Hoda How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee

SHE'S JUST LIKE THE REST OF US : overstuffed purse, always losing keys, high-maintenance hair, snack guilt after an evening binge. But she's something different, too. Hoda Kotb grew up in two culturesone where summers meant playing at the foot of the ancient pyramids and another where she had to meet her junior prom date at the local 7-Eleven to spare them both the wrath of her conservative Egyptian parents. She's traveled the globe for network television, smuggling videotapes in her shoes and stepping along roads riddled with land mines. She's weathered the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and a personal Category 5 as well: divorce and breast cancer in the same year. And if that's not scary enough, she then began cohosting the fourth hour of Todaywith Kathie Lee Gifford. (Oh, c'mon, KLG! That's funny . . . put down the huge pour of Chardonnay and laugh with us.) HODAreads just like Hodalight, funny, positive, and positively inspiring.

Hoda Kotb was named co-anchor of the fourth hour of Today in 2007. She has also been a Dateline NBC correspondent since 1998 and is a New York Times bestselling author for her book, Hoda. The three-time Emmy winner also won the prestigious 2006 Peabody Award, the 2003 Gracie Award, and the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award. Her most recent book is Where We Belong, and she resides in New York City.