review: morning sunshine! by robin meade

Writing about her experiences as a newscaster, Robin Meade comes across as the diva anchor type. Fortunately most of my coworkers, past and present (and hopefully future!) have been lovely, but I have encountered a few I’d rather not work with again. I have a feeling Meade’s experience in Chicago of being handed the breaking news script at 30 to air was punishment for her bad behavior. She fumes over not being tracked down to be told about the breaking news as she slides into the anchor chair as the 30 second cue is called. She’s lucky her mic even worked! That sort of thing is completely unacceptable. Meade experiences her first of many panic attacks that night. The panic attacks cause her husband to force her to meet with a doctor. Although Meade resists at first, she eventually recognizes she needs to change (though she makes no apology for her Chicago behavior). Even so, Meade still comes across as braggy throughout the book. My favorite part was when Meade’s doctor told her she was phony; that’s exactly what I thought too.

Morning Sunshine! is written in a conversational style (as one is taught for TV news), but lacks a cohesiveness. In this way it reads less memoir and more “let me give you this great example from my amazing life to illustrate this excellent advice.” Some of the advice is good and there are humorous parts, but the advice is mostly of the “no duh” sort; of course people need to take time out to relax and of course people should strive to be authentic to oneself. This book will likely inspire fans of HLN’s Morning Express, which Meade currently anchors.
3/5
ARC Review