Kamala'S Way: An American Life
A revelatory biography of the first Black woman elected Vice President of the United Statesāand in a history-making turn of events the Democratsā 2024 Presidential nomineeācharting how the daughter of two immigrants in segregated California became one of this countryās most effective power players.
Thereās very little thatās conventional about Kamala Harris, and yet her personal story also represents the best of America. She grew up the eldest daughter of a single mother, a no-nonsense cancer researcher who emigrated from India at the age of nineteen in search of a better education. She and her husband, an accomplished economist from Jamaica, split up when Kamala was only five.
The Kamala Harris the public knows today is tough, smart, quick-witted, and demanding. Sheās a prosecutorāher one-liners are legendaryābut sheās more reticent when it comes to sharing much about herself, even in her memoirs. Fortunately, former Los Angeles Times reporter Dan Morain has been there from the start.
In Kamalaās Way, he āoffers an essential roadmapā (Politico) to her career from its beginnings handling child molestation cases and homicides for the Alameda County District Attorneyās office and her relationship as a twenty-nine-year-old with the most powerful man in the state: married Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, a relationship that would prove life-changing. Morain takes readers through Harrisās years in the San Francisco District Attorneyās Office, explores her audacious embrace of the little-known Barack Obama, and shows the sharp elbows she deployed to make it to the US Senate. He analyzes her failure as a presidential candidate and the behind-the-scenes campaign she waged to land the Vice President spot. Along the way, he paints a ārevealing portraitā (The New York Times Book Review) of her values and priorities, the sorts of problems sheās good at solving, and the missteps, risks, and bold moves sheās made on her way to the top.
Kamalaās Way is essential reading for all Americans curious about the woman standing by Joe Bidenās side.