About the Author

CONDOLEEZZA RICE was the 66th United States Secretary of State and the first black woman to ever hold that office. Prior to that, she was the first woman to serve as National Security Advisor. She currently teaches at Stanford University.

Reviews

"[Features] prose so spare it lays bare a child's pain...full of raw vignettes, episodes that should jolt our post-racial sensibilities...[The book shows that] the key to Rice's composure in office - which was a mix of womanly grace and analytical rigor - lies in the manner in which she was raised. In this, America owes a debt to John and Angelena Rice, parents extraordinarily pushy, parents extraordinarily brave."
--"Wall Street Journal"

"Surprisingly engrossing...One senses a romantic softness at the core of the steely woman Americans met during her years of public service. Rice's reverence of her parents is touching, as is her abiding love for the Titusville of her youth."
--"Daily Beast
"
"Pays tribute to the people who truly shaped her [and]sets the record straight on aspects of her life that often flirt with myth."
--"USA Today"

"An origins story...teeming with fascinating detail."
--"New York Times"

"A thrilling, inspiring life of achievement."
"--Publishers Weekly"

"A frank, poignant and loving portrait of a familythat maintained its closeness through cancer, death, career ups and downs, and turbulent change inAmerican society."
"--Booklist"

"Vivid and heartfelt writing...Rice's graceful memoir is a personal, multigenerational look into her own, and our country's, past...Highly recommended."
"--Library Journal"

"In this remarkably clear-eyed and candid autobiography, Rice focuses instead on her fascinating coming-of-age during the stormy civil rights years in Birmingham, Alabama."
--"Bookpage"

"[R]ecords a thrilling, inspiring life of achievement."
"—Publishers Weekly
""Looking for a blow-by-blow account of Condoleezza Rice’s years as George W. Bush’s secretary of state? You would do well to find one of the many Rice biographies already on the shelves. In this remarkably clear-eyed and candid autobiography, Rice focuses instead on her fascinating coming-of-age during the stormy civil rights years in Birmingham, Alabama."
"—Bookpage"