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May 19, 2024

Non-Fiction Bestsellers Chronicle A Hellish Russian Captivity and a Political Pro's Advice on How to Communicate Better

Coming Home by Brittney Griner. Even if you don't follow women's basketball, you should know Griner's name, although her increased celebrity has been unimaginably hard-earned. Her story is harrowing and heartbreaking, and it's pretty remarkable that she survived and was able to write this book at all.

On February 17, 2022, Griner arrived in Moscow ready to spend the women's professional basketball's offseason playing for the Russian women's team where she had been the centerpiece of previous championship seasons. Instead, a security checkpoint became her gateway to hell when she was arrested for mistakenly carrying under one gram of medically prescribed hash oil.

In Coming Home, Griner shares the painful details of her sudden arrest; her bewilderment and isolation while navigating a foreign legal system amid her trial and sentencing; her emotional anguish as the first American woman ever to endure a Russian penal colony; the prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; and her rise from hostage to global spokesperson on behalf of America's forgotten. 

She also shares how her love for Cherelle, her college sweetheart and wife of six years, anchored her during their greatest storm; how her family's support pulled her back from the brink; and how hundreds of letters from friends and neighbors lent her resolve to keep fighting. It's quite a remarkable story, and Griner documents her nearly year-long imprisonment in great detail and with honest emotion. It's also a damning indictment of an abysmal, corrupt justice system operating under the auspices of a heinous dictator.

"Riveting . . . Coming Home delves unflinchingly into the dehumanizing indignities the Olympic athlete suffered during the 10 months she served out of a nine-year sentence." --The Washington Post

Say More: Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World by Jen Psaki. Not many White House Press Secretaries have captured the nation's interest the way Jen Psaki did. A political advisor who served under both the Obama and Biden administrations, she was President Biden's press secretary until May 2022, a role in which many praised her ability to break through the noise and successfully deliver her message. In her new book, she takes readers along the campaign trail, to the State Department, and inside the White House under two Presidents.

Psaki writes about reporting to bosses from the hot-tempered Rahm Emanuel to the coolly intellectual Barack Obama to the surprisingly tenderhearted John Kerry. She also talks about her time working closely with President Joe Biden in his administration and efforts to set a new tone for the country, one that would restore a sense of calm and respect for the role of the media. After leaving the White House, she became the successful host of MSNBC's Sunday afternoon and Monday evening program, Inside with Jen Psaki, about which she also writes.

But Say More is not just a book of political reminiscences; Psaki offers advice on better communication in general. Drawing on years of experience - and occasional blunders - she addresses the best ways to give and receive feedback, how to connect with your audience, how to listen actively, and much more. 

Kirkus Reviews wrote favorably about the book, noting, "Throughout the book, Psaki mines her most sensitive moments for lessons on communication to impart to her readers... The narrative shines brightest when Psaki approaches her personal and professional past with circumspection, infusing her words with humor and vulnerability."