NBC News Homepage: Preserving The History of America’s Secret War in Laos
“You’re Never Too Old or Too Young to Yell For Mom”: TTFA Motherless Day Podcast
CNN: New Library Sheds Light on the Secret War in Laos
A woman walks past a restaurant littered with unexploded bombs dropped by US Air Force planes in Xieng Khouang, Laos.
O, The Oprah Magazine
Oprah Magazine selected “What We Inherit” as one of the best books of summer alongside “Rodham” by Curtis Sittenfeld and works by Emma Straub, Kevin Kwan, and Brit Bennett, writing: “Part memoir, part investigative journalism, and completely engrossing, ‘What We Inherit’ is not a book you’ll be forgetting anytime soon.”
LA Review of Books: Declassified, an Interview With Jessica Pearce Rotondi
“Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s first book comes gift-wrapped in some pretty sparkly paper: a starred Kirkus review; glowing blurbs from renowned literary truth-tellers Sebastian Junger, Ron Chernow, and Salman Rushdie.
The praise is well deserved. Everything about What We Inherit is unexpected and compelling, starting with its multi-genre crossover appeal, encompassing true crime, war story, historical investigation, and family memoir.” - Meredith Maran, LA Review of Books
The Boston Globe
“Rotondi deftly moves between the personal and the historical, and the book is a sensitive and searching examination of the ways loss and trauma live on through generations.”-
The Boston Globe
“What We Inherit” is featured in the print and digital editions of the Sunday, May 10, 2020 Boston Globe.
Buzzfeed Names “What We Inherit” an Editor’s Pick
"A fascinating memoir about a woman's search for answers about a secret that has haunted her family for decades.” Buzzfeed’s Arianna Rebolini names “What We Inherit” an editor’s pick on the front page of Bookshop.org.
Brown Alumni Magazine Feature: “Family Secrets”
In a new book, Jessica Pearce Rotondi ’07 pieces together the decades-long search for her uncle gone missing in Vietnam.
Fast Company: What it’s like to spend 10 years writing a book that’s released during a pandemic
"It’s both a stirring portrait of a family desperate for closure and a gripping account of the human toll of the U.S.’s military adventures."
Debutiful Podcast
“This book will grip you from the first page and take you away…If you’re looking for an escape, something to take you back, What We Inherit is the book you should check out. I felt transported by Jessica’s writing.”
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE:
Author’s Hunt for Truth
“Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s tragic family history has gifted her with one heck of a story to tell…But the true heart of this book lies in Rotondi’s quest to heal her family’s giant, open wound.”
What We Inherit is featured in the print edition of the Sunday, May 17th San Francisco Chronicle.
“The Story Behind Her Success” Podcast With Candy O’Terry
I spoke with Boston radio icon Candy O’Terry of Magic 106.7 about a daughter’s love and the determination that can come from loss. Listen to the embedded clip below or hear the full episode by clicking the “Listen Now” button.
WVIA’s ArtScene With Erika Funke
I spoke with Erika Funke, host of ArtScene on Northeastern Pennsylvania’s NPR affiliate WVIA, about what drove me to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps to Laos in pursuit of the truth about my missing uncle.
Chapter 16: Newspapers Across Tennessee
Reviewer Hamilton Cain raves: “Rotondi’s debut is poised and precise as it chronicles, layer by layer, the weight of a history that most would soon forget.”
STARRED Kirkus Review
“The author’s precise attention to detail conjures up the jungle heat and humidity as well as the pervasive poverty that plagues Laos, and she effectively captures her family’s daily struggle and the toll their quest took on their personal health. The narrative is moving and dramatic as the author shares the alternately heartbreaking and triumphant moments of this intergenerational search for the truth. At intervals in the well-written text, Rotondi also shares details about the CIA’s ‘Secret War’ in Laos, where, “‘between 1964 and 1973, the United States dropped two million tons of cluster bombs…a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years.’”
Scranton Times-Tribune: Full page, color spread in the Sunday edition (Memorial Day Feature) 5/24/20
Mark Valley’s “The Live Drop” Podcast
I loved speaking with Mark Valley (CSI, Boston Legal, Blood & Treasure, Zero Dark Thirty) about the CIA, Laos, and family secrets on his podcast, “The Live Drop.”
“Host Mark Valley ventures into the elusive world of intelligence collection and espionage to spot, assess and debrief: spies, spy catchers, analysts, diplomats, security experts and the storytellers who bring them all to life.”
HuffPost:Featured Interview
“Rotondi, who started working on ‘What We Inherit: A Secret War and a Family’s Search for Answers’ a decade ago, had a 12-city tour planned for the long-labored-over book. ‘My first job in New York City when I moved here at 21 was actually in book publicity, and my favorite part of the job was planning author tours,’ Rotondi remembered. ‘I could barely afford a cup of coffee, but I would go to author readings almost every single night. It made me feel so connected to these authors I had worshipped as a kid growing up in a small town.’”
IG LIVE With Zibby Owens
Zibby Owens has been featured in The New York Times and CBS Sunday Morning for her books coverage. I sat down with her in quarantine to talk books, how we’re staying sane in lockdown, and the unusual way we first met.
Los Angeles Review: “You Need to Read This”
"Rotondi masterfully juxtaposes Bryon’s poem & her family’s prologue to emphasize how stories become ingrained in history & in our personal mythos...’What We Inherit’ shows how we can learn from the past by sharing the stories of the dead."
Booklist RAVE Review
In her powerful, heartbreaking, and gut-wrenching first book, Rotondi explains how…she found boxes of files, newspaper clippings, and declassified CIA reports regarding her Uncle Jack.
Buzzfeed Books Must-Read
Here are 21 books from small presses to get you through lockdown and beyond.
7 Books About Forgotten Wars
My grandfather’s service in WWII was celebrated every Memorial Day. His son’s experience was a different story.
Newburyport Daily News Editors’ Pick
“What We Inherit” follows Rotondi’s investigative journey of her uncle’s disappearance during the CIA-led “Secret War” in Laos in 1972, which took her across the world and helped her understand her family history and the “Secret War’s” impact on Laos.
Times Herald-Record: Author’s Journey into Family’s Past Becomes Best Seller
“Rotondi’s best-selling nonfiction book takes readers into generations of her family’s lives, past and present. It shares perspectives and the lasting impact of war, from her maternal grandfather as a prisoner of war in World War II, his sons’ service during the Vietnam War, and a lifelong search for his eldest son shot down over Laos in 1972.”
How Dead Letters Brought My Family to Life
I was reading old family letters in bed when it slipped out of an envelope and into my lap: the aluminum dog tag that had hung around my uncle Jack’s neck in 1972, the year he disappeared during the CIA-led “Secret War” in Laos.
Letting Go: An Excerpt from “What We Inherit”
“I am surrounded by warm night air, a foreign language, and I am a million miles away from home. And right now, that is exactly where I want to be.”
Bedtime Stories for a Pandemic
Tours may be cancelled. Libraries may have closed their doors, and brownstone stoops may have less free piles for the taking. But at the end of these long quarantine days, I have been logging online and watching authors share stories. In our sleepless present, we have the incredible opportunity to read to one another out loud from within the walls of our homes, all of us waiting out the future together.
The VVA Veteran
The official publication of the Vietnam Veterans of America writes: “Jessica Rotondi is an excellent writer—and one deeply involved with her topic. She recreates the tenseness of the times and brings people vividly to life…A study in determination and fortitude—a fitting climax to all that the family endured.”
Military Families Magazine: Author Traces Family’s MIA Journey Through Laos
“When Jessica Pearce Rotondi lost her mother to breast cancer in 2009, she had no idea of what she would gain: the chance to become a part of her military family's history. The unexpected journey took her from her childhood home in Massachusetts to the lush mountains of Laos, where her airman uncle was shot down in 1972”.
Milford Family's Story Is Now a Book
"My mother grew up in the small town of Milford, PA, and half of the book is set here. There are monuments to Jack in the local high school and in local parks, so it will be a very special homecoming for the book and Jack’s friends and family.” Unfortunately, that homecoming has been postponed because of the coronavirus.
Taste Test Thursday
I talked to Adam Owens of Bold Gold Media Group about the road that led me to New York City, why I write, and the weird ingredient I substitute when making my mother’s famous carrot cake.
The Isolation Journals With Suleika Jaouad
Suleika Jaouad is the author of the New York Times column and Emmy-wining video series "Life, Interrupted.” She is also the creator of "The Isolation Journals," a creativity project that helps people make sense of living in isolation during a pandemic. She invited me to share a prompt about family and What We Inherit.
Ayla Brown “It Feels Good” Interview on Country 102.5
“While many of us say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, in this case, heroism runs in the family.”
Broads and Books Podcast
In Episode 63, Amy of Broads and Books selects “What We Inherit” as a featured book alongside Jenny Offill’s “Weather” and Brit Bennett’s “The Vanishing Half.”
Virtual Book Tour
Read the full interview with Dead Darlings about publishing during coronavirus and What We Inherit’s 10-year path to publication.
Pike County Dispatch
Chief Master Sergeant Edwin “Jack” Pearce, the subject of Jessica Pearce Rotondi’s book, was a home-grown Milford boy who graduated from Delaware Valley High School. Jack followed his father, Edwin Pearce, into the Air Force and had signed up for his second tour of duty in Vietnam. He was in a covert operation in Laos when his plane was shot down in the jungle by a surface-to-air missile over the Ho Chi Min Trail on March 29, 1972.
Severna Park Voice: Author Goes on Virtual Tour From Shipley’s Choice Bedroom
Rotondi’s book was released in the height of the coronavirus pandemic. A New York City resident, Rotondi was in Millersville visiting her in-laws when the city shut down. With enough clothes for a long weekend, Rotondi and her husband ended up in Maryland for four months.
