2019, Book 12: What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Book 9: Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun.  Epic tale of settling land and all the conflicts that arise between settlers and the land as well as amongst the settlers themselves.  The idea of a "simpler time" fails to acknowledge that the complexities arise from within.

Book 10: The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv.  Great resource on both the philosophy of sufficient exposure to nature and the evidence behind it.

Book 11: Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara.  A literary crime novel, driven at least as much by the characters and their interactions with each other as the official particulars of the crime.

Book 12: What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I avoided reading this book for over a year.  The anguish felt over the result of the 2016 Presidential election was still too fresh.  Rehashing what led to its result was just going to get me completely upset again.  Every single time I've heard Hillary Rodham Clinton speak, in her own words and on the topics she has selected, I have been impressed.  She's thoughtful, caring, smart, articulate and genuinely seems to be trying to make the world a better place for everyone.  For that alone, her defeat in 2016 was tough.  What made it genuinely terrible was who our country selected instead.

But it was time.  I'd shook Hillary's hand and received a copy of the book on her tour.  Over a year later, I finally read what her thoughts on her campaign were.  Not surprisingly, ALL of the criticism I had heard about the book were completely unfounded.  What I found was yet again, a thoughtful, caring person trying to improve lives while having things thrown sideways at her, both from within the country (within her own party even) and from without.

I really think this is the most important thing to note about the book.  The details about the campaign itself (and there are many) are important to understand, but what really shines through is that Hillary really cares.  While I may disagree here or there, that's the nature of desiring progress.  There are a million ways to move forward and figuring out an uncharted path is difficult.  Contrast this to the desire to move backwards, where history lays out an exact path.  There will always be more disagreement on how to move forward than backwards.  I will not let those disagreements diminish my admiration for one of the greatest public servants our country has ever known, an admiration reinforced by this book.