Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward

In this insightful political insider memoir, Jarrett, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, tells of her career in the government. Raised in a prominent black family in 1960s Chicago, Jarrett graduated from Stanford and the University of Michigan Law School, and returned home to work in private practice. Realizing that public service was her calling, Jarrett took a job in the office of Mayor Harold Washington (“the chance to work with incredibly talented public servants gave me a purpose and satisfaction I’d never felt before”). As Mayor Richard Daley’s deputy chief of staff in 1989, Jarrett hired Michelle Robinson, fiancée of Barack Obama, and the three forged a close-knit friendship; Jarrett later agreed to chair Obama’s Senate race finance committee and to be an advisor for his presidential bid. After Obama’s election, she became his senior adviser and writes proudly about how satisfying it was to have been part of an administration that addressed such issues as health care and passed a bill to allow “openly gay men and women in the military.” Along the way, she includes such memorable moments as when a speechless Michael Jordan learned he would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Jarrett movingly captures life as a public servant in this detailed, well-told memoir (Apr.)