“Today’s” Hoda Kotb on Overcoming Adversity

Hoda Kotb tells us what we can learn about hardship from people who have known hardship. It’s January, so there is a glut of New Year, new you self-help books clogging up the aisles at your local bookstore. Amidst these quick-fix titles promising you a new body and soul in four hours or less, Hoda Kotb’s new book, Ten Years Later: Six People Who Faced Adversity and Transformed Their Lives, stands out as a wrenching, heartfelt inspiration to better yourself in 2013. Kotb, who co-hosts the fourth hour of Today with the irrepressible Kathy Lee, follows the stories of six people who overcame life-altering challenges like domestic violence, AIDS, and post-9/11 grief, and were triumphant and successful a decade post-tragedy. These stories could easily tip over into maudlin territory, but Kotb’s journalistic skills and her co-author and pal Jane Lorenzini’s voice k...