In this powerful collection, NBC News correspondent Dotson compiles dozens of the human interest stories featured on his segment of the Today show, “American Story with Bob Dotson.” He’s traveled the country for decades interviewing remarkable people, many of whom have overcome great adversity and are actively working to make the world a better place for others. Some are quintessential innovators, like Jimmy Crudup, the truck driver who designs microsurgery tools on the side. Others defy the odds: in 1928, Leila Denmark became Atlanta’s first female pediatrician, and when she retired at the age of 103, she was the world’s oldest practicing doctor. (She died in 2012 at 114 years of age.) Elma Sneddeker’s tale is nothing if not miraculous: she was pulled from her burning car by a man born without arms who shattered a window with his foot to rescue her. Throughout, Dotson interweaves trying episodes from his own life, from being stricken with polio as a young boy to his decision to quit hard news and “look for people who offered solutions to problems that didn’t require bullets.” The details of their stories are unique, but their effect is not—they all inspire. Agent: Wayne S. Kabak, WSK Management, LLC. (Mar.)

We’ve always known in our heart of hearts that the best of the country was bottom-up, not top-down, and now Bob Dotson, with this superb new book, proves us right.  These are remarkable and poignant and important stories that need to be told.”
~Ken Burns
 
“Here's a great American storyteller who realizes he's met his match in the people he meets. Bob Dotson gives us a thoroughly intimate view of America... with the bark off. This is the unmistakable and sturdy America we know.”
~Brian Williams
 
“Bob Dotson's stories take you on a journey to the places that live in your heart. His words, and the images he creates with them,  connect you to friends, family, and everyone who shares the DNA of being American.”
~Matt Lauer
 
“Throughout his remarkable career Bob Dotson has searched for the real essence of America—not by interviewing the so-called famous, but by seeking out those unnoticed  people we pass by everyday. Those quiet souls are the ones who ‘live up to the brag,’ as he puts it, and remind us what truly makes this country great.  Every story they tell is a jewel...and Dotson a national treasure for caring enough to listen.”
~Meredith Vieira
 
“Those of us who know and work with Bob Dotson stand in awe of his gifts as a writer. Like the work so many viewers have come to love on NBC, this collection of stories captivates and inspires.”
~Savannah Guthrie

Today” show correspondent and former Travel Channel host Bob Dotson traveled around the U.S. interviewing regular people who have contributed to our nation’s uniqueness. The result is a heartwarming collection of inspirational accounts and proposed solutions to our problems. Dotson narrates his book, and he does a terrific job, as befits someone whose job is to tell stories on television. His deep, rich tone, easy pacing, and self-effacing humor make this work enjoyable, and he’s able to coax fascinating tales out of the people he meets. He’s friendly, and he takes his subjects’ words seriously without sugarcoating or trying to embellish them. It’s a fun book, and you’ll meet some fascinating people. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine

The longtime Today Show correspondent offers a collection of heartwarming stories about ordinary citizens, "people who live the values our country cherishes." For more than three decades now, Dotson (Make It Memorable, 2003, etc.) has specialized in Charles Kuralt–like stories about people "whose values were never preached, just lived." Thus, we learn about the photographer whose 10-year project memorializing the giant cedars of western Washington led to the creation of Lewis and Clark National Park; the physician who recruited other retired doctors and nurses to establish a health clinic for the poor on Hilton Head Island; the first African-American in the U.S. Navy to earn a rank that took him out of the galley; the sawmill owner in Oregon who for years handed out $500 scholarships to any senior in town who wanted to go to college; the New York artist who traveled the country, exchanging his paintings for room and board. Dotson has found the last living member of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the migrant mother captured forever in Dorothea Lange's iconic photo and a Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl, still dancing at 105. The author mixes in a little autobiographical information, but he focuses on a succession of quiet achievers, people whose imagination, grit and goodness might otherwise have escaped the news, had he not gone in search of their stories. Many of the characters require more than the three or four pages Dotson allots them to make any lasting impression, but the sheer multitude of tales underscores his argument about an America chock-full of unassuming people whose lives enrich the nation.