Time magazine is already celebrating their Best of 2017, and their favorite "Non-Fiction" book of the year is....Hillary Clinton's campaign memoir What Happened. Time assistant managing editor Claire Howorth gushed, "Clinton offers one answer to the question that rang collectively from more than half the country on Nov. 9, 2016. The writing is frank, reflective and a piece of modern history."
It came complete with buying instructions from Amazon, and Hillary Clinton quickly tweeted out how "honored" she was: "I loved writing this book, & I’m honored to be in such great company on this list!" Number two on the Time top ten was radical black writer Ta-Nehisi Coates reflecting on Obama during the Trump era in We Were Eight Years in Power.
It also included former Newsweek editor Tina Brown (a Clinton adorer from way back) for her new book The Vanity Fair Diaries, a book on evangelical Christians in politics by leftist Frances FitzGerald, as well as a volume on The Meaning of Michelle, over which Howorth oozed: "This anthology, edited by journalist and author Veronica Chambers, was published just days before the Obamas left the White House, but the essays within feel more relevant than ever. Contributors include Roxane Gay, Ava DuVernay, Hamilton star Tiffany Dufu, New York [City]’s First Lady Chirlane McCray and others, examining everything from Obama’s fashion to her marriage to her cultural impact as the first African-American First Lady."
On Sunday, The Washington Post also put Hillary's What Happened on their list of the year 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2017. As usual, the Post included a list of its own current and former reporters in the annual fringe-benefits envelope.
Current staffers honored were Monica Hesse (American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land), E.J. Dionne (One Nation After Trump: A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet-Deported, written with Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann); and of course, the paper's nonfiction book editor Steven Levingston (Kennedy and King: The President, The Pastor, and the Battle Over Civil Rights).
Former Post reporter Glenn Frankel made the list with High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic. There were liberal journalists on the list: former Time editor Walter Isaacson's book on Leonardo da Vinci, New York Times reporters William Taubman (Gorbachev: His Life and Times) and Helene Cooper (Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf), and Boston Globe reporter John Aloysius Farrell (Richard Nixon: The Life).
The Post also honored Daily Show host Trevor Noah as one of the Top 5 Audiobooks for his memoir Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood.
