It's no secret that Omar's ethnicity and progressive views have made her a target of the current president, and she does address Trump and Washington politics, but this memoir is not meant to be a political polemic. The bulk of her book deals with her life as a refugee and immigrant facing and overcoming myriad challenges and obstacles. With the help of author Rebecca Paley, Omar shares stories that make clear how her fierce fighting spirit was born and honed. It's an honest, often inspiring narration that sheds light on a new breed of leadership coming to the fore in this country.    

 

 

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld. The #1 bestselling novel in independent bookstores right now is a re-imagining of the life of Hillary Clinton - if she hadn't married Bill Clinton. This is not totally new territory for Sittenfeld; in American Wife told the story of a fict ional First Lady who bore more than passing resemblance to Laura Bush. But with Rodham, she is writing about a real person whose history is well known to most. And, in this version, Hillary does not become the First Lady. Instead, after a courtship with charismatic fellow Yale Law School student Bill Clinton that eventually leads them to Arkansas, her doubts about prospective marriage lead to a devastating breakup. Over the next four decades, Rodham blazes her own trail - one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that involves crossing paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, and that raises questions about the trade-offs all of us must make in building a life.  

 

Part of the enjoyment of Rodham lies with Sittenfeld's deft weaving of fiction in with actual historical events. In that vein, Kirkus Reviews wrote: ""It's enjoyable to hear [this Hillary] think about her own desires, her strengths and weaknesses, her vulnerabilities and self-justifications; it's also fun to see how familiar events would still occur under different circumstances."