The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power

Samantha Power’s memoir is a classic of the genre. For one, her life story is fascinating: She grew up with an alcoholic father in Ireland before migrating with her mother, a doctor, to the United States as a child. Huge successes, and notable setbacks, followed her into adulthood as she reported on the war in the Balkans, wrote a Pulitzer prize winning book about genocide, and joined the universe of rising political star Barack Obama. How she stayed true to her convictions while working in the White House, and then as Ambassador to the United Nations, is the crux of the story, which she narrates with integrity, wit, and an unwavering passion about the importance of doing right in the world.