Bad Blood: Secets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
John Carreyrou, 2020
Knopf Doubleday
368 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525431992
Summary
In 2014, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was widely seen as the next Steve Jobs: a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup "unicorn" promised to revolutionize the medical industry with its breakthrough device, which performed the whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood.
Backed by investors such as Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, Theranos sold shares in a fundraising round that valued the company at more than $9 billion, putting Holmes’s worth at an estimated $4.5 billion.
There was just one problem: The technology didn’t work.
Erroneous results put patients in danger, leading to misdiagnoses and unnecessary treatments. All the while, Holmes and her partner, Sunny Balwani, worked to silence anyone who voiced misgivings—from journalists to their own employees.
Rigorously reported and fearlessly written, Bad Blood is a gripping story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron—a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
John Carreyrou is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal. For his extensive coverage of Theranos, Inc., Carreyrou was awarded the George Polk Award for Financial Reporting, the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism and the Barlett & Steele Award for Investigative Journalism in 2016. Carreyrou lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
John Carreyrou tells [the story] virtually to perfection in Bad Blood, which really amounts to two books. The first is a chilling, third-person narrative of how Holmes came up with a fantastic idea that made her, for a while, the most successful woman entrepreneur in Silicon Valley…. The author's description of Holmes as a manic leader who turned coolly hostile when challenged is ripe material for a psychologist; Carreyrou wisely lets the evidence speak for itself…. In the second part of the book the author compellingly relates how he got involved, following a tip from a suspicious reader. His recounting of his efforts to track down sources… reads like a West Coast version of All the President's Men.
Roger Lowenstein - New York Times Book Review -
A great and at times almost unbelievable story…. Theranos may be the biggest case of corporate fraud since Enron.
New York Magazine
Gripping.… Riveting.… [Told] with a momentum worthy of a crime novel.
Los Angeles Review of Books
Riveting.… For all its boomtime feel, there are timeless aspects to Theranos’ story. Venality is age-old, but so is courage, and that of the ex-employees who blew the whistle on its deceptions is restorative.… And more than an honorable mention should go to Carreyrou, a dogged old-school reporter uncowed by Theranos’ legal hardball.
San Francisco Chronicle
A veritable page-turning..… Gripping..… Presents comprehensive evidence of the fraud perpetrated by Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes.… Unveils many dark secrets of Theranos that have not previously been laid bare.
Nature
Riveting..… Compelling.… [Carreyrou’s] unmasking of Theranos is a tale of David and Goliath.
Financial Times
A fascinating true story that reads like a suspense novel. . . . A telling parable of Silicon Valley magical thinking.
Vogue
In Bad Blood, Carreyrou tells the full, gripping tale of how he slayed the ‘unicorn’ in a fascinating look at how buzz and billions can blind people to facts.
Marie Claire
A parable about Silicon Valley delusion. . . . Gossipy fun comes from seeing which high-profile man (James Mattis, Joe Biden) gets drawn into Holmes’ scammy web next.
Elle
A thorough and devastating piece of reporting that deserves a place alongside the masterworks of the inside-the-boardroom business genre. . . . He quietly compiles detail after damning detail into a fascinating narrative.
Weekly Standard (UK)
(Starred review) An apparent scientific breakthrough rests on a quicksand of deception in this riveting account of the rise and downfall of notorious biotech firm Theranos…. The result is a bracing cautionary tale about visionary entrepreneurship gone very wrong.
Publishers Weekly
[C]learly written and accessible…. [T]he company believed it could "fake-it-until-you-make-it," a Silicon Valley flaw, per Carreyrou. Using aggressive tactics and pit bull attorneys, Theranos squelched dissent and threatened the author. Highly recommended —Harry Charles, St. Louis
Library Journal
(Starred review) Crime thriller authors have nothing on Carreyrou's exquisite sense of suspenseful pacing and multifaceted character development in this riveting, read-in-one-sitting tour de force.... Carreyrou's commitment to unraveling Holmes' crimes was literally of life-saving value.
Booklist
A deep investigative report…. The author brilliantly captures the interpersonal melodrama, hidden agendas, gross misrepresentations, nepotism, and a host of delusions and lies…. [A] vivid, cinematic portrayal of serpentine Silicon Valley. [Future film planned.]
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for BAD BLOOD … then take off on your own:
1. Really, the primary question is simple: what in Carreyrou's book angered you most?
2. The second question, of course, is … how in God's name did Theranos get away with its scam for as long as it did? CEO Elizabeth Holmes even had a visit from the vice president of the United States, who, along with others, was completely taken in. Such icons of wisdom and gravitas, such as Henry Kissenger and George Schultz, sat on the board of directors. What took so long for anyone to catch on?
3. How would you describe Elizabeth Holmes—what drove her? And what enabled her to pull the wool over the eyes of so many, even including some of her own employees? What kind of personality, or personality disorder, does she exhibit?
4. Consider Walgreens' actions: the company was warned by a consultant not to go ahead with instore clinics. Why did it refuse to listen to the advice?
5. How does David Boies, the well-known (some might say infamous) lawyer come across in this telling?
6. Does anyone in Bad Blood (other than the author) emerge as a hero of sorts? What about Rupert Murdock? Does it take someone with his wealth and power to stand up to a person like Holmes? He was a stockholder, after all.
7. Talk about the author's dogged approach to uncovering this story.
8. Ultimately, does Bad Blood encompase a broader issue than the story of a single company gone bad?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook
Alice Waters, 2017
Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307718280
Summary
The long-awaited memoir from cultural icon and culinary standard bearer Alice Waters recalls the circuitous road and tumultuous times leading to the opening of what is arguably America's most influential restaurant.
When Alice Waters opened the doors of her "little French restaurant" in Berkeley, California in 1971 at the age of 27, no one ever anticipated the indelible mark it would leave on the culinary landscape—Alice least of all.
Fueled in equal parts by naivete and a relentless pursuit of beauty and pure flavor, she turned her passion project into an iconic institution that redefined American cuisine for generations of chefs and food lovers.
In Coming to My Senses Alice retraces the events that led her to 1517 Shattuck Avenue and the tumultuous times that emboldened her to find her own voice as a cook when the prevailing food culture was embracing convenience and uniformity.
Moving from a repressive suburban upbringing to Berkeley in 1964 at the height of the Free Speech Movement and campus unrest, she was drawn into a bohemian circle of charismatic figures whose views on design, politics, film, and food would ultimately inform the unique culture on which Chez Panisse was founded.
Dotted with stories, recipes, photographs, and letters, Coming to My Senses is at once deeply personal and modestly understated, a quietly revealing look at one woman's evolution from a rebellious yet impressionable follower to a respected activist who effects social and political change on a global level through the common bond of food. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—April 28, 1944
• Where—Chatham, New Jersey, USA
• Education—University of California-Berkeley
• Currently—lives in Berkeley, California
Alice Waters is the visionary chef and owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. She is the author of four cookbooks, including Chez Panisse Vegetables and Fanny at Chez Panisse.
In 1994 she founded the Edible schoolyard at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, a model curriculum that integrates organic gardening into academic classes and into the life of the school; it will soon incorporate a school lunch program in which students will prepare, serve, and share food they grow themselves, augmented by organic dairy products, grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish — all locally and sustainably produced. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Casually and conversationally, the book relates [Waters's] education as a sensualist. The book is a prequel, the story before the story everybody knows, an account of what she was doing before she was bitten by a radioactive spider and began to exhibit strange new powers.
Pete Wells - New York Times Book Review
(Starred review.) [An] intimate and colorful memoir.… Readers will be charmed by Waters’s … anecdotes and her descriptions of friends and customers … [which] bring the era and the restaurant to the mind’s eye in vibrant detail.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) The author writes vividly about the major influences in her life…, the artistic circle of friends she surrounded herself with in Berkeley, and the roles they played in her life and business.… An engaging and entertaining memoir. —Phillip Oliver, formerly with Univ. of North Alabama, Florence
Library Journal
[Waters] does an artful job of showing how even the most apparently unrelated experiences helped lead her to her profession. She is also quite frank about her failures; her relationships…. An almost charmed restaurant life that exhales the sweet aromas of honesty and self-awareness.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Coming to My Senses … then take off on your own:
1. What impression of Alice Waters have you come away with after reading Coming to My Senses? How would you describe her: her personality, drive, creative impulses? What do you find most impressive? Did anything about her disappoint you or irritate you?
2. If you're old enough to have lived around the time Waters was growing up, say within 15 years or so of her time (before the culinary arts exploded in this country), were your experiences of homemade cooking similar to Waters' — the use of canned and frozen vegetables, bottled dressings, iceberg lettuce?
3. Talk about Waters' awakening in France after her sophomore year in college. Did you ever have the kind of eye-opening (or taste-bud exploding) moment that she did?
4. Waters writes of her dislike for "the hippies' style of health-food cooking." Why? Considering that both were striving for healthier food and earth-based produce, how did Waters see her own style as different from theirs?
5. Talk about Waters' somewhat "irregular" youth. How would you describe it — the drinking, backseat sex, cutting classes, basically flaunting the rules of discipline. How much do you think that background prepared her to go up against the prevailing stodgy, hierarchical culinary culture?
6. Discuss the inspiration — both the people and ideas — behind Chez Panisse and the way in which Waters eventually realized her vision. In other words, talk about how Waters got the restaurant up and running. What most surprised you … and what did you most admire in Waters' story?
7. If you've read memoirs by other culinary greats, perhaps, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, how does this book compare?
8. What influence has Alice Waters had on how we Americans think about food and cook it, both professionally and at home? Consider your own personal culinary style and food preferences, too.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History
Katy Tur, 2017
HarperCollins
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062684929
Summary
Called "Disgraceful," "third-rate," and "not nice" by Donald Trump, NBC News correspondent Katy Tur reported on—and took flak from—the most captivating and volatile presidential candidate in American history.
Tur lived out of a suitcase for a year and a half, following Trump around the country, powered by packets of peanut butter and kept clean with dry shampoo. She visited forty states with the candidate, made more than 3,800 live television reports, and tried to endure a gazillion loops of Elton John’s "Tiny Dancer" —a Trump rally playlist staple.
From day 1 to day 500, Tur documented Trump’s inconsistencies, fact-checked his falsities, and called him out on his lies. In return, Trump repeatedly singled Tur out. He tried to charm her, intimidate her, and shame her. At one point, he got a crowd so riled up against Tur, Secret Service agents had to walk her to her car.
None of it worked. Facts are stubborn. So was Tur. She was part of the first women-led politics team in the history of network news. The Boys on the Bus became the Girls on the Plane. But the circus remained. Through all the long nights, wild scoops, naked chauvinism, dodgy staffers, and fevered debates, no one had a better view than Tur.
Unbelievable is her darkly comic, fascinatingly bizarre, and often scary story of how America sent a former reality show host to the White House.
It’s also the story of what it was like for Tur to be there as it happened, inside a no-rules world where reporters were spat on, demeaned, and discredited. Tur was a foreign correspondent who came home to her most foreign story of all. Unbelievable is a must-read for anyone who still wakes up and wonders, Is this real life? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 26, 1983
• Where—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—B.A., University of California-Santa Barbara
• Awards—AP Best Spot Coverage; Walter Cronkite Award
• Currently—lives in New York, New York
Katharine Bear Tur is an American author and broadcast journalist. Following her year-and-a-half-long coverage on the presidential campaign trail of Donald Trump, Tur published her memoir, Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American HIstory (2017), which almost immediately became a New York Times bestseller.
Early life and education
Tur was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of journalists Hanna Zoey Tur and Marika Gerrard. She graduated from Brentwood School in 2001 and from the University of California-Santa Barbara in 2005 with a BA, Philosophy.
Career
Tur has reported for KTLA, HD News/Cablevision, News 12 Brooklyn, WPIX-TV, and Fox 5 New York. Later on, Tur worked as a storm chaser for The Weather Channel on the network's VORTEX2 team.
In 2009, Tur joined NBC's local station in New York City, WNBC-TV, and then rose to the flagship NBC News at the national network level, becoming the network's embedded reporter for the Donald Trump presidential campaign. She was responsible for informing the Trump campaign about the Access Hollywood tape that NBC possessed.
Several times during his campaign rallies, Trump singled out Tur in his criticism of the press. At an event in Florida, Tur was booed by Trump supporters and, according to other journalists, was subjected to verbal harassment. According to Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, "[Trump] didn't mean it in any malicious way," nor did he intend for anyone to attack or harass her.
In an article for Marie Claire, Tur reflected on covering the Trump campaign and his treatment of her at campaign rallies. She expanded that account into a full-length book, Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History.
Personal life
From 2006 to 2009, Tur dated then MSNBC political commentator and sportscaster Keith Olbermann. In 2017, she became engaged to Tony Dokoupil, a correspondent at CBS News.
Awards
2009 - AP’s Best Spot News Award for coverage of the March 2008 crane collapse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan
2017 - Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism
(Author bio from Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/12/2017.)
Book Reviews
Tur's short and breezy campaign memoir is the story of how she soldiered on. It is also the familiar tale of how a relatively inexperienced woman is looked down on and underestimated, both by the candidate she covered and by her network superiors. By the end of Unbelievable it's clear how wrong they all were in thinking they could run over "Little Katy" (Trump's snide name for Tur).… Like a plucky Jean Arthur character in a '30s screwball comedy, Tur evolved into a seasoned campaign reporter and never let Trump get under her skin. Meanwhile, in between the personal blasts — and in a pattern typical of his love/hate relationship with the press — Trump granted her interviews. He hated what reporters wrote about him but he could not exist without their attention. Tur does a good job explaining the dynamics of this weird, symbiotic relationship. The more personal story Tur tells in Unbelievable is also compelling.
Jill Abramson - New York Times Book Review
A must-ride roller coaster of a memoir.… Unbelievable is best read as a reminder that it really did happen that way, we aren’t all crazy, it was that crazy.
Hugh Hewitt - Washington Post
The razor-sharp observations of Tur’s book …are the sort of thing you hear nowadays on The Daily Show or Stephen Colbert’s Late Show and never, ever, on any of the networks’ evening news broadcasts.
Guardian (UK)
A quick and enjoyable read.… The chapters switch between key points in the campaign and Election Day, enhancing the feel of chaos that must have been a big part of covering the Trump campaign.
Associated Press
Tur’s narrative is light on political analysis… [but her] brisk behind-the-scenes account …delivers on its promise: "I won’t pretend to explain it," …but "I will tell you what I saw."
Publishers Weekly
On the potholed presidential trail during 2015–16, NBC reporter Tur was routinely scorned by Republican candidate Donald Trump…. Incensed viewers responded vigorously by tweeting #imwithtur.
Library Journal
[H]er own back-of-the-envelope analyses are borne out by subsequent events, as when she writes, "Trump is crude, and in his halo of crudeness other people get to be crude as well." A thoughtful account.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Unbelievable … then take off on your own:
1. Why was Katy Tur, a self-described "political novice," chosen from the NBC press pool to cover the Donald Trump campaign?
2. Why did her bosses tell Tur the campaign stint would last "six weeks, tops." What did she begin to see and understand about the campaign and Trump's supporters that many missed? What were your own predictions when he first announced his candidacy?
3. Talk about Trump's treatment of Tur? Why did he single her out? What was his attitude toward her?
4. What revelation most surprised you in Tur's account?
5. What was life like on the press trail, physically and mentally? How would you hold up under such a grueling schedule?
6. Tur writes that "Trump is crude, and in his halo of crudeness other people get to be crude as well." What does she mean by that observation?
7. Has this book changed or confirmed your attitude toward the media? Have you come away with a different attitude or new understanding of the media's role in political coverage?
8. How would you describe both candidate and President Donald Trump's relationship with the media?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
What Happened
Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2017
Simon & Schuster
504 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501175565
Summary
In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I’ve often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I’m letting my guard down.” —Hillary Rodham Clinton, from the introduction of What Happened
For the first time, Hillary Rodham Clinton reveals what she was thinking and feeling during one of the most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections in history.
Now free from the constraints of running, Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules. This is her most personal memoir yet.
In these pages, she describes what it was like to run against Donald Trump, the mistakes she made, how she has coped with a shocking and devastating loss, and how she found the strength to pick herself back up afterward.
With humor and candor, she tells readers what it took to get back on her feet — the rituals, relationships, and reading that got her through, and what the experience has taught her about life. She speaks about the challenges of being a strong woman in the public eye, the criticism over her voice, age, and appearance, and the double standard confronting women in politics.
She lays out how the 2016 election was marked by an unprecedented assault on our democracy by a foreign adversary. By analyzing the evidence and connecting the dots, Hillary shows just how dangerous the forces are that shaped the outcome, and why Americans need to understand them to protect our values and our democracy in the future.
The election of 2016 was unprecedented and historic. What Happened is the story of that campaign and its aftermath — both a deeply intimate account and a cautionary tale for the nation. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 26, 1947
• Where—Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Education—B.A., Wellesley College; J.D., Yale University
• Currently—lives in Chappaqua, New York
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician who was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, U.S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, and the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election. Her account of that 2016 presidential campaign is the subject of What Happened (2017).
Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Clinton graduated from Wellesley College in 1969 and earned a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1973. After serving as a congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas and married Bill Clinton in 1975.
In 1977, she co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. She was appointed the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation in 1978 and became the first female partner at Rose Law Firm the following year. As First Lady of Arkansas, she led a task force whose recommendations helped reform Arkansas's public schools.
As First Lady of the United States, Clinton was an advocate for gender equality and healthcare reform. Her marital relationship came under public scrutiny during the Lewinsky scandal, which led to her issuing a statement reaffirming her commitment to the marriage.
In 2000, Clinton was elected as the first female Senator from New York. She was re-elected to the Senate in 2006. Running for president in 2008, she won far more delegates than any previous female candidate, but lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama.
As Secretary of State in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013, Clinton responded to the Arab Spring, during which she advocated the U.S. military intervention in Libya. She helped organize a diplomatic isolation and international sanctions regime against Iran, in an effort to force curtailment of that country's nuclear program; this would eventually lead to the multinational Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement in 2015.
Leaving office after Obama's first term, she wrote her fifth book, Hard Choices: A Memoir (2014) and undertook speaking engagements.
Clinton made a second presidential run in 2016, accepting her party's nomination for president on July 28, 2016, thus becoming the first female candidate to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. Her vice presidential running mate was Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. Despite winning the national popular vote by three million votes, Clinton lost the electoral college vote and presidency to her Republican opponent Donald Trump. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 10/12/2017.)
Book Reviews
What Happened is not one book, but many. It is a candid and blackly funny account of her mood in the direct aftermath of losing to Donald J. Trump. It is a post-mortem, in which she is both coroner and corpse. It is a feminist manifesto. It is a score-settling jubilee…. It is worth reading.
New York Times
What Happened is a raw and bracing book, a guide to our political arena.
Washington Post
The most useful way to read What Happened is as one last instance of Clinton doing what she calls her civic duty.
Los Angeles Times
Contains…insights into Ms. Clinton’s personality, character, and values, and the challenges confronting women in politics.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The writing in What Happened is engaging — Clinton is charming and even funny at times, without trying to paint herself in too flattering of a light…. Ultimately, the book might be a historical artifact most of all — the chronicling of what, exactly, it was like to run for president as the first woman major-party candidate (and, yes, a Clinton as well). Plenty may disagree with Clinton’s opinions on what went wrong for her, but her story will still be an important part of that history when America looks back on the melee that was the 2016 election.
NPR
An engaging, beautifully synthesized page-turner.
Slate
In What Happened, the former Secretary of State reflects on her failed presidential campaign, reflecting on her concerns about the direction President Trump is taking the country and how she handled her loss.… Clinton peppers the book with references to books that she thinks help explain Trump's rise and how America should respond to it as well as poems, novels and essays that inspired her and helped her cope with her loss
Time
Here is Clinton at her most emotionally raw.… While What Happened records the perspective of a pioneer who beat an unprecedented path that stopped just shy of the White House, it also covers territory that many women will recognize.… She demonstrates that she can mine her situation for humor.
People
What Happened is not a standard work of this genre. It’s interesting; it’s worth reading; and it sets out questions that the press, in particular, has not done enough to face.
Atlantic
[Clinton] indicts everyone responsible for her stunning defeat in this rancorous memoir.… [H]er sense of entitlement clouds her analysis, and …[t]he lack of serious reflection…makes the book a telling epitaph for Clinton's campaign.
Publishers Weekly
Clinton…[is] eagle-eyed about her faults and clearly recognizes where her statements and actions (deplorables, anyone?) worked against her.… Clinton brings much-needed perspective… [as to] what happened and why. — Ilene Cooper
Booklist
Gracious, sometimes-wonkish post-mortem of the last presidential election.… A touch too reserved and polite…. Still, a useful book to read — and, for many, to mourn over.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for What Happened … then take off on your own:
1. Well, what did happen? To what does Clinton attribute her 2016 electoral college loss? What factors were beyond her control? What mistakes does she accept responsibility for? At whom or what does she point a finger?
2. Some reviewers say that, in her book, Clinton refuses to accept responsibiity for her own missteps. Other reviewers say she is gracious and self-effacing in taking much of the blame. What do you think: does she level blame at others …or accept the role she played in her loss?
3. Is Clinton "letting [her] guard down" as she claims she does in this book? Do you feel she goes inward in order to reveal aspects of her true self? Or does she put up a screen? In other words, how open and frank is Clinton in this account?
4. Follow-up to Question 3: At one point, Clinton says, "I wear my composure like a suit of armor—for better or for worse" Good thing? Bad thing? What actually does she mean?
5. How would you describe Senator Bernie Sanders' role in the campaign and in Clinton's ultimate loss? How does Clinton describe his role?
6. How does Clinton assess her West Virginia missteps? Talk about her insights into why so many of the coal miners seem to have voted against their own economic interests? Do you think Clinton is correct …or at least close?
7. Be sure to talk about the email imbroglio, then-FBI-director James Comey's actions, and Russian interference.
8. What are some of the lessons on the campaign trail Clinton says she learned from Donald Trump — lessons she feels can be applied in predicting the kind of President he will make (has made, is making)? How accurate or inaccurate do you think her predictions have been so far?
9. What do you think of Hillary Rodham Clinton? Does this book confirm or alter your views of her?
10. How does Clinton say she consoled herself after losing?
11. What role did feminism and antifeminism play in the election?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Unknown Valor: A Story of Family, Courage, and Sacrifice from Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima
Martha MacCallum, with Ronald J. Drez, 2020
HarperCollins
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062853851
Summary
In honor of the 75th Anniversary of one of the most critical battles of World War II, Martha MacCallum pays tribute to the heroic men who sacrificed everything at Iwo Jima to defeat the Armed Forces of Emperor Hirohito—among them, a member of her own family, Harry Gray.
Admiral Chester Nimitz spoke of the "uncommon valor" of the men who fought on Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest and most brutal battles of World War II. In thirty-six grueling days, nearly 7,000 Marines were killed and 22,000 were wounded.
Martha MacCallum takes us from Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima through the lives of these men of valor, among them Harry Gray, a member of her own family.
In Unknown Valor, she weaves their stories—from Boston, Massachusetts, to Gulfport, Mississippi, as told through letters and recollections—into the larger history of what American military leaders rightly saw as an eventual showdown in the Pacific with Japan.
In a relentless push through the jungles of Guadalcanal, over the coral reefs of Tarawa, past the bloody ridge of Peleliu, against the banzai charges of Guam, and to the cliffs of Saipan, these men were on a path that ultimately led to the black sands of Iwo Jima, the doorstep of the Japanese Empire.
Meticulously researched, heart-wrenching, and illuminating, Unknown Valor reveals the sacrifices of ordinary Marines who saved the world from tyranny and left indelible marks on those back home who loved them. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Martha MacCallum is anchor and executive editor of The Story with Martha MacCallum, seen Monday through Friday on Fox News. She is also co-anchor of Fox News election coverage, moderating town halls and debates with the presidential candidates, alongside Bret Baier and Chris Wallace.
Prior to becoming anchor of The Story, MacCallum anchored, "The First 100 Days," reporting nightly on the first months of the Trump administration and interviewing the President on his 100th Day. She has covered presidential and mid-term elections for Fox News since 2004, as well as extensive reporting from the field on the primary races across the country.
MacCallum has reported from Normandy, France during the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, and from Iwo Jima’s "Reunion of Honor." Prior to Fox News, MacCallum was an award winning reporter for CNBC, covering homeland security and the US economy, and a reporter/producer for Wall Street Journal Television. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Martha MacCallum has written a magnificent history, at once a sweeping and fresh account of one of the most dramatic chapters in our past—and an intimate portrait of all that’s best and most heroic in the American spirit
Sohrab Ahmari
Martha is magnificent and so is this book. This is a story of love and military battle told with clarity and heart.
Peggy Noonan
If you want your faith in America restored, you simply must read this book.
Marc Thiessen
Martha MacCallum has written a wonderful book on the bravery and sacrifices of those who "island-hopped" from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima. Part family memoir, part personal history of small-town America at war, and part chronicle of Marine amphibious landings from 1942 to 1945, Unknown Valor is a beautifully written and stirring reminder to present generations that much of what we now take for granted was given to us by the sacrifices of those whom we must never forget.
Victor Davis Hanson
Unknown Valor is at once so gripping and moving about the war in the Pacific that I lost several nights sleep, refusing to go to bed until I’d read it all. The book blends fascinating details of Martha MacCallum's family’s personal story and sacrifice, and the touching moments of hope and family life add a special flavor to the story. Even though we all know how the war ends, what we gain from the book is a deeper appreciation for the scope and scale of the patriotism, dreams, and heartache that lived on. Unknown Valor is a triumph.
Dana Perino
Martha MacCallum’s Unknown Valor is an elegantly written and deeply researched history of how the U.S. Army and Marines won the Pacific theater island-hopping campaign in the Second World War. The sheer heroism of these American fighters on the battlefield is staggering. Every page soars with gritty realism and patriotic perseverance. A powerful saga about the greatest generation!
Douglas Brinkley
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for UNKNOWN VALOR … then take off on your own:
1. Most of what most of us know about World War II centers on the European theater of operations, especially D-Day. How familiar were you, before reading Unknown Valor, with the brutal battles fought in the Pacific? Why is our understanding, even historical interest, centered so heavily on Europe as opposed to the Pacific?
2. What did you find most surprising about Martha MacCallum's account? What was most heart- or gut-wrenching about the island battles?
3. Discuss some of the harrowing examples of heroism on the battlefield. Is it possible for you to imagine yourself on any one of the beaches or jungles? Had you lived through it, how do you think you might have fared?
4. How does Martha MacCullum's own family history color her telling, and your reading, of Unknown Valor?
5. Which of the letters and personal recollections did you find most moving or most memorable?
6. Do you have a personal connection with the Pacific war—anyone in your family, or a friend of your family, who served? Have those marines or their family members ever opened up to you about their experiences? What about the parents, siblings, and spouses left back home—have any shared their recollections, their worries and fears about the dangers faced by the men they loived?
7. To gain an eye-opening, visual sense of the Pacific war, consider spending part of your meeting watching the Japanese episodes in Ken Burns's War, his 2007 series on World War II.
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)