Starred review from August 26, 2019
In vividly told scenes, with bracing honesty and breathless prose, Pulitzer Prize–winner Power (A Problem from Hell) reflects on the roads that led from her college days at Yale to her work in the U.S. government. She graduated from Harvard Law School, and in 2005 met Sen. Barack Obama, who asked her to serve as a foreign policy adviser. After his presidential election, Obama brought Power into the National Security Council in 2009, and from 2013 to 2017, she served as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Power takes readers behind the scenes of her visits to Libya during the final tense days of the Qaddafi regime, pointing out that in spite of the downturn in security, Libya’s citizens agreed that they wanted no international presence in their country, but to determine their own future. She discovered that Burma’s human rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi is a bad listener and that it’s not clear that Suu Kyi cared that much about humans. Ultimately, she stresses the necessity of caring, acting, and not giving up when seeking to change people’s lives. Power’s vibrant prose, exuberant storytelling, and deep insights into human nature make for a page-turning memoir.

Starred review from September 1, 2019
As a young Irish immigrant to the U.S., painfully separated from her beloved, alcoholic father, Power learned the lessons of otherness and found refuge and camaraderie in sports, a passion that has helped her break down many barriers. The Tiananmen Square protests precipitated her political awakening; Washington, DC, internships stoked her fascination with foreign policy, and her intrepidness, writing skills, empathic curiosity, and commitment to justice propelled her to become a war correspondent in Bosnia at 23. Hoping to effect change, Power earned a law degree and wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning history of genocide, A Problem from Hell (2002), which led to the first of many delving conversations with U.S. senator, then president Barack Obama, who appointed her to be a human rights advisor on the National Security Council, then U.S. Ambassador to the UN. In this gripping and revelatory memoir, Power chronicles, with vibrant precision and stunning candor, her best and worst moments navigating the obstacle courses within the White House and the UN, daunting global crises, and personal struggles. She is utterly compelling in her eye-witness accounts of violence and political standoffs and shrewdly witty in her tales about balancing diplomacy and motherhood. Ultimately, Power affirms the possibility for positive change and asserts that America's power resides in its respect for human rights.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 1, 2019

Power (The Unquiet American) holds endowed chairs at both Harvard's Kennedy School and Law School, and received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide. She served as Barack Obama's special assistant for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights (2009-13) and as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2013-17). Here, she presents an illuminating and engaging account of her journey from would-be sports journalist to award-winning author, from Irish immigrant to presidential cabinet member. Along the way, Power shares about her family life, notably the challenges of raising two young children while serving in high-level government positions. Some of the narrative's best features include insights into working with fellow diplomats in a male-dominated UN bureaucracy inflamed by tyrannical world leaders, such as Russia's Vladimir Putin and Syria's Bashir Assad. Their actions are countered by anecdotes of heroic citizens who put their lives on the line for freedom from despots, disease, and mass murders. Power herself, was a steadfast advocate for immigrant, LGBTQ, and women's rights. VERDICT Revealing the inner-workings of foreign policy, this engrossing memoir will appeal to informed readers and will inspire women contemplating careers in public service. [See Prepub Alert, 3/4/19.]--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2019

Irish-born Power has moved from war correspondent to founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School to U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and she's a Pulitzer Prize winner for "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide. So she's got some story to tell. With a 250,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 27, 2020
Dillon’s stirring, fiery debut pits a fearless nun’s full-throated cri de cœur against the abuses of predator priests and domestic violence. In Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Mercy House offers shelter to battered women and girls. A 69-year-old nun named Sister Evelyn (“Evie”) cares for them with two other older nuns, Sister Josephine and Sister Maria. Evie will stop at nothing to protect the sheltered women, and when an abuser shows up at Mercy House with a gun, Evie torches him with flame-lit Lysol. After a surprise visit from Bishop Hawkins, who had sexually assaulted Evie when she was a novitiate in the 1960s, she rightfully fears that he will try to use his authority to shut down Mercy House because of the Lysol incident and other infractions. Evie butts heads with Josephine over her decision to help a rape victim get an abortion, and receives censure from Hawkins for performing Reiki, lamenting how little she can do against a church that has always placed women below priests. Dillon balances her protagonist’s righteous anger with an earnest exploration of Evie’s faith and devotion to justice and community service. This uncompromising story will light up book clubs.

"This is a wonderful book....The interweaving of Power's personal story, family story, diplomatic history and moral arguments is executed seamlessly—and with unblinking honesty."
— Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times Book Review

"[Power] is a very good writer, which makes it more fun and truly engrossing to read a memoir about a former U.S. official....A pleasure to read." — Rachel Maddow, MSNBC

"Power writes movingly about everything...and she delivers one of the best-written political memoirs of recent years." — Fareed Zakaria, CNN

"Amid the flood of memoirs from Obama administration veterans, Power's stands out as worth reading. For starters, she's a better writer than a lot of them—she was a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author long before she got into government. She's also done more that's worth reading about. Like the best journalists, Power has a gift for finding the perfect anecdote to illustrate a larger idea or theme, and this is the rare political memoir where you definitely shouldn't skim the "early years" chapters. — Slate

"Power writes with heart about her upbringing — in Ireland, Pittsburgh and Atlanta — and she is especially poignant when recounting a few traumatic episodes... Still, the book is suffused with humor, and [President Obama] furnishes the funniest anecdotes that don't come from her charming children...The Education of an Idealist is a moving account of how to serve righteously, or at least how to try." — The Washington Post

"Engaging....Power's memoir is an insider's account of foreign-policy-making, and an intensely personal one." — The Economist

"Lively...and strikingly personal...[Power] writes vividly and lucidly here about her turn in the international spotlight." — Vogue

Aided by the strangely sweet love story at its core...a joyous counterpoint to the stresses of political life. . . . A fascinating read. — Vanity Fair

Refreshingly frank and self-deprecating, Power's memoir is an energizing reminder that conscience has a place in the process of shaping foreign policy. — Time

"A foreign policy guru reveals her many selves in a sweeping autobiography" — O Magazine

"Power is a master story-teller . . . a brilliant self-portrait of an outsider turned insider, who is forced to grapple with the challenges that brings, and does so honestly." — The Independent (Ireland)

"In this gripping and revelatory memoir, Power chronicles, with vibrant precision and stunning candor, her best and worst moments navigating the obstacle courses within the White House and the UN, daunting global crises, and personal struggles. She is utterly compelling in her eye-witness accounts of violence and political standoffs and shrewdly witty in her tales about balancing diplomacy and motherhood." — Booklist, starred review

"[Power] stresses the necessity of caring, acting, and not giving up when seeking to change people's lives. Power's vibrant prose, exuberant storytelling, and deep insights into human nature make for a page-turning memoir." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

"An illuminating and engaging account of [Power's] journey from would-be sports journalist to award winning author, from Irish immigrant to presidential cabinet member... This engrossing memoir will appeal to informed readers and will inspire women...