Belonging

A Daughter’s Search for Identity Through Loss and Love

By: Michelle Miller

Narrated by: Michelle Miller

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

""[An] outstanding debut.""—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The award-winning journalist and co-host of CBS Saturday Morning tells the candid, and deeply personal story of her mother’s abandonment and how the search for answers forced her to reckon with her own identity and the secrets that shaped her family for five decades.

Though Michelle Miller was an award-winning broadcast journalist for CBS News, few people in her life knew the painful secret she carried: her mother had abandoned her at birth. Los Angeles in 1967 was deeply segregated, and her mother—a Chicana hospital administrator who presented as white, had kept her affair with Michelle’s father, Dr. Ross Miller, a married trauma surgeon and Compton’s first Black city councilman—hidden, along with the unplanned pregnancy. Raised largely by her father and her paternal grandmother, Michelle had no knowledge of the woman whose genes she shared. Then, fate intervened when Michelle was twenty-two. As her father lay stricken with cancer, he told her, “Go and find your mother.”

Belonging is the chronicle of Michelle’s decades-long quest to connect with the woman who gave her life, to confront her past, and ultimately, to find her voice as a journalist, a wife, and a mother. Michelle traces the years spent trying to make sense of her mixed-race heritage and her place in white-dominated world. From the wealthy white schools where she was bussed to integrate, to the newsrooms filled with white, largely male faces, she revisits the emotional turmoil of her formative years and how the enigma of her mother and her rejection shaped Michelle’s understanding of herself and her own Blackness.

As she charts her personal journey, Michelle looks back on her decades on the ground reporting painful events, from the beating of Rodney King to the death of George Floyd, revealing how her struggle to understand her racial identity coincides with the nation’s own ongoing and imperfect racial reckoning. What emerges is an intimate family story about secrets—secrets we keep, secrets we share, and the secrets that make us who we are.

Inspired to write my story

Very well written and I desire to write my own story. A very fast and attention grabbing read (or should I say audible book.)

A Definite Must Read/Hear

I am so happy I purchased the audiobook. To hear her story told in her voice is priceless! From the first time I saw Michelle Miller on CBS I knew she was special, but hearing her story...WOW!! You will experience a full spectrum of emotions, so grab your snacks and tissue...and be prepared to be blown away!!

Impactful!!

Way to create impact within your community and beyond! I absolutely enjoyed and loved it!

Well worth reading

A very thoughtful account of the author’s process of understanding the painful absence and rejection of her biological mother. The author has had an incredible life and family history.

Belonging

Absolutely Extraordinary. Emotional. Moving. Liberating. Beautiful, Beautiful and B E A U T I F U L in so many ways. Saw myself in this book at times, I cannot thank you enough for the courage it took to put pen to paper.
Fortunately for you, there were so many family members, extended family members, friends and a host of colleagues to help you along your way; a huge plus. I view you as strong and hope many of us who find ourselves within portions of these pages, will embrace the courage it takes to share our own stories.

Thank you Michelle. Thank you❤️