Condi__The_Condoleeza_Rice_Story

							Title:
Condi: The Condoleeza Rice Story

Word Count:
399

Summary:
If you are fascinated by the life o
f Secretary of State Condoleeza Ric
e, then Antonia Felix's book about
Dr. Rice will certainly appeal to y
ou.


Keywords:
book review, books, Condi Rice, Pre
sident Bush, African Americans, bla
ck Americans, politics, news


Article Body:
I had the satisfaction the other da
y of having finished a book. Yes, y
ou would think that those of us who
 write for a living would be great
readers. Some of us are, some of us
 aren’t. I probably am fairly well
read overall, but that covers magaz
ines, newspapers, articles, and the
 like for the most part…especially
if they can be found online!
My wife picked up a book for me thi
s past Christmas and she hit it rig
ht on the mark — Condi: The Condole
eza Rice Story. Written by Antonia
Felix, the book traces the remarkab
le life of now Secretary of State C
ondoleeza Rice from her days living
 in highly segregated Birmingham, A
labama during the 1950s and 1960s t
hrough her years as an academic sch
olar, college professor, and univer
sity provost, all the way up to her
 present work with the Bush Adminis
tration. Written in 2003, the book
still has Condi as National Securit
y Advisor to the president, but in
2004 Condi replaced Colin Powell as
 the Secretary of State.

The book delves into Condi’s life a
nd doesn’t hold back on much. No, n
ot much to criticize about this con
summate overachiever, rather plenty
 of praise for a role model who has
 triumphed in the face of overwhelm
ing odds, let alone overwhelming ad
versity.

Condi is not just a leading scholar
, but she is an expert in Soviet {R
ussian} affairs, an accomplished pi
anist, and an avid football fan. Dr
iven? Oh, yes! But, not in the “pos
sessed” or “obsessed” sense of the
word. As a black woman working in a
 mostly white male environment Cond
i has established herself on her te
rms and not on someone else’s. “Twi
ce as good” was the mantra passed d
own to Condi by her parents who bel
ieved that black children had to do
 everything twice as well as white
children in order to be considered
equal in a segregated society.

I won’t give all the details of the
 book away, but there are some high
ly interesting aspects about Condi
that some people probably just don’
t know. Personally, I don’t think C
ondi will run for president on the
Republican ticket in 2008 as some d
esire — instead, she aspires to be
president of the NFL — but whatever
 Condi chooses to do beyond her tim
e working with President Bush will
more than likely include breaking n
ew ground and setting the trend for
 all who come behind her.