The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir

"Turns out, facing down warlords as a 20-something reporter is pretty good training for a future diplomat. Samantha Power’s The Education of an Idealist is that rare political memoir: startlingly honest, funny and beautifully written. This Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former journalist in Bosnia spent eight years in the Obama administration, ending as U.S. ambassador to the UN. Power knows how improbable her own life story is: An Irish immigrant as a child, she eventually comes to speak for the entire United States – still, facing down warlords while raising her two very young kids. It’s a story she tells with relish and bracing candor. I couldn’t put it down."