An earnest vision of compassionate leadership, short on personal complexity.
Faith in action.
In this impassioned memoir and manifesto, Kentucky Gov. Beshear makes a case for overcoming political divisiveness through faith, compassion, and public service. Drawing inspiration from the parable of the Good Samaritan, he argues that kindness and respect can bridge even the deepest political differences. “I believe we can translate this approach from my home in Kentucky to other communities—and to our nation as a whole,” he writes. The son of former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, the author served as the state’s attorney general from 2016 to 2019 before defeating Republican incumbent Matt Bevin, whom he calls “Trump Lite.” Reelected in 2023, Beshear recounts his contentious relationship with Bevin and the challenges of governing a deeply Republican state. His account encompasses Kentucky’s devastating floods and tornadoes, the Covid-19 pandemic, and a mass shooting that claimed a close friend. He also highlights his efforts to expand health care, defend LGBTQ+ rights, promote economic development, and support underserved communities. He is especially affecting when describing ordinary Kentuckians helping one another through unimaginable tragedy. His religious convictions inform his understanding of leadership without requiring readers to share his faith. Yet nearly every episode circles back to demonstrating the effectiveness of his approach, and the repeated affirmations of compassion and moral responsibility gradually lose some of their force. Although Beshear never declares an intention to seek the presidency in 2028, the book joins recent memoirs by fellow Democratic governors Josh Shapiro and Gavin Newsom in presenting a record of leadership to a national audience. Where Shapiro offers insights into the workings of state government and Newsom brings a more expansive storytelling sensibility to his personal history, Beshear remains focused on demonstrating his principles through his record in office. His message is sincere and often inspiring, but the repeated emphasis on his accomplishments yields an extended campaign argument rather than a nuanced personal portrait.
An earnest vision of compassionate leadership, short on personal complexity.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2026
ISBN: 9781250452719
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2026
Chronology, photographs and personal knowledge combine to make a memorable commemorative presentation.
Jackie Kennedy's secret service agent Hill and co-author McCubbin team up for a follow-up to Mrs. Kennedy and Me (2012) in this well-illustrated narrative of those five days 50 years ago when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Since Hill was part of the secret service detail assigned to protect the president and his wife, his firsthand account of those days is unique. The chronological approach, beginning before the presidential party even left the nation's capital on Nov. 21, shows Kennedy promoting his “New Frontier” policy and how he was received by Texans in San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth before his arrival in Dallas. A crowd of more than 8,000 greeted him in Houston, and thousands more waited until 11 p.m. to greet the president at his stop in Fort Worth. Photographs highlight the enthusiasm of those who came to the airports and the routes the motorcades followed on that first day. At the Houston Coliseum, Kennedy addressed the leaders who were building NASA for the planned moon landing he had initiated. Hostile ads and flyers circulated in Dallas, but the president and his wife stopped their motorcade to respond to schoolchildren who held up a banner asking the president to stop and shake their hands. Hill recounts how, after Lee Harvey Oswald fired his fatal shots, he jumped onto the back of the presidential limousine. He was present at Parkland Hospital, where the president was declared dead, and on the plane when Lyndon Johnson was sworn in. Hill also reports the funeral procession and the ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery. “[Kennedy] would have not wanted his legacy, fifty years later, to be a debate about the details of his death,” writes the author. “Rather, he would want people to focus on the values and ideals in which he so passionately believed.”
Chronology, photographs and personal knowledge combine to make a memorable commemorative presentation.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4767-3149-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
An essential account of a chaotic administration that, Woodward makes painfully clear, is incapable of governing.
That thing in the air that is deadlier than even your “strenuous flus”? Trump knew—and did nothing about it.
The big news from veteran reporter Woodward’s follow-up to Fear has been widely reported: Trump was fully aware at the beginning of 2020 that a pandemic loomed and chose to downplay it, causing an untold number of deaths and crippling the economy. His excuse that he didn’t want to cause a panic doesn’t fly given that he trades in fear and division. The underlying news, however, is that Trump participated in this book, unlike in the first, convinced by Lindsey Graham that Woodward would give him a fair shake. Seventeen interviews with the sitting president inform this book, as well as extensive digging that yields not so much news as confirmation: Trump has survived his ineptitude because the majority of Congressional Republicans go along with the madness because they “had made a political survival decision” to do so—and surrendered their party to him. The narrative often requires reading between the lines. Graham, though a byword for toadyism, often reins Trump in; Jared Kushner emerges as the real power in the West Wing, “highly competent but often shockingly misguided in his assessments”; Trump admires tyrants, longs for their unbridled power, resents the law and those who enforce it, and is quick to betray even his closest advisers; and, of course, Trump is beholden to Putin. Trump occasionally emerges as modestly self-aware, but throughout the narrative, he is in a rage. Though he participated, he said that he suspected this to be “a lousy book.” It’s not—though readers may wish Woodward had aired some of this information earlier, when more could have been done to stem the pandemic. When promoting Fear, the author was asked for his assessment of Trump. His reply: “Let’s hope to God we don’t have a crisis.” Multiple crises later, Woodward concludes, as many observers have, “Trump is the wrong man for the job.”
An essential account of a chaotic administration that, Woodward makes painfully clear, is incapable of governing.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982131-73-9
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
SEEN & HEARD
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