Madam Secretary

This was a fascinating look at a very interesting, empowered and powerful woman, and I enjoyed it a lot! It included some of the political cartoons that ran during Albright's tenure as Secretary of State, and that was really fun; also included several sections of photographs.

I was a kid in the '90s, so a lot of the names of world leaders and cultural moments that were talked about in this book in-depth were things that I remember being in the fringes of my middle-school brainspace - stuff that was on the news or that my parents talked about - but that I was too young to have broader context for, at the time. I'm glad I got to revisit this time and look at it again from a leadership perspective.

And damn I learned a lot about the U.S. government. I had no idea we were this involved when it comes to brokering peace between other countries, though I know that if other parts of the world are having problems, it also affects us... but I had never seen it like this. (Matt said this morning, “the U.S. is involved in everything, for better or worse, but you also don't always know if it's going to be better or worse until it's over.” Truth.) And truthfully, I didn't even really know what the Secretary of State's job was before I read this, and I don't even remember why I added it to my TBR a few years ago. But I'm glad I did. (Edit: Oh. Right. ... It was November 2016.)

It did get a little bogged down in describing negotiations in some of the later chapters, and it took me a while to get through it, but it was all good, and Albright writes clearly and effectively.