Read My Pins
By Madeleine Albright
176 pages; Harper

In Madeleine Albright's offbeat illustrated memoir, Read My Pins , the diplomat explains how, as President Clinton's secretary of state, she often let her elaborate collection of brooches do (some of) the talking, whether she wore vibrant zebras for a meeting with Nelson Mandela, a bluebird to mourn the victims of a downed aircraft, or a bejeweled snake after a Saddam Hussein loyalist called her a "serpent"—a masterstroke of elegant defiance.

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