Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this.

I’m not someone who is into politics and wasn’t sure what I’d think of someone’s memoirs working as a stenographer in the Obama White House. I adored this book Not just the writing - which is amazing - but the look at a job you’d think technology would have rendered obsolete a decade ago.

Beck has a fabulous voice and this reads like a novel, you’re sucked into the stories and the people. I like too how it was slightly meta: she was talking about her writing in her writing. Especially loved Team Pathahad.

My only quibbble, outside her core folks: Noah, Teddy, Jason, Shilpa, Amelia and Tess she’d sometimes bring back people who we hadn’t heard of. A refresher on who they were might have helped. I’m not sure we’d met Feriano before his appearance when Beck gave POTUS a birthday card. I also found myself with some unanswered questions: who was the father of Amelia’s baby, why was Beck unaware that it was her last day at the White House? Maybe a little less Jason drama would have freed up some time for those.

This was also a really interesting look inside a presidential administration and the nuts and bolts of traveling: both on campaign and during his term. Who knew there was so much down time on some of the trips, or that the press bubble essentially went on holiday with them?

Wonderful read.