Abby Phillip’s 'A Dream Deferred' chronicles Jesse Jackson’s rise to political esteem

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis examines the spiritual and social decline of the Appalachian white working class through the life story of its author, JD Vance. Growing up in a post-industrial Ohio town, Vance encountered the symptoms of community and familial dysfunction—drug and alcohol abuse, unstable marriages, lack of education, and evasion of hard work—that underscore the failing values of the culture from which he came.

Although Vance eventually escapes the poverty and dysfunction of his roots, attending college and Yale Law School, he finds that even economic mobility can never permanently erase the social markers of his hillbilly upbringing.

Mental health disorders affect millions of people and often lead to the tragic loss of life through suicide. The pain and suffering that accompany mental illness are difficult for those unafflicted to understand. Kay Redfield Jamison, a clinical psychologist living with manic-depressive disorder, has attempted to bring awareness to those experiences in her memoir. By divulging the violent, frenzied, and dangerous aspects of her disease, Jamison hopes to create more understanding about mental illness and more empathy for those who struggle to exist in the normal world.

Before becoming the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson was a little girl whose parents taught her she could achieve anything despite living in a world that might question her belonging. In Lovely One, Jackson reveals how a strong sense of identity, perseverance, supportive communities, and commitment to making justice accessible propelled her from Miami to Harvard to the nation’s highest court.

Jackson’s journey offers powerful lessons for anyone navigating challenging environments while staying true to themselves. How do you build resilience when facing obstacles? Where do you find community when you’re “the only one” in the room? How do you balance ambition with personal values? Through Jackson’s experiences—from confronting imposter syndrome at Harvard to balancing a high-powered legal career with raising a neurodiverse child—readers gain insights for facing their own challenges with authenticity and purpose and creating success on their own terms.

A Promised Land is Barack Obama’s memoir of his early political career and the first two years of his presidency. Obama takes us on his journey from relative obscurity as a biracial kid from Hawaii to becoming a transformative figure as the nation’s first African-American president. At every step of his career, Obama was guided by a deep faith in the fundamental unity of Americans; the potential and promise of America; the necessity of compromise and seeking common ground; and above all, the power of the democratic system to heal our divisions and effect real change for ordinary people.

Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming delivers candid reflections on the life of the first African-American first lady. Offering a window into her personal evolution, Michelle details how ambition, hard work, and embracing her authentic story helped her journey from her family’s Chicago working-class neighborhood to a 47th-floor law office, then to the White House and beyond.

Becoming provides insights into Michelle’s self-determination: She pushed herself to excel in Ivy League classrooms and achieve a prestigious career by age 26, then mustered the courage to swerve off that path in search of greater fulfillment. It details her relationship with Barack—a love story of two opposites—and their challenging quest to navigate family and political life. Through it all, we witness a woman who perpetually strives to become a better version of herself.

Before becoming the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson was a little girl whose parents taught her she could achieve anything despite living in a world that might question her belonging. In Lovely One, Jackson reveals how a strong sense of identity, perseverance, supportive communities, and commitment to making justice accessible propelled her from Miami to Harvard to the nation’s highest court.

Jackson’s journey offers powerful lessons for anyone navigating challenging environments while staying true to themselves. How do you build resilience when facing obstacles? Where do you find community when you’re “the only one” in the room? How do you balance ambition with personal values? Through Jackson’s experiences—from confronting imposter syndrome at Harvard to balancing a high-powered legal career with raising a neurodiverse child—readers gain insights for facing their own challenges with authenticity and purpose and creating success on their own terms.

From revolution to recession, scandal to triumph, America’s presidents have shaped the nation’s story in ways both inspiring and contentious. In Confronting the Presidents, journalists Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard pull back the curtain on the personal struggles and political gambits of every US president—revealing the human flaws and fierce convictions behind the Oval Office.

Our guide to Confronting the Presidents focuses on ten presidents that O’Reilly and Dugard suggest were particularly influential or controversial: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. These presidents come from different eras of American history, representing a broad overview of the nation’s biggest challenges and the leaders who navigated them. Through our commentary, we’ll provide additional context around their decisions and legacies.

Jimmy Carter isn’t remembered as a great president, but he’s come to be revered for his work as a humanitarian. However, in His Very Best, biographer Jonathan Alter presents a fresh perspective on the groundbreaking work Carter did in Washington. Instead of focusing on the hardships America suffered during Carter’s time in office, Alter draws attention to the long-term effects of what Carter accomplished while president. Alter paints Carter as deeply principled yet politically short-sighted in a way that let him achieve great things while undermining his legacy.

In this guide, we’ll show how Carter’s early life shaped his political career and his journey to the presidency. We’ll look at the various roles he’s played—politician, reformer, diplomat, and global humanitarian. We’ll also explore the political context that shaped Carter’s years in the White House, as well as the conflict between Carter’s values and the compromises required of anyone in high office.