Condoleezza Rice memoir hitting bookstores in November

by Special Correspondent
August 26, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1706/condoleezza-rice-memoir-hitting-bookstores-in

Secretary of State in the President George W. Bush's second term, Condoleezza Rice is now set to publish her book named "Not Higher Honor" in November 2011. The book will be published by Crown.

"No Higher Honor" is Rice's first memoir of her life in politics; she is also the author of "Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family," which was a bestseller. She is an accomplished pianist and has appeared, as herself, on television's "30 Rock."

In a news release, Crown says that Rice's book "describes the harrowing terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and chronicles her experience of appearing before the 9/11 Commission, for which she was broadly saluted for her grace and forthrightness. She also reveals new details about the contentious debates in the lead-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."

"No Higher Honor" follows her memoir effort last year that focused on her upbringing and personal life. The new book will give insights on her former roles as national security advisor and secretary of state under former President George W. Bush, Crown Publishers said.

It also promises to give fresh perspectives on "the behind-the-scenes manoeuvres that kept the world's relationships with Iran, North Korea, and Libya from collapsing into chaos," Crown added.

What critics say about this book?

The book is full of "raw vignettes" showing "a child's pain that has endured unhealed in middle age," says Tunku Varadarajan in The Wall Street Journal.

He said: "For instance, Rice recounts how, to celebrate the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, her parents took her to a Birmingham, Ala., hamburger stand where blacks had previously not been allowed. But after biting into her burger, Rice discovered she had been given a bun cruelly filled with nothing but onions."

In the Los Angeles Times, Bob Drogin calls it "disappointing" and says parts "read like a résumé." By contrast, The Daily Beast's Stephen L. Carter describes it "a briskly written... fascinating look into her childhood." But, everyone agrees that the book, which focuses on Rice's parents and her growing up in the Jim Crow South and ends with the 2000 election, provides at least some insight into George W. Bush's famously enigmatic former Secretary of State.

Whatever critics may say, it is rightly anticipated that, this book will be another bestseller, which will not only be sold in a large volume in United States and the West, but also in most of the countries in the world.

Biography of Condoleezza Rice:

Before entering the administration, Rice was provost at Stanford. Rice headed Chevron's committee on public policy until she resigned on January 15, 2001, to become National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush. Chevron, for unspecified reasons, honored Rice by naming an oil tanker Condoleezza Rice after her, but controversy led to its being renamed Altair Voyager.

She also served on the board of directors for the Carnegie Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the Chevron Corporation, Hewlett Packard, the Rand Corporation, the Transamerica Corporation, and other organizations.

In 1992, Rice founded the Center for New Generation, an after-school program created to raise the high school graduation numbers of East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park, California. After her tenure as secretary of state, Rice was approached in February 2009 to fill an open position as a Pac-10 Commissioner, but chose instead to return to Stanford University as a political science professor and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution.

Condoleezza Rice [born November 14, 1954] is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush. Rice was the first African-American woman secretary of state, as well as the second African American [after Colin Powell], and the second woman [after Madeleine Albright]. Rice was President Bush's National Security Advisor during his first term, making her the first woman to serve in that position. Before joining the Bush administration, she was a professor of political science at Stanford University where she served as Provost from 1993 to 1999. Rice also served on the National Security Council as the Soviet and East European Affairs Advisor to President George H.W. Bush during the dissolution of the Soviet Union and German reunification.

Following her confirmation as Secretary of State, Rice pioneered a policy of Transformational Diplomacy, with a focus on democracy in the greater Middle East. Her emphasis on supporting democratically elected governments faced challenges as Hamas captured a popular majority in Palestinian elections, and influential countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt maintained authoritarian systems with U.S. support. While Secretary of State, she chaired the Millennium Challenge Corporation's board of directors.

In March 2009, Rice returned to Stanford University as a political science professor and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution. In September 2010, Rice became a faculty member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a director of its Global Center for Business and the Economy.

Condoleezza Rice has never married and has no children. Her mother, Angelena Rice, died of breast cancer in August 1985, aged 61. In July 1989, Condoleezza's father, John Wesley Rice died, aged 77. He was a football and basketball coach throughout his life.

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