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.