Tough Love

My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For

By: Susan Rice

Narrated by: Susan Rice

A 2020 Audie Award Finalist

Recalling pivotal moments from her dynamic career on the front lines of American diplomacy and foreign policy, Susan E. Rice—National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama and US Ambassador to the United Nations—reveals her surprising story with unflinching candor in this New York Times bestseller.

Mother, wife, scholar, diplomat, and fierce champion of American interests and values, Susan Rice powerfully connects the personal and the professional. Taught early, with tough love, how to compete and excel as an African American woman in settings where people of color are few, Susan now shares the wisdom she learned along the way.

Laying bare the family struggles that shaped her early life in Washington, DC, she also examines the ancestral legacies that influenced her. Rice’s elders—immigrants on one side and descendants of slaves on the other—had high expectations that each generation would rise. And rise they did, but not without paying it forward—in uniform and in the pulpit, as educators, community leaders, and public servants.

Susan too rose rapidly. She served throughout the Clinton administration, becoming one of the nation’s youngest assistant secretaries of state and, later, one of President Obama’s most trusted advisors.

Rice provides an insider’s account of some of the most complex issues confronting the United States over three decades, ranging from “Black Hawk Down” in Somalia to the genocide in Rwanda and the East Africa embassy bombings in the late 1990s, and from conflicts in Libya and Syria to the Ebola epidemic, a secret channel to Iran, and the opening to Cuba during the Obama years. With unmatched insight and characteristic bluntness, she reveals previously untold stories behind recent national security challenges, including confrontations with Russia and China, the war against ISIS, the struggle to contain the fallout from Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks, the U.S. response to Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the surreal transition to the Trump administration.

Although you might think you know Susan Rice—whose name became synonymous with Benghazi following her Sunday news show appearances after the deadly 2012 terrorist attacks in Libya—now, through these pages, you truly will know her for the first time. Often mischaracterized by both political opponents and champions, Rice emerges as neither a villain nor a victim, but a strong, resilient, compassionate leader.

Intimate, sometimes humorous, but always candid, Tough Love makes an urgent appeal to the American public to bridge our dangerous domestic divides in order to preserve our democracy and sustain our global leadership.

Touch love

I grew up with it as number 7 of 9 in a big Irish Catholic family. We had many childhood situations as you described. I am now almost a 78 yr old Grandma and retired RN. Growing up with tough love had endured those lessons to me and will take me to my flight with Angels as a gift as you spoke of the lasting love. I am a card-carrying Union Democrat and still work in the elections! GREAT STORY, WELL PRESENTED!
Maggie AldingerRN

Very Insightful and Interesting

I absolutely enjoyed learning more deeply about Susan Rice, her education, family life, political career and her contributions to our United States of America. Thank you for sharing yourself!

Monique S.

Enjoyed Every Minute

Fascinating life. I was a fan of the incomparable Susan Rice, but now I’m a raving fan. What a brilliant, confident and tough as nails woman. I love that she is the narrator of her exquisite work. I sincerely hope she re-enters the public service realm. We need persons of her intellect and character.

not surprised

Everyone deserves a chance freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. There are many talented people in the world & we deserve a chance to share in their awesomeness.

Really enjoyed Tough Love

Fascinating book- loved the behind the scenes perspective of so many events in the last 20 years. No matter your politics you will learn something.