The Truths We Hold - Wikipedia

The Truths We Hold - Wikipedia

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The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

Author Kamala Harris
Language English
Genre Memoir
Publisher Penguin Books

Publication date January 8, 2019
Publication place United States
Pages 336

Preceded by Superheroes Are Everywhere


The Truths We Hold: An American Journey is a memoir by Kamala Harris.

 The book was first published by Penguin Books on January 8, 2019.[1] A young readers edition was published by Philomel Books on May 7, 2019.[2]

Contents[edit]

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris details her life as the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India. She was born in Oakland, California, and raised in West Berkeley.[1][3] She describes her childhood neighborhood as "a close-knit neighborhood of working families who were focused on doing a good job, paying the bills, and being there for one another."[4]

Harris would eventually become the San Francisco district attorney in 2004. Her decision to become a prosecutor was so she could serve "the victims of crimes committed and the victims of a broken criminal justice system." Understanding this dichotomy, Harris describes herself as a progressive prosecutor. 

She elaborates:[5]

It is to understand that when a person takes another’s life, or a child is molested, or a woman raped, the perpetrators deserve severe consequences. That is one imperative of justice. But it is also to understand that fairness is in short supply in a justice system that is supposed to guarantee it. The job of a progressive prosecutor is to look out for the overlooked, to speak up for those whose voices aren’t being heard, to see and address the causes of crime, not just their consequences, and to shine a light on the inequality and unfairness that lead to injustice. It is to recognize that not everyone needs punishment, that what many need, quite plainly, is help.

The book continues on through her time as California Attorney General, her face-off against fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 U.S. Senate election, and ends with her touting her fights against the Trump administration.[4]

Reception[edit]

Kirkus Reviews compared the book favorably to Barack Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father.[6]

Other contemporary reviews were more mixed. Also comparing the book to Obama's follow-up memoir The Audacity of Hope, Hannah Giorgis of The Atlantic said Harris lacked Obama's literary finesse for both biography and political vision.[5] Similarly, Danielle Kurtzleben of NPR criticized the awkward prose and lack of strong anecdotes. One such instance: Harris's brief mention of initially struggling to pass the bar exam could have been expanded into a more interesting narrative about perseverance.[4] However, both reviewers agreed that the book served as a sufficient launching point for a potential presidential campaign.[5][4] Indeed, Harris announced her 2020 presidential campaign later that January.[7]

In a retrospective review, Carlos Lozada of The Washington Post echoed similar sentiments, while noting that Harris's kind words about the late Beau Biden (whose tenure as Delaware Attorney General overlapped with Harris's tenure in California) was a likely factor in Joe Biden's decision to select her as his 2020 campaign running mate.[8]

References[edit]

^ Jump up to:a b Harris, Kamala (2019). The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. Penguin. ISBN 978-0525560715.
^ Harris, Kamala (2019). The Truths We Hold: An American Journey (Young Readers ed.). Penguin. ISBN 978-1984837066.
^ Orenstein, Natalie (January 24, 2019). "Did Kamala Harris' Berkeley childhood shape the presidential hopeful? Long before she was a 2020 presidential contender, Kamala Harris was a resident of the Berkeley flats and a student at Thousand Oaks". Berkeleyside. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
^ Jump up to:a b c d Kurtzleben, Danielle (January 8, 2019). "Kamala Harris' 'The Truths We Hold' Demonstrates What's Wrong With Campaign Books". NPR. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
^ Jump up to:a b c Giorgis, Hannah (January 11, 2019). "Kamala Harris's Political Memoir Is an Uneasy Fit for the Digital Era". The Atlantic. Retrieved August 27, 2020.
^ THE TRUTHS WE HOLD | Kirkus Reviews.
^ Reston, Maeve (January 21, 2019). "Kamala Harris to run for president in 2020". CNN. Archived from the original on January 21, 2019. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
^ Lozada, Carlos (August 14, 2020). "In her memoir, Kamala Harris calls for social change, but plays the inside game". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 28, 2020.

External links[edit]Book interview with Jonathan Capehart at George Washington University (January 9, 2019)
===

우리의 진실 아메리칸 저니
4개의 언어 버전

출처 : 무료 백과 사전 "Wikipedia (Wikipedia)"


우리의 진실 아메리칸 저니The Truths We
Hold: An American Journey
저자 카말라 해리스
역자 후지타 미나코
안도 타카코
발행일 2019년 1월 8일
2021년 6월 15일
게시자 펭귄 북스 코 분샤

장르 회상록
국가 미국
언어 영어
페이지 수 336334
​
전작 모두 슈퍼 히어로
코드 ISBN 978-0525560715
ISBN 978-4334962487 (일본어)

위키포털 미국
위키 포털 정치학

[ 위키 데이터 항목 편집 ]

템플릿 보기


' 우리 의 진실 아메리칸 저니'(우리의 신지 아메리칸 저니, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey )는 카말라 해리스 의 회상록이다. 2019년 1월 8일에 펭귄 북스로부터 출판되었다 [ 1 ] . 또 2019년 5월 7일에는 필로멜·북스 ( 영어판 )보다 젊은이용판도 출판 되었다 [ 2 ] .

내용[ 편집 ]

미국 부대통령의 카말라 해리스는 자메이카 ( 영어판 ) 와 인도 ( 영어판 ) 의 이민 딸이다. 그녀는 캘리포니아 주 오클랜드 에서 태어나 웨스트 버클리 ( 영어판 ) 에서 자랐다 [ 1 ] [ 3 ] . 어린 시절을 보낸 지역에 대해 그녀는 "주민들은 열심히 일을 하고 생활비를 벌어 서로를 지지하고 있었다"고 되돌아보고 있다 [ 4 ] [ 5 ] .

해리스는 2004년 샌프란시스코 지방 검사 ( 영어판 ) 에 취임했다. 그녀가 검찰관이 되기로 결의한 것은, 「범죄의 피해자, 그리고 망가진 형사 사법 제도의 피해자」에 다가가기 위해서였다 [ 6 ] . 이 이면성을 이해한 후 해리스는 스스로를 진보적 검찰관이라고 표현하고 있다. 그녀는 다음과 같이 말한다 : [ 7 ]
사람의 생명이 빼앗기면 아이가 성적 학대를 받으면 여성이 강간당하면 가해자에게는 무거운 책임을 지고 당연하다. 그것이 사법제도가 해야 할 하나의 의무이다. 하지만 그것뿐만 아니라 공평성이 그것을 보장해야 하는 사법제도에 있어서 충분히 유지되지 않은 것도 자각해야 하는 것이다. 혁신적인 검찰관의 임무는 간과된 사람을 찾아내고, 목소리를 낼 수 없는 사람을 위해 입을 열고, 범죄의 결과뿐만 아니라 그 원인에 눈을 돌려 대처하고, 부당한 취급에 이어지는 불평등과 불공평하게 빛을 비추는 것이다. 모든 사람에게 처벌이 필요하지는 않지만 많은 사람들에게 필요한 것은 엉뚱한 도움이된다는 것을 깨닫는 것입니다 [ 8 ] .

이 책은 캘리포니아 주 사법 장관 시절, 2016 년 연방 상원 의원 선거 에서 동일한 민주당 후보인 로레타 산체스 ( 영어판 ) 와의 대결, 그리고 트럼프 정권 과의 싸움을 기록한 곳에서 끝났다 . ] .

평가[ 편집 ]

『카커스·리뷰즈 ( 영어판 )』는 본서를 버락 오바마 의 회상록 『마이 드림 버락 오바마 자전 ( 영어판 )』과 자주 호의적으로 비교했다. 마찬가지로 ' 라이브러리 저널 ( 영어판 ) '은 해리스가 “자신의 삶의 이야기를 사용하여 우리의 문제를 다루는 새로운 방법을 주장하고 있다”고 칭찬했다 [ 9 ] .

'아틀란틱 '의 한나 조지스는 오바마의 또 다른 회상록 '미국 재생' 과 비교해 해리스는 전기와 정치적 비전 모두에서 오바마의 문학적 센스가 부족하다고 말했다 [ 7 ] . 마찬가지로 NPR 의 다니엘 카츠 레벤은 어색한 문장과 강한 일화의 부족을 비판했다. 예를 들어, 그는 사법 시험 합격에 어려움을 겪었다는 해리스의 짧은 설명은 인내에 대한 더 흥미로운 이야기로 부풀릴 수 있었을 것이라고 지적했다 [ 4 ] . 그러나 양측 모두이 책이 잠재적 대선을위한 충분한 출발점으로 작용한다는 데 동의했다 [ 7 ] [ 4 ] . 해리스는 1월 후반에 2020년 대통령 선거운동 ( 영어판 ) 을 고지했다 [ 10 ] .

' 워싱턴 포스트 '의 카를로스 로사다 ( 영어판 ) 는 비슷한 평가를 말함과 동시에 해리스의 캘리포니아 주 사법장관 시대와 같은 시기에 델라웨어 주 사법 장관 ( 영어판 ) 을 맡아 출판 시 이미 고인이다. 보 바이덴 에 접하고 있던 것이 조 바이덴 이 그녀를 2020년 선거 운동 의 러닝 메이트에 선출한 요인이 될 것이라고 지적했다 [ 11 ] .

일본어판[ 편집 ]카말라 해리스 저 , 후지타 미나코 , 안도 타카코역『우리의 진실 아메리칸 저니』 코분샤 , 2021년 6월 16일. ISBN 978-4334962487 .

참고문헌[ 편집 ]
↑ a b Harris, Kamala (2019). The Truths We Hold: An American Journey . Penguin. ISBN 978-0525560715
↑ Harris, Kamala (2019). The Truths We Hold: An American Journey (Young Readers ed.). Penguin. ISBN 978-1984837066
↑ Orenstein, Natalie (January 24, 2019). “ Did Kamala Harris' Berkeley childhood shape the presidential hopeful? Long before she was a 2020 presidential contender, Kamala Harris was a resident of the Berkeley flats and a student at Thousand Berkeleyside August 12, 2020 보기.
^ a b c d Kurtzleben, Danielle (January 8, 2019). “ Kamala Harris' 'The Truths We Hold' Demonstrates What's Wrong With Campaign Books ”. NPR . August 27, 2020 보기.
↑ 일본어판 p.24
↑ 일본어판 p.69
^ a b c Giorgis, Hannah (January 11, 2019). “ Kamala Harris's Political Memoir Is an Uneasy Fit for the Digital Era ”. The Atlantic . August 27, 2020 보기.
↑ 일본어판 p.69-70
↑ “ The Truths We Hold: An American Journey ”. Barnes & Noble . August 27, 2020 보기.
↑ Reston, Maeve (January 21, 2019). “Kamala Harris to run for president in 2020” . CNN . 원래 January 21, 2019 시점의 아카이브. January 21, 2019 보기.
↑ Lozada, Carlos (August 14, 2020). “In her memoir, Kamala Harris calls for social change, but plays the inside game” . The Washington Post August 28, 2020 보기.

외부 링크[ 편집 ]공식 웹사이트 (일본어)
Book interview with Jonathan Capehart at George Washington University (January 9, 2019)
카테고리 :2019년 도서
미국 논픽션 서적
미국 정치서
회상록
카말라 해리스
펭귄 북스 출판물
===
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The Truths We Hold: An American Journey Hardcover – January 8, 2019
by Kamala Harris (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 7,382 ratings
4.0 on Goodreads 28,370 ratings



The #1 New York Times bestseller

From Vice President Kamala Harris, one of America's most inspiring political leaders, comes a book about the core truths that unite us and how best to act upon them.

"A life story that genuinely entrances." —Los Angeles Times

“An engaging read that provides insights into the influences of [Harris’s] life...Revealing and even endearing.” —San Francisco Chronicle

The daughter of immigrants and civil rights activists, Vice President Kamala Harris was raised in an Oakland, California, community that cared deeply about social justice. As she rose to prominence as one of the political leaders of our time, her experiences would become her guiding light as she grappled with an array of complex issues and learned to bring a voice to the voiceless.

In The Truths We Hold, she reckons with the big challenges we face together. Drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values as we confront the great work of our day.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Its most memorable moments are those personal touches: Harris’s recollections of family, friendships and, above all, of her late mother, an Indian immigrant and cancer researcher who raised Harris and her younger sister. . . . instructive for anyone trying to imagine a Vice President Harris.”
— Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post


"A life story that genuinely entrances." — Los Angeles Times


“An engaging read that provides insights into the influences of Harris’s life.” — San Francisco Chronicle


“In an era when many of our current political memoirs are either looking back at the Obama years or are attempting to grapple with our current state of government unrest, it is exciting to see a highly respected and powerful woman of color and daughter of immigrants tell her own story and offer some hope for the future of our country.” — Bustle


About the Author

Kamala D. Harris is the vice president of the United States of America. She began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, then was elected district attorney of San Francisco. As California's attorney general, Harris prosecuted transnational gangs, big banks, big oil, and for-profit colleges, and fought against attacks on the Affordable Care Act. She also fought to reduce elementary school truancy, pioneered the nation's first open data initiative to expose racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and implemented implicit bias training for police officers. The second Black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate and the first female, first Black, and first Indian-American vice president, Harris has worked to reform our criminal justice system, raise the minimum wage, make higher education tuition-free for the majority of Americans, and protect the legal rights of refugees and immigrants.

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Most mornings, my husband, Doug, wakes up before me and reads the news in bed. If I hear him making noises—a sigh, a groan, a gasp—I know what kind of day it’s going to be.


November 8, 2016, had started well—the last day of my campaign for the U.S. Senate. I spent the day meeting as many more voters as I could, and of course cast a vote myself at a neighborhood school up the street from our house. We were feeling pretty good. We had rented a huge place for my Election Night party, with a balloon drop waiting to go. But first I was going out for dinner with family and close friends—a tradition dating back to my first campaign. People had flown in from all across the country, even overseas, to be with us—my aunts and cousins, my in-laws, my sister’s in-laws, and more, all gathered for what we hoped would be a very special night.



I was staring out the car window, reflecting on how far we’d come, when I heard one of Doug’s signature groans.
“You gotta look at this,” he said, handing me his phone. Early results for the presidential election were coming in. Something was happening—something bad. By the time we arrived at the restaurant, the gap between the two candidates had shrunk considerably, and I was inwardly groaning as well. The New York Times’ probability meter was suggesting it was going to be a long, dark night.
We settled in for a meal in a small room off the main restaurant. Emotions and adrenaline were running high, but not for the reasons we had anticipated. On the one hand, while polls hadn’t yet closed in California, we were optimistic that I was going to win. Yet even as we prepared for that hard-earned celebration, all eyes were on our screens as state after state came back with numbers that told a trou- bling story.
At a certain point, my nine-year-old godson, Alexander, came up to me with big tears welling in his eyes. I assumed one of the other kids in our group had been teasing him about something.
“Come here, little man. What’s wrong?”
Alexander looked up and locked eyes with mine. His voice was trembling. “Auntie Kamala, that man can’t win. He’s not going to win, is he?” Alexander’s worry broke my heart. I didn’t want anyone mak- ing a child feel that way. Eight years earlier, many of us had cried tears of joy when Barack Obama was elected president. And now, to see Alexander’s fear . . .
His father, Reggie, and I took him outside to try to console him. “Alexander, you know how sometimes superheroes are facing a big
challenge because a villain is coming for them? What do they do when that happens?”



“They fight back,” he whimpered.
“That’s right. And they fight back with emotion, because all the best superheroes have big emotions just like you. But they always fight back, right? So that’s what we’re going to do.”
Shortly after, the Associated Press called my race. We were still at the restaurant.
“I can’t thank you all enough for being with me every step of the way all the time, all the time,” I told my incredibly loving and sup- portive family and friends. “It means so much to me.” I was over- whelmed with gratitude, both for the people in that room and the people I had lost along the way, especially my mother. I tried to savor the moment, and I did, if briefly. But, like everyone else, I soon turned my eyes back to the television.
After dinner, we headed to our Election Night venue, where more than a thousand people had gathered for the party. I was no longer a candidate for office. I was a U.S. senator-elect—the first black woman from my state, and the second in the nation’s history, to earn that job. I had been elected to represent more than thirty-nine million people—roughly one out of every eight Americans from all back- grounds and walks of life. It was—and is—a humbling and extraor- dinary honor.
My team clapped and cheered as I joined them in the greenroom behind the stage. It all still felt more than a little surreal. None of us had fully processed what was happening. They formed a circle around me as I thanked them for everything they’d done. We were a family, too, and we had been through an incredible journey together. Some of the folks in the room had been with me since my first campaign for district attorney. But now, almost two years after the start of our campaign, we had a new mountain to take.



I had written a speech based on the assumption that Hillary Clinton would become our first woman president. As I went onstage to greet my supporters, I left that draft behind. I looked out at the room. It was packed with people, from the floor to the balcony. Many were in a state of shock as they watched the national returns.
I told the crowd we had a task in front of us. I said the stakes were high. We had to be committed to bringing our country together, to doing what was required to protect our fundamental values and ideals. I thought of Alexander and all the children when I posed a question:
“Do we retreat or do we fight? I say we fight. And I intend to fight!”
I went home that night with my extended family, many of whom were staying with us. We all went into our respective rooms, changed into sweats, and then joined one another in the living room. Some of us were sitting on couches. Others on the floor. We all planted our- selves in front of the television.
No one really knew what to say or do. Each of us was trying to cope in our own way. I sat down on the couch with Doug and ate an entire family-size bag of classic Doritos. Didn’t share a single chip.


But I did know this: one campaign was over, but another was about to begin. A campaign that called on us all to enlist. This time, a battle for the soul of our nation.
In the years since, we’ve seen an administration align itself with white supremacists at home and cozy up to dictators abroad; rip ba- bies from their mothers’ arms in grotesque violation of their human rights; give corporations and the wealthy huge tax cuts while ignor- ing the middle class; derail our fight against climate change; sabotage health care and imperil a woman’s right to control her own body; all while lashing out at seemingly everything and everyone, including the very idea of a free and independent press.


We are better than this. Americans know we’re better than this. But we’re going to have to prove it. We’re going to have to fight for it. On July 4, 1992, one of my heroes and inspirations, Thurgood Marshall, gave a speech that deeply resonates today. “We cannot play ostrich,” he said. “Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work. We must dissent from the indifference. We
must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust.”
This book grows out of that call to action, and out of my belief that our fight must begin and end with speaking truth.


I believe there is no more important and consequential antidote for these times than a reciprocal relationship of trust. You give and you receive trust. And one of the most important ingredients in a relation- ship of trust is that we speak truth. It matters what we say. What we mean. The value we place on our words—and what they are worth to others.
We cannot solve our most intractable problems unless we are hon- est about what they are, unless we are willing to have difficult conver- sations and accept what facts make plain.
We need to speak truth: that racism, sexism, homophobia, trans- phobia, and anti-Semitism are real in this country, and we need to confront those forces. We need to speak truth: that, with the exception of Native Americans, we all descend from people who weren’t born on our shores—whether our ancestors came to America willingly, with hopes of a prosperous future, or forcibly, on a slave ship, or desper- ately, to escape a harrowing past.


We cannot build an economy that gives dignity and decency to American workers unless we first speak truth; that we are asking people to do more with less money and to live longer with less secu- rity. Wages haven’t risen in forty years, even as the costs of health care, tuition, and housing have soared. The middle class is living pay- check to paycheck.


We must speak truth about our mass incarceration crisis—that we put more people in prison than any country on earth, for no good reason. We must speak truth about police brutality, about racial bias, about the killing of unarmed black men. We must speak truth about pharmaceutical companies that pushed addictive opioids on unsus- pecting communities, and payday lenders and for-profit colleges that have leeched on to vulnerable Americans and overloaded them with debt. We must speak truth about greedy, predatory corporations that have turned deregulation, financial speculation, and climate denial- ism into creed. And I intend to do just that.
This book is not meant to be a policy platform, much less a fifty- point plan. Instead, it is a collection of ideas and viewpoints and stories, from my life and from the lives of the many people I’ve met along the way.


Just two more things to mention before we get started:
First, my name is pronounced “comma-la,” like the punctuation mark. It means “lotus flower,” which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom.
And second, I want you to know how personal this is for me. This is the story of my family. It is the story of my childhood. It is the story of the life I have built since then. You’ll meet my family and my friends, my colleagues and my team. I hope you will cherish them as I do and, through my telling, see that nothing I have ever accom- plished could have been done on my own.
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Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Press; First Edition (January 8, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages


===

From the United States

FrannyFD
5.0 out of 5 stars Reading this aloudReviewed in the United States on August 14, 2024
Verified Purchase
I’m reading this to my husband and the book is full of surprises, for example that she moved to Canadá at age 12 and had to speak French in school. Learning about her early influences has been eye opening. Growing up she describes her exposure to leading black activists artists and musicians at Rainbow Sign. Her description of her jobs in the DA office demonstrate her commitment to her staff and her desire to get at the underlying causes of problems. Her description of how Doug proposed is amusing. The book, which was written with professional “collaborators “ according to the acknowledgments, flows well from topic to topic. I think it could easily be read by middle schoolers and up while still being quite interesting for adults. With so many people trying to define Kamala now, I found this book to be very revealing about her intelligence, strategic impulses and her compassion.

47 people found this helpful


HelpfulReport

Ladychef
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful BookReviewed in the United States on October 5, 2024
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Looking thru the eyes and memories of people with vision and respect is a wonderful way to see the world. Seeing problems not as bad things but making ideas that may not work but through the help of Kamala’s scientific mother, problems can have good results. The Truths We Hold is very powerful for everyone but especially the truths of women and how they are treated. Kamala’s positive thinking about so many tough issues is exactly what we need now in the USA. Not division, not lies, but wanting people to figure out ways they can be part of the solutions for the American people. Thank you!

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PT
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read!Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2024
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Revealing book about Kamala’s life and what shaped her policies and beliefs. Intimate details of her various jobs & responsibilities. Reassured me that she has the experience, temperament and stamina to be the first Madam President!

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Between These Sheets
4.0 out of 5 stars A well written look into the life of our next VPReviewed in the United States on December 16, 2020
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For our October pick in Between These Sheets book club, we decided to read Senator Kamala Harris’s book The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. We also used our book club meeting as an opportunity to rally the vote for the Biden/Harris campaign. The discussion we had in mid October, just a few weeks before the 2020 election, was engaging and exciting.

“When I was a little girl, my father wanted me to run free… I would take off, the wind in my face, with the feeling that I could do anything.”
Kamala Harris’s book offered great insights into her background and experiences that shape her views on America. She goes into great detail about her experiences serving as DA in San Francisco, as DA of California and during her first term as a United States Senator representing the state of California.

“I knew I was there for the victims. Both the victims of crimes committed and the victims of a broken criminal justice system. For me, to be a progressive prosecutor is to understand- and act on- this dichotomy… to look out for the overlooked, to speak up for those whose voices aren’t being heard, to see and address the causes of crime, not just their consequences, and to shine a light on the inequality and unfairness that lead to injustice.”
I really appreciated learning more about her personal journey. Ms. Harris used anecdotal stories from her lived experiences to better illustrate her points. This book was a relatable and easy read although it dealt with complex and important topics.

“I looked at him there, on one knee, and burst into tears. Mind you, these were not graceful Hollywood tears streaming down a glistening cheek. No, I’m talking about snorting and grunting, with mascara smudging my face.“
There were times that I felt Ms. Harris was not comfortable opening up about herself so personally. I was OK with this since I appreciated her serious tone and occasional personal story. I thought the book came together very nicely and is more important than ever.

“I talked about women’s issues, at least what I see as women’s issues: the economy, national security, health care, education, criminal justice reform, climate change.”
I eagerly await Kamala Harris being sworn into the office of Vice President in a few weeks.

“The American people have not given up on the American Dream. I know this to be true. But when you can’t sleep at night, how can you dream?”

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Jennie
5.0 out of 5 stars Realgreat info on VP Kamala Harris' professional and personal backgrounds.Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2024
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Loved the book, an easy read which was well written and full of factual data.

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Kim
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, highly recommended.Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2024
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Great Read, highly recommended.

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satisfied
5.0 out of 5 stars EyeopeningReviewed in the United States on October 20, 2024
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KH demonstrates that she knows the issues from the economy to immigration to healthcare to national security. And that she always has her eye on how laws and policy affect ‘regular’ people and those on the bottom. I learned a lot from this book, not only about KH, but about what needs fixing in our country and why, & how much she did as Attorney General & later as a Senator from CA to address these issues (written before she was VP). I had no idea how rich her experience was, and how transferable that experience is to the higher office she seeks. Her reflex is to DO something to fix problems. She is smart, experienced, truly cares for people & loves the USA. Finally, the truths she embraces and shares reflect timeless American ideals. We need more leaders with her clarity, character, courage & conviction. She is the real deal..

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Ariele M. Huff
5.0 out of 5 stars good writing and photosReviewed in the United States on August 14, 2024
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The book cover is so perfect...the photo of Kamala as an adorable child with ponytails. Maybe my favorite child photo of a presidential candidate. Great to have her story from childhood and family. Enjoyable way to find out what created such a powerful woman.

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OGJerry
5.0 out of 5 stars Kamala tells us who she isReviewed in the United States on August 14, 2024
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“Okay, I’ve invited you into my home. I’ve given you tea. I’ve fed you. Now tell me, who are you?” pg. 161; Grandfather in a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan to Senator Harris during congressional trip in April 2017.
I purchased this book in 2020, after she had stopped her campaign for president and the day after Biden had selected her for his running mate but I didn’t open the cover until a few days ago when I remembered its purchase. Before beginning the book, I searched for non-Amazon reviews which I found to be either middling or pans.

Examples: “Kamala Harris' 'The Truths We Hold' Demonstrates What's Wrong with Campaign Books. As with many campaign books, The Truths We Hold reads as a memoir-but-not-really. Harris does tell her life story, but she uses it as a vehicle for telling us what she really wants us to know about her.” – NPR
“As in all campaign books, [Harris's] chief aim is to describe her career in a way that makes her appear presidential ... I was not impressed—as attorney general she tried to crack down on, of all things, school truancy—but readers of a leftward bent may feel differently. The really irritating thing about Ms. Harris’s book is her habit of introducing stories from her life only to shoehorn in some ostensibly related political issue.” – WSJ

With those less than stellar words ringing in my head, I read the book which became my journey into getting to know Kamala and finding that the woman, I am currently seeing on the campaign trail, is the same person that she has been since she left home for college, after she had earned her law degree, while working in district attorney offices and in her upward elective office progression. “We’re not going back!” is not a late addition to the stump speech, she has been saying it for years. “When we fight, we win!” is also not new.

This response that her mother said to her “Why would I applaud you for something you were supposed to do?” when young Kamala was trying to fish for compliments resonated with me. It’s too bad that my children are grown and gone as I could have used this Shyamala Gopalan admonition many times.

I was a California resident from 2014 to 2019 so I knew her as the state AG and then voted for her when she won the 2016 senate election to replace Barbara Boxer. But after reading this book, I feel that I know her much better now and I am eager to vote for her to be our 47th president.

After completing this book, I find that I disagree mightily with the NPR and WSJ book reviews included above. While I don’t know the hearts of minds of these reviewers, I believe that it may be due to the results of implicit biases that Kamala addresses several times while explaining its effect on policing, prosecutions, education and even health care. Explicit and implicit biases all to often hold women and people of color down or back. I agree with Harris when she advises women to “kick that f’ing door down” and to not worry about a few cuts when you are breaking the glass ceiling.

Buy this book and get to know Kamala Harris.

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Javalyn
5.0 out of 5 stars A Portrait of a PatriotReviewed in the United States on September 2, 2024
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“‘I hope I can have your support.’ It’s amazing how often people would tell me that no one had ever asked them that directly before…voters wanted to hear about more than just policy. They wanted to know about me personally–who I was, what my life had been like, the experiences that had shaped me. They wanted to understand who I was on a fundamental level.”

This book “is a collection of ideas and viewpoints and stories, from my life and from the lives of the many people I’ve met along the way…This book grows out of [a] call to action, and out of my belief that our fight must begin and end with speaking truth…The job of an elected official is not to sing a lullaby and soothe the country into a sense of complacency. The job is to speak truth, even in a moment that does not welcome or invite its utterance.”

The Truths We Hold “is the story of people fighting for their humanity–for the simple idea that we should all be equal and free. It is the story of people fighting for the promise made to all future generations at the signing of the Declaration of Independence: that no government has the right to rob us of our life or our liberty or our humble pursuit of happiness.”

“It is the very nature of this fight for civil rights and justice and equality that whatever gains we make, they will not be permanent. So we must be vigilant. Understanding that, do not despair. Do not be overwhelmed. Do not throw up our hands when it is time to roll up our sleeves and fight for who we are.” Live your live as a brush and paint a portrait of a patriot: “not someone who condones the conduct of our country, whatever it does [but] someone who fights every day for the ideals of the country, whatever it takes.”

Kamala, pronounced like the punctuation “comma-la,” means “lotus flower.” In India, it is a symbol of significance because a lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom. “We will draw wisdom from every chapter, even when those lessons are hard. We will face what is to come with conviction that change is possible–knowing that truth is like the sun. It always rises.”

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