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This Just In by Yolanda Joe β€” book cover

This Just In

by Yolanda Joe
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Overview

Yolanda Joe, the bestselling author of He Say, She Say and Bebe's by Golly Wow!, is back with her most heartfelt novel yet--a delicious peep into the lives of women who work in the cutthroat world of broadcast news.

While portraying the slippery business of television news through the lives of five friends--four black and one white--who work at the fictional WKBA in Chicago, Joe investigates two explosive topics, racism and sexism. Joe, who was a broadcast newswriter for more than a decade,writes with the singular knowledge of an insider.

Step into the all-consuming world of TV news as Joe weaves her way through the lives of her unforgettable characters: upstart reporter/anchor Holly Johnston--the drop-dead-gorgeous new kid on the block, striving to prove she's up to the task and more than just eye candy; broadcast veteran Alexandra Harbor, WKBA's sole black female photographer--talented, burned out, trying valiantly to keep her last good nerve intact; wife/mother/novice producer Kenya Adams, struggling to make the transition from print reporter to TV newswriter/producer without sacrificing her family life in the process; WKBA's first camerawoman, Meg "Beans" Rippley--white, working-class, and troop leader to many women in the office, wondering if her friendships with the black women at WKBA will withstand the fallout from a newsroom racist incident; and Denise Mitzler, a trailblazing news manager who finds herself stuck between being a "company woman" and doing the right thing when a crisis arises...

Filled with fascinating tidbits and page-turning twists, This Just In... brims with fun and intrigue. As the charactersnegotiate the glass ceiling and contend with office politics and corporate roulette, Joe plumbs her signature themes of friendship and family, and gets to the heart of issues that will strike a chord with women everywhere.

previous territory and investigates two explosive topics, racism and sexism, while portraying the slippery world of broadcast news through the lives of five friends--four black and one white--who work at WKBA in Chicago.

Filled with fascinating insider tidbits and page-turning twists, Joe weaves her way into the lives of her characters: Upstart reporter/anchor Holly Johnston; broadcast veteran Alexandra Harbor; wife/mother/producer Kenya Adams; WKBA's first female cameraman Meg "Beans" Rippley; and corporate trailblazing news manager Denise Mitzler. As these women try to negotiate the glass ceiling and contend with office
politics and corporate roulette, Joe plumbs her signature themes of friendship and family, and gets to the heart of issues that will strike a chord with women everywhere. -->

About the Author, Yolanda Joe

Yolanda Joe is the author of the Blackboard bestselling books Bebe's by Golly Wow!, He Say, She Say, and Falling Leaves of Ivy. A former newswriter for CBS in Chicago, Joe graduated from Yale University and the Columbia School of Journalism and is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She lives in Chicago.

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Editorials

Barnes & Noble Guide to New Fiction

Joe's latest offers a delicious peep into the roles that gender issues and racial politics play in the lives of five women working in the cut-throat world of broadcast news. "I loved this book." "I found myself rooting for the well-developed characters as they faced their dark dilemmas." Others found it "fractured and frustrating" to read and a little too "preachy."

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gender issues and racial politics inflect a Chicago TV newsroom in Joe's (Bebe's By Golly Wow) fast-paced but didactic novel, a derivative Broadcast News or Murphy Brown with African-American protagonists. Poor morale and low ratings haunt WKBA's news division, but many of the ambitious black women who work there scramble for recognition and promotion while trying to stay true to their ethics. Fights between producers and writers, senior anchors and young hopeful reporters, studio bigwigs and technical workers, union-seeking employees and the management are all part of the multifaceted drama. Photographer Alex Harbor is tired of unending battles against racism and sexism, and writer Kenya Adams is at the end of her rope with a demanding schedule that threatens her family life. When the news director gets canned for low ratings, news manager Denise Mitzler sees an opportunity to move up the ladder, but she loses the job to a black male brought in from outside, Xavier "Glory" Helston, who wins over many with his interest in employee grievances. The feisty women try to control their destinies: Denise threatens to sue; Holly creates an emergency that allows her to anchor the news; Kenya recovers from an embarrassing gaffe at an important industry party; photographer Megan invests heavily in the stock market to finance her own company. Joe's novel is structured like a news broadcast, with chapter headings as preview "teasers," but the gimmick is awkward. Many of the characters sound alike, and with so many dramatic crises, the interchangeability of characters makes the plot stagger as if the TelePrompTer has gone awry. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Book Details

Published
April 1, 2000
Publisher
Doubleday Books
Pages
288
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780385492560

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