Change the names from 1972 to today's names and nothing has changed. The talking points and the words are the same. Denials and coming down on the press from the White House. I am astounded how much things stay the same in 50 years. While the book at first is a little disconcerting because of all the names as well as feeling I was dropped into the middle of a conversation, I soon got comfortable as Bernstein and Woodward tell of putting the Watergate story and the subsequent fallout stories together to get a full story of what happened during the Nixon reelection campaign. This is much more interesting now than it was 50 years ago when all I cared about was my soap operas being exempted for the Watergate coverage. There are so many parallels to 2020 and beyond.

I picked this book up primarily because I loved the author’s memoir, The House at Sugar Beach, about growing up in Liberia until political instability and terror forced her family to leave. This book, though, is a biography of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018 and the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa. It’s a good biography, readable and engaging as all the best journalistic work is, and certainly informative though it lacks the humor and personal touch of Cooper’s memoir.

About the first quarter of this relatively short biography (290 pages) covers the first approximately 50 years of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s life, spending a few pages on her childhood before moving on to her marriage, higher education, subsequent divorce from her abusive husband (even though it meant no longer being able to raise most of their children), and her career as a financial bureaucrat. The second quarter focuses more on Liberia’s civil war and the years of coups and atrocities. Johnson Sirleaf was absent from Liberia for much of this time working for financial institutions abroad, but the reader needs to understand something of what was happening in the country to put her presidency in context. Finally, the last half covers her elections and presidency, though the book ends in 2015 and was published in 2017, before she actually left office.

The book is highly readable and offers a lot of explanation to readers who may not know anything about Liberia; Cooper is clearly adept at bridging two cultures. It is an admiring biography, and as far as I can tell an authorized one—Johnson Sirleaf allowed Cooper to follow her around and was interviewed for the book, though Cooper didn’t share her drafts—but Cooper also highlights areas where Johnson Sirleaf made poor or questionable choices. I wasn’t quite sure what to think about all her female supporters who stole their adult sons’ voter IDs to prevent them from voting for her clearly unqualified male opponent, for instance—interestingly to me, Liberian women seemed far more likely to vote for a candidate because of her gender than their American counterparts. But I was glad to see Cooper really dig into Johnson Sirleaf’s achievements in office: the chapter about how she managed to persuade other governments, multinational institutions and private companies to forgive Liberia’s $4.7 billion debt is fantastic and highlights a huge accomplishment that few others could possibly have achieved.

Meanwhile, other reviewers have mentioned that the book deals with some dark subject matter around Liberia’s civil war, and this is true though it isn’t the primary focus of the book. The last 35 pages mostly focus on the Ebola pandemic, which was interesting to read during another pandemic: there was a lot of initial denial around Ebola too, though once people accepted that it was real they seemed to do a good job of taking necessary precautions to wipe it out.

Ultimately, there’s a lot of good information in this book, but there’s more distance from its subject than I would have expected in a semi-authorized biography of someone who’s still alive: I didn’t get much sense of Johnson Sirleaf’s personality, what makes her tick, how the people close to her view her, etc. Maybe she didn’t want her personal life in a book, her family didn’t want to share, and Cooper decided to respect their wishes—hard to say. But while I still blew through the book in just a few days, I think I would have liked it even better with more personality. Cooper credits several people in the acknowledgments with making her ditch her “flip tone” and I wound up wishing she’d kept it. There are a few humorous bits, which were welcome.

But I’d certainly recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject, and Johnson Sirleaf is without doubt a tough and impressive woman, though (like everybody else) imperfect. Those who would like a more personal, in-depth and at times humorous story (with some overlapping subject matter) should check out the author’s memoir.

Only time will tell how to interpret events after the end of this book: Johnson Sirleaf stepped down in 2018, allowing for Liberia’s first peaceful transition of power in decades, but then the winner of that election was George Weah (the soccer player), whose vice president is Jewel Taylor (ex-wife of Charles Taylor, the war criminal). Hmm. I hope Cooper will keep on writing books about Liberia; I for one will be happy to keep reading them.

THAT NIGHT by K.I. Lynn - Release Blitz

Release Date: March 23, 2020

Cover Design: Lori Jackson Design
Photographer: Wander Aguiar
Model: Andrew Biernat

Genre: Contemporary Romance

SYNOPSIS

I got pregnant on New Year’s Eve.

That night was hands down the best night of my life. A magical night with the man of my dreams.
The aftermath changed everything.
After weeks of silence from him and a positive pregnancy test, it was safe to say I was in full out panic mode.
Until I walked into a conference room only to find Mr. Man-of-my-dreams-father-of-my-unborn-child at the head of the table.
Turns out the VP of finance isn’t an old boring guy with white hair.
Two different cities.
A baby on the way.
An intense attraction.
And he’s technically my boss.
Life just got even more complicated.

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That Night by K.I. Lynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Natasha never takes risks. She arrives at a major party with her best friend and meets the man of her dreams after he spills a drink on her. To ignore the sparks igniting would be crazy.

Richard did not mean to spill a drink. He wouldn't change a thing, since he met the woman he never thought he would. The "One." Now he just has to convince her to let him be a part of her life.

Such a sweet and yet sexy book. These characters know what they want from page one and it is hot hot hot! The lessons to learn here are how to move on from the crazy night. I love the sincerity and friendships this story holds. I also liked the determination. What really rich characters. I could not put it down.


***This copy was given in exchange for an honest review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

K.I. Lynn is the USA Today Bestselling Author from The Bend Anthology and the Amazon Bestselling Series, Breach. She spent her life in the arts, everything from music to painting and ceramics, then to writing. Characters have always run around in her head, acting out their stories, but it wasn’t until later in life she would put them to pen. It would turn out to be the one thing she was really passionate about.

Since she began posting stories online, she’s garnered acclaim for her diverse stories and hard hitting writing style. Two stories and characters are never the same, her brain moving through different ideas faster than she can write them down as it also plots its quest for world domination…or cheese. Whichever is easier to obtain… Usually it’s cheese.

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Natasha never takes risks.  She arrives at a major party with her best friend and meets the man of her dreams after he spills a drink on her.  To ignore the sparks igniting would be crazy.

Richard did not mean to spill a drink.  He wouldn't change a thing, since he met the woman he never thought he would.  The "One."  Now he just has to convince her to let him be a part of her life.

Such a sweet and yet sexy book.  These characters know what they want from page one and it is hot hot hot!  The lessons to learn here are how to move on from the crazy night.  I love the sincerity and friendships this story holds.  I also liked the determination.  What really rich characters.  I could not put it down.  I give this read a 4/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

***This copy was given in exchange for an honest review.

I swear I didn't come up with this book task, but yey, what a great opportunity to squeeze in yet another one of my as-yet unused, potential Halloween Bingo reads!

(Task: Read a graphic novel, a book set in a school or academic setting, or a book set in Japan or by a Japanese author.)