes to a deeper understanding of his parents' love for him and a whole new appreciation of them as grandparents.

Heartwarming, honest, and funny, Don't Make Me Stop This Car! is a sneak peek into the heart of the guy in the driver's seat, the modern American dad.

About this title

About the Author

Al Roker began his broadcasting career while in college, landing a job as a weekend weatherman at WTVH-TV in Syracuse, New York. After stops in Washington, D.C., and Cleveland, Ohio, he began working at NBC in 1983. He lives in New York City with his wife, ABC News 20/20 correspondent Deborah Roberts, and their two daughters.

Reviews

TV weatherman Roker comes across as affable, humorously self-deprecating and immensely likable in this memoir of parenthood. His voice is warm and affectionate as he describes his two daughters, Courtney and Leila, and his years of talking into the camera give him an ease behind the microphone that makes him sound as if he is chatting personally with the listener. The material itself, however, is uneven. His struggles to become a fatherAonce through infertility treatments, once through adoptionAare truly compelling, and his reflections about his own father, a bus driver who raised several foster children in addition to his own, are sweet and poignant. But when Roker talks about his own experiences of being a father, he sounds like every other proud parent in the world. He was thrilled when he witnessed his daughters' first steps; he enjoys buying cute little-girl clothes from Baby Gap. Simultaneous release with the Scribner hardcover (Forecasts, June 19). (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The NBC weatherman gives us a chatty history of how he and his wife became pregnant, and how they raised a new daughter alongside his adopted daughter from his previous marriage. The author is a media veteran with a positive outlook and pleasant voice to match, and he is most warm and intimate when sharing memories of his own childhood. Don't hold your breath for great insights or profound advice--Roker is a TV personality, and he covers too much parenting ground to do much more than entertain the listener. But the vignettes flow seamlessly and move the narrative along so well that, before you know it, it's over and you're left with a gut full of warm fuzzies. T.W. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Weatherman and commentator Roker engages millions of NBC TV viewers every weekday. He narrates this story of parenting genially, having become a loving father when he and his first wife adopted a baby girl in 1987; in 1998 his second wife, after consulting doctors and a fertility clinic, delivered their daughter. Delicately and emotionally, Roker describes conception and the painful, rewarding birth. His folksy style includes ironic quotes, e.g., "I hate doctors who are always right" and "I'm a couch potato." Roker's message here is to cherish children, who enrich the home, with his professional life incidental. Some of his dislikes are revealed humorously: if you approach him in New York City, where he often walks with or without a daughter, do not joke about weather predictions, baldness, or weight. Let him do that, as he does here. Recommended for popular collections where parents or prospective parents want light listening.DGordon Blackwell, Eastchester, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743500288
• ISBN 13: 9780743500289
• Binding: Audio Cassette