Black America Breaking News for the African American Community
Related Articles
Memoirs from those who have left political life, however, can offer more honesty. Hillary Clinton’s What Happened analyzes the failings in press coverage of her presidential run, and also takes responsibility for her role in Trump’s victory. Barney Frank’s memoir gets even more personal, chronicling the challenges he faced as the first member of Congress to come out as gay. Michelle Obama’s surprisingly intimate Becoming shines brightest when it reveals the fear and frustration behind the former first lady’s composure.
Every Friday in the Books Briefing, we thread together Atlantic stories on books that share similar ideas.
Know other book lovers who might like this guide? Forward them this email.
What We’re Reading
How Americans became part of the Trump family
“Too Much and Never Enough, by Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, is both a memoir and a manifesto … Mary Trump, chastened by her own, earlier silence about her uncle’s unfitness for office, is sounding a belated alarm. People have suffered, she writes, because her uncle is incapable of understanding other people’s suffering. People have died because her uncle cares more about the illusion of competence than its realization.”
📚 Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, by Mary Trump
The biggest winners: what Ivana reveals about Trump family values
“By virtue of its core characters—a man who becomes the American president, a daughter who becomes his adviser, a son-in-law who becomes responsible for criminal-justice reform and opioid-crisis management and bringing peace to the Middle East—Raising Trump is less a straightforward memoir than it is a teasing exploration of the workings of the presidential family. Here are the oft-discussed ‘Trump family values,’ as explained by the woman who helped create them.”
📚 Raising Trump, by Ivana Trump
Kamala Harris’s political memoir is an uneasy fit for the digital era
“Unlike Harris’s many viral #resistance moments and meticulous snapshots of relatability, the memoir itself is a meandering work that lacks verve. More significantly, given far more than 280 characters to deliver a cohesive message, Harris doesn’t meaningfully reconcile her punitive track record as a California prosecutor with her more recent activist-adjacent positioning as a national Democratic darling.”
📚 The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, by Kamala Harris
Why Hillary Clinton’s book is actually worth reading
“Most books by politicians are bad … But What Happened is not a standard work of this genre. It’s interesting, it’s worth reading, and it sets out questions that the press, in particular, has not done enough to face.”
📚 What Happened, by Hillary Clinton
The cross-generational politics of Barney Frank
“Since, in his usual way, Barney Frank gets right to the point in his new memoir, I will too: the most engaging—and indeed occasionally heartrending (not an adjective I ever thought I’d use in writing about Frank)—parts of this book are those in which he discusses his long struggles with his sexuality and relationships.”
📚 Frank: A Life in Politics From the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage, by Barney Frank
The uncommon, requisite resolve of Michelle Obama
“Becoming is satisfying for the quiet moments in which Mrs. Obama, the woman who supported a black man named Barack all the way to the presidency, gets to let down her hair and breathe as Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, girl of the South Side.”
📚 Becoming, by Michelle Obama
About us: This week’s newsletter is written by Kate Cray. The book she’s reading next is On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong.
Comments, questions, typos? Reply to this email to reach the Books Briefing team.
Did you get this newsletter from a friend? Sign yourself up.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
Source link
