Perhaps the most striking aspect of this autobiography is Clinton’s empathy. As Wellesley’s first student commencement speaker and a graduate of Yale Law School, Clinton had a myriad of profitable paths she could have taken and yet she dedicated herself to others from her earliest working days. As she chronicles her development as an advocate for women, children, and middle class families, she dwells on the plight of the people she meets----especially during her years as First Lady, both overseas and domestically.

For those interested, Clinton does address the Lewinsky scandal head-on. She doesn’t apologize for the “vast right-wing conspiracy” remark and disparages Starr's investigations (which she frequently reminds the reader, aside from her own personal and political suffering, cost the American taxpayers $75 million) but does eventually allow for a bit of vulnerability----still a fraction of what you would expect from a woman humiliated by an unfaithful husband in the most public discourse imaginable. This is not some sort of scintillating, scandalized tell-all book---- Clinton is reserved and fairly unsentimental in her recollections. She's obviously a private person (which is skewed in the media as detached, calculating, cold or a combination of all three) but within these pages, she does manage to reveal herself as the empathic, strong, caring individual she truly is.

All in all, the book is a bit dry, a bit too bogged down in responding to the political nonsense of the 90s (Vince Foster, whitewater papers, specific healthcare policy shortfalls, etc.) but is still a worthwhile read.