A review by jwillis81
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey by Kamala Harris

4.0

I'm a big fan of Kamala Harris. She's my U.S. Senator, and I've found her impressive both in her current job and her previous job as California's Attorney General, and this book does a great job of giving you some insight into her life growing up, her early career, and her views on certain key issues that she deals with even today. However, the one major gripe I have about this book is that it follows the same predictable formula of so many other memoirs, particularly those of political figures: it's heavy on the "look how great I handled that thing" moments, and very light on the "here's one time I screwed up and learned a lesson or had to fix it" moment. I like Harris a lot, but her record is far from perfect and there are definitely missteps she's made along the way. I think it's a disservice to readers to write a memoir that ignores those missteps (and the resulting opportunities to learn and grow) in favor of only glorifying the good stuff. Still, I found this to be a well-written and interesting memoir from someone I've long admired and think will be a competitive 2020 Presidential candidate.