* "Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie" opens dramatically - re-visiting that shocking Sunday in August 2019 - when TV journalist Cokie Roberts appeared gravely ill during an interview on ABC's "This Week." She later tells fans that her cancer had returned and not to worry. But in a few weeks - the most "famous" - (although not the first) - of the "Founding Mothers" of National Public Radio (NPR) - would be gone at age 75.

* Author Lisa Napoli has mastered the art of "grabbing you by the lapels" - with her defining prologues and riveting re-enactments - which have a cinematic way of pushing things in your face - before backing into a long-form history of what's ahead. More than ten years ago - she wrote a memoir about starting a radio station in remote Bhutan. I took notes and forgot about 'em later. But in 2016 and 2020, Napoli re-emerged with two history books bursting with reverence and humor, i.e., "Ray & Joan" - (about Ray and Joan Kroc and the birth of McDonald's) - and - "Up All Night" - (about Ted Turner and the birth of CNN) - written in a breezy style that melts clocks. (Think Bill Bryson and Mary Roach, authors who make history fun to read.)

* With her latest, Napoli spotlights NPR's Susan Stamberg, Linda Wertheimer, Nina Totenberg and Cokie Roberts. If you're not an NPR "regular" - the only name that "might" jump out at you is Cokie Roberts. Napoli acknowledges this, e.g., she expertly describes a scene from March 2020 - when a mob of rubber-neckers - strain for a glimpse of the latest celebrity to be permanently enshrined with a "star" on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. It was Susan Stamberg. Who? Napoli reckons there were murmurs of disappointment among those expecting a Kardashian-type in their midst.

* "Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie" has three objectives. 1) To present mini-bios of four exceptional women; 2) to summarize how NPR began and its relationship to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, e.g., how adding the phrase, "...and sex" - joined race and religion as being protected by federal law, and, 3) to give credit to all women - before and after NPR - who struggled in workplaces fraught with misogyny and mischief.

* She describes NPR's "Fallopian Jungle" in elaborate detail - a national news platform where women were hired because they were cheaper than men. She notes how and why rampant pay inequities - and gross sexism - would continue for decades - issues which still ring familiar - but were many times worse for journalism's female pioneers. Ironically, it was a man - Bill Siemering - who built NPR's "deep-dive" news format - banishing fast-tempo deliveries common in an industry dominated by commercial newsrooms flush with cash.

* The book also opens a dark window on how close NPR came to being wiped out by financial negligence during the 1980s - and chronicles how it recovered. Props to Napoli for not shying away from NPR's relationship with its audience of "educated and well-to-do listeners" - which would feed perceptions of liberal bias - but would also prove critical in ensuring its long-term survival.

* By unreservedly casting her leads as heroines - Napoli's book has a different "feel" than her raucous histories of Ted Turner at CNN and Ray Kroc at McDonald's. (Not as R-rated hence a tad less engaging for me personally.)

* But history well told is still good history. Even though NPR's "Founding Mothers" aren't household names - America's most famous and influential figures were acutely aware of their power, deferring, patronizing or sucking up to them. Even activist Stokely Carmichael got into it (pg. 126) - describing Cokie Roberts as a "white, racist, imperialist, stuck-up b---." They broke ground and stories their way - which could explain why until now - they've been overlooked in journalism schools. (BTW, women still make up nearly sixty percent of NPR's staff today.)

* The book feels short despite its nearly 300 pages - but all Lisa Napoli books seem that way to me because of how they're written. "Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie" is another fine work from the Napoli canon - and based on articles I've read elsewhere - it seems to be her biggest critical and commercial success thus far. Grade: A-.

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Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR