No Higher Honor (Random House)

A brilliant academic and expert on foreign affairs, Condoleezza Rice distinguished herself as an advisor to George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign. Once Bush was elected, she served as his chief advisor on national security issues--a role that deepened her bond with the President and ultimately made her one of his closest confidantes. In 2005 Rice was entrusted with even more responsibility when she was charged with helping to shape and carry out the President's foreign policy as secretary of state. No Higher Honor is a master class in statecraft. Surprisingly candid in her appraisals of various colleagues and the hundreds of foreign leaders with whom she dealt, Rice offers keen insights into how history actually proceeds in a way that reveals her essential warmth and humility and her deep reverence for the ideals on which America was founded.