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holly_keimig's review
4.0
This book is hard to classify as one thing or another. It was a biography of Obama's chief of staff, but also a self-help book of sorts. It was very interesting to read about someone whose life has been so different from mine. I found myself identifying with a lot of the life choices she made though and was genuinely interested in how her story played out. This would be a good book to give someone graduating from school and looking to work in government.
A couple good lines:
March 28, 2019 – page 84
"... those jobs... taught me a very important way to rationalize when my career seemed doomed or my life felt like it was veering totally off course: If I am never good at anything else, I know I am good at this."
March 27, 2019 – page 38
"There is no bigger compliment than being intellectually curious about what someone else spends his or her days doing."
A couple good lines:
March 28, 2019 – page 84
"... those jobs... taught me a very important way to rationalize when my career seemed doomed or my life felt like it was veering totally off course: If I am never good at anything else, I know I am good at this."
March 27, 2019 – page 38
"There is no bigger compliment than being intellectually curious about what someone else spends his or her days doing."
emilyjurlina's review
4.0
This book was full of great anecdotes about working in the White House (and from a woman's perspective!!). It's easy to build up successful people in your mind and it was nice to read that Alyssa is just like the rest of us. I definitely teared up at the end when Obama called her to express his condolences about her cat.
I am deducting a star because, even though she addresses it in her book, the non-chronological storytelling style just didn't work for me and made the flow of the book a little jerky.
I am deducting a star because, even though she addresses it in her book, the non-chronological storytelling style just didn't work for me and made the flow of the book a little jerky.
amlibera's review
4.0
Well this was exactly what I wanted when I downloaded it after hearing her on Pod Save America.
ashleyjean6's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Interesting stories, some humor, lots of name dropping (not in a bad way). The format really did not serve the story; it's not chronological and without much transition you jumped back and forth in time a lot. This was confusing as there were many names to keep track of and I thought we'd covered a certain time period, only to find myself back in it. I appreciate her role as a young woman, but I don't think this book did her justice at all. The Audiobook wasn't good either!
jlbates's review
3.0
Not terrible but not amazing. Interesting mix of career advice and insider white house scoop, but the book could have been half as long... it felt pretty repetitive by the end (the white house is exhausting and hard, and I was tired). I'm sure she's right, but, it didn't need that many pages to convince me.
alittleoverdue's review
3.0
An inside look at working in the White House from a former Obama deputy chief of staff that's light and humorous, but full of touching and interesting moments. I enjoyed the audio version of this read by the author. My favorite anecdote concerning her cat and a phone call sealed my love of President Obama.
nina_rod's review
3.0
I bought this book in 2018 because I love Obama. He’s on the cover and the woman writing the book worked with Obama first in the US Senate then his campaign for President and finally at the White House. It took many years (6) to finally read it! What took so long? During the Trump years, did this book even seem relevant? Would the nostalgia make me cry?
I finally picked it up to read because of the Extreme Reader Challenge. I needed a category that in the title had one of the 5 Ws: Who, What, When, Where or Why. I looked through my bookshelves and saw this book!
The political operative and I had the same path. We both studied political science and interned in Congress, her for Bernie Sanders and me for my local Hawaii Congressman at the time. And no, I didn’t fuck hum. Smile. We also both started college in 1994.
Early on, I found I didn’t have what it takes to work in politics. But I always wondered. Well, enter this book. She says her hair turned all white from the stress. I still have my natural hair color. She also grinded her teeth so much from the stress she cracked a tooth in the middle of the night and woke up with a mouthful of blood. She also couldn’t sleep unless it was with Ambien or Tylenol PM. Yikes! I’m good!
The book was confusing because it was a collection of stories not in a timeline but skipping around to her time in the White House, working on his campaign, interning for Bernie, working for Senator Kerry, working for Senator Obama, etc.
pjgoebel's review
5.0
I thought this was so honest and so far from my experience, I enjoyed the writing! Was from Live Well Anyway podcast.