A thoughtful exploration of religious conviction that’s often marred by political stridency.
The evolution of a veep’s views.
Ten years ago, a little-known venture capitalist wrote a book about, in his words, “the upbringing of a redneck who worked in Silicon Valley.” The memoir had a modest initial print run of 10,000 copies. Hillbilly Elegy became a bestseller, and its author, for those who haven’t kept up with the news, is now the second-highest ranking official in the U.S. government. A sequel of sorts, Vance’s new book revisits old terrain and journeys to the present day. For a political memoir, it’s an uncommonly introspective work, well-paced and infused with touches of humor—much of it at the author’s expense. As a fearful new father, he enumerates a host of “worst-case scenarios” during a car ride—his wife, Usha, “nodded knowingly….I’m sure she thought, What a psycho I married.” Most of the book delves into his religious beliefs. Once an atheist, the Marine veteran makes a convincing case that he devoted a lot of thought to his conversion to Catholicism. As an example, he cites the influence of the French philosopher René Girard (who had taught Peter Thiel, Vance’s political patron, at Stanford). Less appealing is some of what Vance says about politics. He admits to a “boneheaded” error in infamously stating that “childless cat ladies” in the Democratic Party “were running our country into the ground,” but he sees a moral failing in societies that “suppress the biological urge to fall in love and have babies”—all while condemning “mass migration.” Elsewhere, he makes generalizations about “conformism” and “groupthink” and argues, fatuously, that “we replaced real diversity of thought with superficial diversity.” And, for a man who espouses Christian values, the presumptive 2028 presidential candidate says nothing—not surprisingly—about how his boss, whom he has defended for years, professes a love of the Bible yet routinely sows hatred. As the author writes in a line that could unwittingly address his own situation: “Politics is a dirty business sometimes, one where you have to make compromises.”
A thoughtful exploration of religious conviction that’s often marred by political stridency.Pub Date: yesterday
ISBN: 9780063575011
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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