The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power

Photo: Marko Metzinger/Studio D

5 of 16
The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power
368 pages; Times Books
In The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power (Times), the curtains are pulled back on planes and motorcades, and in presidential palaces and bunkered embassies, to allow for an unusually intimate look at a historic secretary of state. Author and BBC correspondent Kim Ghattas was assigned to cover the U.S. State Department in 2008, and soon became a globe-trotting companion to the indomitable negotiator who not only grew in stature during their four years together but also showed a very human, open-hearted side. Out of the experience emerged a book that has a personal cast for Ghattas, too: Raised amid civil strife in Lebanon, she was skeptical of America's global role. But Clinton—in small gestures and feats of sweeping diplomacy—helped her refine her view. The Secretary is a record of the crises and conundrums Clinton had to navigate from Day One, along with moments of Hillary just being Hillary—rejecting her chief of staff's security concerns when she is invited to ride with a Saudi foreign minister rather than taking the official limo, or gently embracing the beleaguered Aung San Suu Kyi on a landmark trip to Myanmar. Clinton's overarching task, Ghattas writes, was to help President Obama, who "knew that only Clinton came with the built-in international stature and credibility" to regain respect for America. Watching these weighty events unfold makes for an unexpected page-turner
— Celia McGee