What Happened

by Hillary Rodham Clinton

“In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I’ve often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I’m letting my guard down.” —Hillary Rodham Clinton, from the introduction of What Happened

For the first time, Hillary Rodham Clinton reveals what she was thinking and feeling during one of the most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections in history. Now free from the constraints of running, Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules. This is her most personal memoir yet.

In these pages, she describes what it was like to run against Donald Trump, the mistakes she made, how she has coped with a shocking and devastating loss, and how she found the strength to pick herself back up afterward. With humor and candor, she tells readers what it took to get back on her feet—the rituals, relationships, and reading that got her through, and what the experience has taught her about life. She speaks about the challenges of being a strong woman in the public eye, the criticism over her voice, age, and appearance, and the double standard confronting women in politics.

She lays out how the 2016 election was marked by an unprecedented assault on our democracy by a foreign adversary. By analyzing the evidence and connecting the dots, Hillary shows just how dangerous the forces are that shaped the outcome, and why Americans need to understand them to protect our values and our democracy in the future.

The election of 2016 was unprecedented and historic. What Happened is the story of that campaign and its aftermath—both a deeply intimate account and a cautionary tale for the nation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Memoir, Audiobook, Biography, History, Feminism

512 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 12, 2017

About the author

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) was the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the cabinet of President Barack Obama. In 2016, she became the first woman in U.S. history to win a major party's presidential nomination, and the first woman to win the popular vote in a presidential race - despite losing the election.

She was a Senator from the state of New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd, President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton, Hillary served as First Lady from 1993 to 2001. In the 2008 election Clinton was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

A native of Illinois, Hillary Rodham attracted national attention in 1969 when she was chosen by her peers to be the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley College. As a graduate of Yale Law School, Class of 1973, she served temporarily as a Congressional legal counsel. Rodham moved to Arkansas in 1974, marrying Bill Clinton a year later. Hillary Rodham Clinton co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in 1977, and became the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation in 1978. Named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979, she was twice listed as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America. First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992 with husband Bill as Governor, Clinton successfully led a task force to reform Arkansas's education system. She has served on the board of directors of Wal-Mart as well as several other prominent corporations.

In 1994 as First Lady of the United States, her major initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval from the U.S. Congress. However, in 1997 and 1999, Clinton played a role in advocating for the establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. Her time as First Lady drew a polarized response from the American public. She is the only First Lady to have been subpoenaed, testifying before a federal grand jury in 1996 due to the Whitewater controversy, but was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or any of the other investigations during her husband's administration. The state of her marriage was the subject of considerable speculation following the Lewinsky scandal in 1998 that spurred Articles of Impeachment to be issued against her husband, Bill Clinton.

In January of 2000, Clinton was elected as senator to the State of New York after moving to the small suburban hamlet of Chappaqua in Westchester County. That election marked the first time an American First Lady had run for public office; Clinton was also the first female senator to represent New York. In the Senate, she initially supported the Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, including a vote for the Iraq War Resolution, subsequently opposing the administration on its conduct of the war in Iraq, and most domestic issues. Senator Clinton was re-elected by a wide margin in 2006. In the 2008 presidential nomination race, Hillary Clinton won more primaries and delegates than any other female candidate in American history, but narrowly lost to Senator Barack Obama. As Secretary of State, Clinton became the first former First Lady to serve in a president's cabinet

Reviews

[Nasty Lady MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

March 2025: And I really, really, told you so. But still can't vote for a women....Jesus.

March 2020: At this point I am just going to say I told you so. You could have voted for Overprepared Email Lady but misogyny and I want to drink a beer with the loud orange guy won out. And now look where we are...in quarantine because the orange guy does not know how to prepare for a crisis.

Note, I'm leaving the original pre-review below the actual review.

Disclaimer: I voted for Hillary Clinton in both of her presidential campaigns, and I’d vote for her again in a damn heart beat. So, yeah…obviously, this is not going to bash her. And before you mansplain that I didn’t do my research on her, I’ll have you know that I did PLENTY. I just, you know, didn’t get my news from Info Wars or Facebook.

Oh, also if you decide to troll on this review your comment is never going to get to see the light of daylight (or if you post junk on my GoodReads review of this you’ll her blocked and deleted). And don’t think you’re going to get a rise out of me, I’ll just be laughing as I block and delete because it makes it easier to know who to avoid.

Okay, that aside. I will say right away that I’ve always considered HRC to be a role model. A lot of the choices I have made in my career have been influenced by her, and I try to live up by the motto that she refers a lot to in this book, “Do all the good you can, for all the people you can, in all the ways you can, as long as ever you can.” The quotes actually a product of Hillary’s Methodist and I’m Catholic but it has really influenced a lot of my decisions. And Hillary Clinton has made the path forward a little bit easier for professional women going forward, and she needs to be given praise for that.


The book (obviously) deals with her run for president. It was an enthralling read. A bit bittersweet, melancholy, and desperately needed. When I finished reading it, I did feel like the country would eventually be okay. Though, now as I write this review watching the latest Trump-catastrophes that are airing on MSNBC that feeling is quickly disintegrating. I think what I liked best about this book was how relatable I found Hillary in the pages.

Hillary Clinton relatable? I know a lot of people are laughing at that. And I’ll probably get some flak for that remark, but as a professional woman reading about Hillary’s own struggles with misogyny I found myself nodding my head throughout the pages. It’s amazing that the struggles she faced at the beginning of her career are similar to struggles that I’ve experienced in my own. One of the many reasons, why she will always be a feminist icon.

The tone of the book has almost a blunt quality about it. And I loved it. She doesn’t waffle around subjects. She depicts the election for what it was. She takes blame for her own mistakes (think the comment on coal miners) but also states the very obvious that there were a lot of outside factors that contribute to her loss and the idiot we now have as president. Honestly, her tone reminds me a lot of my sister which is bonus points for her. It’s also interesting to note, that a lot of people don’t like my sister because she’s direct…funny, how being direct is considered a plus when you have a penis and not a vagina.

There is also an intimate quality to the book. Hillary talks about her personal life: Bill, Chelsea, the grandkids, her friends, even the dogs. We also learn what she likes to eat for breakfast and what’s on her DVR (though, if you read any of those stupid emails you’d know she watched The Good Wife, so it’s not really that big of a spoiler, but apparently Bill likes NCIS: LA). It also dives into some of the darker emotions that she experienced after the election, and the hope she has for the future. You also see her disdain for how the coverage was handled during the election and how Matt Laurer was pretty much an idiot (Hillary, girl, I agree).

As much as this book is about Hillary and about the fallout of the disastrous election in 2016, the book also touches on policy. Policy, oh lord, how I missed you.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned this to you guys, but I minored in political science during college, and that in part made watching the whole mess of an election really hard for me. Even during the primaries it seemed policy was overlooked (and yes, even the democratic primary).

Sure, St. Bernard promised the moon but he never explained how we were going to get there. Hillary clearly had a plan of how she wanted to enact policies, and how she thought we could feasibly get there. Her website was filled with them, and I always annoyed me how a certain idiotic morning news host with bad hair that used to be B.F.F.’s with Donald Trump until he insulted his fiancee said she had no message. Because her website was nothing but message after message.

But hey, ration was thrown away in this election. Especially the general election. In the later part of the book, there are sections of this book that almost feel like they’re written as an indictment against Russia, Wikileaks, the media and in part to Comey for what they did to unravel the momentum that she had. And it’s a damn it’s a beautiful written thing. Hate her all you want, but if it wasn’t for Comey’s interference the media would’ve been talking about that damn bus and it’s more likely than not that pervert wouldn’t be turning the White House not the Golden Showers House (God, I feel for whoever will be POTUS next, they’ll have to fumigate the place).

Yeah, crude. But I really don’t care. Again, this is my review and I’m just sick of having to be the adult while all the Trump, the Russian bots, trolls, Bernie supporters, etc. can act like the idiots they are.

Okay…back to the book. I think my overall thought when I closed this one is how much I missed Hillary and what could’ve been. Even if she never runs for office again, I hope her voice continues to resonate. It also makes me more energetic to keep on resisting, to fight the good fight.


Pre-Review Below:
Preordered and pre rating since I'm sure that Russian trolls and Trump-idiots are going to downrate it (seriously, surprised so many Trump idiots can read).

Anyway, I so wish this woman would've been president. The US wouldn't currently be the laughing stock in the world again and we wouldn't have the impending threat of a wee wee tape of POTUS being released to the world (you know it's only a matter of time).

For those who say that Hillary didn't have a message she did. Her website was a wealth of knowledge of policy and progressive ideas. She was the best candidate for president and it's only because of an antiquated system that was created because of slavery and Russian meddling and GOP gerrymandering that she's not POTUS today.

Bros, Russian bots, Trump idiots, mansplainers you will be blocked if you comment. And your sanctimonious comments will be promptly deleted. I'm not in the mood at all to deal with your shit. You have been warned. No go away.

[Emily May · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the record, it hurts to be torn apart.

I doubt I will go into too much depth about this book. I figure that most people fall into one of two groups - those who already know about and agree on the political aspects of What Happened, and those who will refuse to read it on principle (and may hate me on principle just for giving it a high rating).

As expected, it covers the events leading up to, during, and after the 2016 election. Hillary talks policy issues inc. immigration, gun control and police shootings "No parent should fear for the life of an unarmed, law-abiding child when he walks out of the house. That's not "identity politics." It's simple justice. , theories on her loss, and the problems America faces. She talks about her experiences as a woman in politics and I felt my heart break all over again at the deep sorrow she feels about letting so many down, especially the young women who saw her as a symbol of what they could achieve.

But - and I'm sure haters will just hear "blah blah blah" when I say this - what touched me most was the personal nature of What Happened. Politics is only a part of this book. A whole other part is about family, friendship and self care after a brutal and humiliating public defeat. This is not Hillary rising from the ashes and raining curses down on her opponents; it's a story of bitter disappointment and, ultimately, hope for something better.

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[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars.
An Incredibly Emotional Memoir. I laughed, I cried (a lot) and I also smiled quite a bit. What can I say - except that I am Still with Her.

First, I had the honor of meeting Secretary Clinton (and her aide Huma Abedin) at HRC’s book signing last Saturday, September 16, 2017, in Brookfield, CT. I shook her hand and thanked her for her service to this country. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I will never forget it. That being said, obviously by my reading this, it’s pretty clear where I stand. However - I have no interest in getting into a political discussion with anyone over my review of this memoir - which is something I love about Goodreads - as it tends to stay above the political fray - so please don’t bring the negativity here.

In “What Happened” - Hillary Clinton chronicles her life, (including her childhood, her marriage and her career) and then explains what she believes happened in the 2016 election against Trump, including internal and external factors. She speaks of how she prepared for each debate and verbalizes what she thinks about Trump and the loss of the election and how it all affected her. And she does so in great detail.

What stood out for me was how personal the book was - I felt like HRC was talking to me. What I will say is this: she is in fact a real person (she reads mystery novels, does yoga and drinks Chardonnay). Secretary Clinton has quite the sense of humor. I laughed out loud quite a bit. As was expected, it was also quite emotional. At times, I cried. Her loss is felt deeply within these pages.

That being said, there is hope. In the words of Andra Day, one of my favorite singer songwriters (who is apparently one of Secretary Clinton’s as well):
“And I'll rise up
I'll rise like the day
I'll rise up
I'll rise unafraid
I'll rise up
And I'll do it a thousand times again…”

I both read and listened to the audiobook of HRC’s memoir (simply because Hillary Rodman Clinton narrated it herself). Like I said, it felt like Secretary Clinton was talking to me, sitting in my living room - as if we were having a glass of wine and she was telling me her story. Having actually met her in person made that a little easier to imagine. Though right now the future seems bleak, I have hope that someday somehow that glass ceiling will break and that it will be because of HRC. And we will go Onward Together.

Published on Goodreads, Amazon and Twitter on 9.24.17.

[Charles · Rating 1 out of 5]

She could easily say, "I ran a poor campaign. I failed to connect with voters and I lost." Instead, we get page after page of excuses. Most disappointing!

[Nnedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't care what anyone says, this was a kick ASS read, hands down.

[Larry H · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Losing is hard for everyone, but losing a race you thought you would win is devastating."

I was one of many Americans watching the 2016 presidential election results come in, feeling shock, disbelief, horror, and utter disappointment as the realization that Hillary Clinton had been defeated began to sink in. I really thought, despite the last-minute bombshell dropped by now-former FBI Director James Comey regarding her emails, that she'd be able to prevail.

I honestly believed, as did Clinton and her staff, as well as polling organizations, political experts, and many media outlets, that despite the concerns so many had expressed about her character and her lack of trustworthiness, the idea of electing a person who had never held public office, one who (at least to me) clearly was unprepared for the presidency, would finally persuade people to cast their votes for Clinton.

As we know, the polls and many political experts and others were wrong, and Trump is now president. There were a lot of factors contributing to his victory—the never-ending email scandal being one significant one—but I still found it hard to understand just how a woman I felt was perhaps the most qualified individual ever to run for president could be defeated. (And as hard as it was for me and so many of Clinton's supporters to understand, I could only imagine how she must have felt!

What Happened is not only a powerful, first-hand account of the 2016 election and its aftermath from Clinton's viewpoint, but it's also a candid look at what convinced her to run for president again after losing the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. It's also an in-depth glimpse into Hillary the candidate, Hillary the former First Lady and dedicated public servant, Hillary the mother, wife, and daughter, Hillary the friend, and Hillary the person.

"I wear my composure like a suit of armor, for better or worse. In some ways, it felt like I had been training for this latest feat of self-control for decades."

While the book does tread on some familiar territory, it's pretty candid in sharing things you probably didn't know about Clinton. Not only does she share the emotion, despair, disappointment, and frustration she felt when she lost, but she also shares how she felt being vilified as horribly as she was during the campaign, going from being the most-admired woman in America when she left her position as Secretary of State to being followed by people chanting "Lock her up" and pictures of her in prison clothes. She doesn't go into great depth about the challenges to her marriage through the years, but she does touch on the struggles she had, and how she addressed her questions and her fears.

Some have questioned why Clinton wrote this book, and immediately assumed she would point fingers at everyone other than herself as factors contributing to her defeat. While she does discuss the impact of many factors—from Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein's participation in the 2016 race to the imbalanced media coverage she received, as well as Trump's oversized persona—she reserves the largest amount of blame for herself.

"On the campaign trail, I offered ideas that I believed would address many of the underlying causes of discontent and help make life better for all Americans. But I couldn't—and wouldn't—compete to stoke people's rage and resentment. I think that's dangerous. It helps leaders who want to take advantage of that rage to hurt people rather than help them. Besides, it's just not how I'm wired. Maybe that's why Trump was now delivering the inaugural address and I was sitting in the crowd."

At times, the book gets a little too in-depth in areas of policy, as Clinton shares those issues which are most important to her and how she feels America could move forward. She also discusses areas she believes Democrats need to focus on in upcoming elections if they want to be successful.

But what makes What Happened so good is the raw emotion Clinton imbues it with. I read the book, I didn't listen to the audio version, but I could still hear her voice narrating it, and there were times when the things she said really choked me up. I can't imagine what it must be like to come so close to achieving a goal you spent nearly eight years of your life tirelessly pursuing, not to mention the disappointment you felt about letting your supporters down, but this book evoked those emotions so powerfully. She also wasn't afraid to show glimpses of her sense of humor and the generosity of her spirit.

I remember how disappointed I felt the night the election results came in, how I struggled to reconcile the country Trump and his supporters saw from the one I did. But if Hillary Clinton can persevere, I know I can.

"Things are going to be hard for a long time. But we are going to be okay. All of us."

See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....

[Erik Hovland · Rating 1 out of 5]

One star to offset those who have five starred to offset those who have one starred.

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This most personal and self-reflective of all Hillary Clinton’s books may not have taken a village to rear, but it did take half a squad: two speech writers (Dan Schwerin expository specialist, Megan Rooney narrative specialist), one researcher (Tony Carrk), and—of course—Hillary Clinton herself. But—wait a minute!—in the "Acknowledgments," right after Schwerin, Rooney, and Caark, comes a list of seven trusted advisers followed by another list of approximately ten dozen names of other people who also contributed their advice and insights. So I guess it did take a small village after all.

That’s Hillary for you. Scrupulous and precise (no anonymous ghost writers for her!), generous in her praise and acknowledgment, but so conscientious and exhaustive about every facet of her life and campaign that, after awhile, the eyes of even the most sympathetic acolyte must glaze over, the head of the most attentive reader begin to nod.

Yes, What Happened is quintessential Hillary. Which is why this “personal, self-reflective memoir” is 469 pages long (that is, if you don’t include the twenty page index).

Okay, just to let you know where I’m coming from: I voted for Bernie in the Ohio primary (as a DSA member for twenty years, I figured I owed him that much), but as soon as the last primary was over, I took off my very cool Shepard Fairey “Bernie” tee and exchanged it for a not-as-cool “Hillary” shirt. You see, I’ve always had a soft spot for Hillary. As a democratic socialist, I was of course frustrated with the way Bill and Hill moved the Dems to the right, but, since I’m almost as old as they are, I can remember how disheartening it was to be “clean for Gene” (McCarthy) and “on board for George” (McGovern), and then watch the Republicans win five out of six of the next presidential races. Sure, the Clintons' program was too centrist, detailed, and super-wonky for my taste, but at least they figured out how to win an election. Later, I sensed that, underneath the plate armor she donned against the attacks of the (very real) “vast right wing conspiracy” there was a woman who genuinely loved her husband and who cared for America’s least fortunate citizens, particularly its women and children. And when, in October of 2015, I watched all eleven hours of the Benghazi hearings (I’m retired now) and saw how seriously she kicked herself some Freedom Caucus butt, I began to look forward to the idea of President Hillary.

But back to the book. I’m sure it was a chore to write, and it is often a chore to read, what with the exhaustive lists of the people—the famous of course but also the humble (but exemplary)—she encountered on the campaign trail, her typical domestic routines (far too much information), and her extraordinarily specific plans for how President Hillary intended to make America better (I’m sorry, but you lost, and the detailed aspirations of a presidency which will never happen are best left to the specialists now). Moreover, even when the information Hillary and Co. gives us is worthwhile, it is often overly specific. For example, I was interested to learn that, in the wake of her loss, Hillary embraced the yogic practice of alternate nostril breathing; I did not, however, need to have this practice described to me in a paragraph of 150 words.

I have heard some say that Hillary is bitter and hateful in this book, but I did not find this to be true. She does have a few harsh words for Bernie (as well as some kind words too), but I think she is fair to him: his Santa-of-the-left routine did make her sound like a “spoilsport schoolmarm” and his attacks on her as the Candidate from Wall Street may well have hurt her in the general election. Her harshest comments, however, are reserved for the two people she sees—understandably—as most responsible for costing her the election (Comey and Putin), and for one other target, of which I heartily approve: Matt Lauer, the disgraced moderator of what was supposed to be a “Commander-in-Chief Forum,” who made it all about “but her emails!” once again. Trump? I detect no malice here: She treats him as a natural disaster, a four-year tornado that must be guarded against.

What are the best parts of the book? It is good on her emails, Russian involvement in the election, and the role of women in public life and politics, but it is even better when it tells a personal story or expresses a private sentiment about a particular event or person: the Commander-in-Chief Forum, the Final Debate Where Trump Looms, election night, Marian Wright Edelman, Dorothy Rodham, Bill Clinton.

My advice? Don’t read it if you’re a Hillary hater. But even if you’re not a hater, I’d advise you to skip a little, skim a lot. Life is too short for you to do as I did and read the whole darn thing through. But by all means dip into it, spend a little time with it, and you may find much here to interest you, more than a few things to anger you, and one or two things to make you cry.

I’ll end with one of my favorite parts, where Hillary talks about Bill and their marriage:

My marriage to Bill Clinton was the most consequential decision of my life. I said no the first two times he asked me. But the third time, I said yes. And I’d do it again.

I hesitated to say yes because I wasn’t quite prepared for marriage. I hadn’t figured out what I wanted my furture to be yet. And I knew that by marrying Bill, I would be running straight into a future far more momentous than any other I’d likely know. He was the most intense, brilliant, charismatic person I had ever met. He dreamt big. I, on the other hand, was practical and cautious. I knew that marrying him would be like hitching a ride on a comet. It took me a little while to get brave enough to take the leap….

We’ve certainly had dark days in our marriage. You know all about them—and please consider for a moment what it would be like for the whole world to know about the worst moments in your relationship. There were times that I was deeply unsure about whether our marriage could or should survive. But on those days, I asked myself the question that mattered most to me: Do I still love him? And can I still be in this marriage without becoming unrecognizable to myself—twisted by anger, resentment, or remoteness? The answers were always yes. So I kept going.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ended up liking What Happened more than I thought I would. I thought it would be boring because quite frankly I find Hillary Clinton to be boring. I wasn't though, it was surprisingly entertaining and made me like her a little more. She spends way more time talking about her family, friends, and upbringing, than about the most shocking and upsetting political loss in history. I personally think Hillary Clinton is leading a far more full life than had she been elected. The American people are worse off but Hillary is fine.

Full Disclosure: I voted for her. I'm a black woman so Why in HELL would I vote a racist?

I voted for her because there was no other choice. I'm happy I voted for her and everyday I feel better about my vote.

I'm not going to recommend this book to anyone because I find its hard to find people who don't already have a preconceived notion about Hillary or any politician. I don't really understand why someone who hates Hillary would read this, unless they just enjoy being mad. At the end of the day Hillary is rich and has really great health insurance. Do you?

[James Love · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book should be titled Why Am I Less Popular Than Syphilis?: Or the Most Expensive Roll of Toilet Paper that Refuses to Take Crap Off Anybody's @$$. I wonder how long it will be before this is found to be as plagiarized as her devotional book. This is self-serving delusional thinking on par with L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics. The Church of HRC is once again attempting to re-create Saint Hillary.

This is the same woman who as Secretary of State, who's duties include:

Serves as the President's principal adviser on U.S. foreign policy;
Conducts negotiations relating to U.S. foreign affairs;
Grants and issues passports to American citizens and exequaturs to foreign consuls in the United States;
Advises the President on the appointment of U.S. ambassadors, ministers, consuls, and other diplomatic representatives;
Advises the President regarding the acceptance, recall, and dismissal of the representatives of foreign governments;
Personally participates in or directs U.S. representatives to international conferences, organizations, and agencies;
Negotiates, interprets, and terminates treaties and agreements;
Ensures the protection of the U.S. Government to American citizens, property, and interests in foreign countries;
Supervises the administration of U.S. immigration laws abroad;
Provides information to American citizens regarding the political, economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian conditions in foreign countries;
Informs the Congress and American citizens on the conduct of U.S. foreign relations;
Promotes beneficial economic intercourse between the United States and other countries;
Administers the Department of State;
Supervises the Foreign Service of the United States. - https://www.state.gov/secretary/11519...)

refused to listen or fight for an American ambassador under her security and protection who was also supposed to be her friend. She ignored his written requests for assistance and the dangerous conditions occurring in Benghazi, Libya. Deleted emails from an illegal computer server hidden in her Martha's Vineyard Summer Home in a back bathroom. While campaigning on a platform of listening and fighting for every American citizen and creating a more transparent government accountability. A campaign that included collusion with members of the media to obtain the debate questions and taking votes from Bernie Sanders and in typical socialist fashion redistributing them to "the less but more deserving candidate (HRC). This is the same candidate that allowed 20% of U. S. Uranium deposits to be given to a Russian mining business with U. S. offices and then accused her opponent of collusion with the Russian government. Her and her husband collected millions for Haitian disaster relief that never got to Haiti.

Saint Hillary's friends always end up dead or in prison which begs the question, "With friends like you, who needs an enema?" I highly recommend that this book be read and then read The Clintons' War on Women and The Bush Crime Family by Roger Stone. A true student reads all sides of the issues before making informed decisions. The scariest part of this book is the sincerity that it's author imparts. This book shows how easily HRC can manipulate the narrative to show insincerity as a form of Uber-sincerity.

https://youtu.be/wEO0PqWj_iM

[Malia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot has been said and written about What Happened, and I won't add much more. What I will say is this: It is not a book by an angry, bitter, "nasty" woman. People have very strong feelings about Hillary Clinton. Some will be happy to bash this book - often without having read it - as a self-indulgent tome by a woman who cannot be a good loser. It is not. The book is about her loss, yes, how could it not be, and her bewilderment, sadness and regret. There is some blame, but not only on others. She tells her story, which does not only encompass the past two years. Anecdotes of her family, her colleagues, her professional and personal existence make What Happened a book about a life, not only a campaign. She focuses on people and her achievements and goals, which highlights how incredibly qualified she would have been and provides a stark contrast to the current president. Some say Clinton should fade away, be quiet, accept her defeat. The latter she is forced to do, but not the former. She lost the electoral vote, yes, but she gained the title of the first woman who even came close to attaining the US presidency. As much as she may have riled some, she inspired many others.
And for what it is worth, I'm still with her.

Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com

[Stephanie *Eff your feelings* · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hiking in the woods with Bogey, my dog, yesterday when I notice a woman with a familiar face walking with her two dogs approaching me on the trail.... then I notice all the people in black meandering through the woods around her, and it dawned on me....

"Hey Hillary! I can't believe it! What are you doing in Ohio? Are you getting a jump on 2020....doing a bit of the old campaigning?" I asked. "I'm NEVER going through that again, I'm done being a candidate.....DONE! I have a book tour stop nearby." at which point she pulled out a flask and a couple of glasses.

"Want a glass of chardonnay?" She asked me. "Um, yes....of course and I hope there's more where that came from. Hell, Hill I'm putting Chardonnay in my morning smoothie, which consists of Chardonnay, chardonnay, ice with a splash of vodka and a dash of protein powder ever since the Putin Puppet marionetted his way into the white house. " I replied. She pours us both a glass and we sit on a nearby bench. "of course there's more! The secret service not only protects me, they carry some backup as well." she said with a grin. "I'm sorry, but I didn't get your name." "Oh sorry, I'm Stephanie." We shake hands. "It's nice to meet you Stephanie."

"I read your book, What Happened, and I read that you like the Chardonnay." I said, "I like chardonnay almost as much as Bill likes balloons!" She said, and we chuckle and chuckle.... then we sit in silence as we stare off into space for a good long while.

"So....Hill..... What in the hell happened?" I ask and she drops her head down and slowly shakes it back and forth, picks it up and takes a drink. "Well, it was a whole bunch of things Stephanie....you read the book... Russia all out cyber attacked us, Putin hates me and the feeling is mutual; the Republican's are treasonous bastards, Mitch was told of the cyber attack prior to the election and did absolutely nothing....party over country; Comey stabbed me in the back with that ridiculous letter and for sure cost me the election; propaganda from Fox and from Russian bots on facebook really hurt me...... I made mistakes with my campaign and I take full responsibility for them, but that doesn't change the fact that I was also up against all that other stuff and still I won the popular vote by over 3 million votes!"

"I'll drink to that!" I say and we clink glasses. "You got more votes than any other white man ever to have run for the office...EVER....hick...! ***blurrp*** " So.... fuck the electoral college! What's their purpose anyway if it's not to keep lunatic fascists out out of the white house?" I slur. "I'm pretty sure I heard Alexander Hamilton sing about that fact....hick....ugh... and fuck all the people telling you to shut up and go away. Don't go away."....*sniff*..."I'm not going anywhere." she smiles.

"Are you okay Stephanie?" she asks as she pours us another glass. "Sure...I'm fine...*burp* but would you be so kind as to drop me off at my house? I think I'm done hiking for the day....Hey, aren't your two dogs Shih-poos? Bogey here is a shih-poo.... hey we both have shih-poos ....aren't they the best dogs ever?!?" She laughs "yes they are, Stephanie." She raises her glass and so do I "To the United States of America!" she says..."To the United States of America.." and we finish our wine.

We make our way to the cars and get in...."Nice limo, Hill"....

I don't care if you don't like Hillary Clinton and she probably doesn't care either. She wrote this book for those of us who wanted to hear 'what happened' from her perspective, the perspective of the winner. I highly recommend this book, it's fascinating. Even if you don't like her, you'd probably would like her book.

That's all I have to say about that... unless there will be trolls to battle. Heh heh.... 3...2...1 and....

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are already zillions of reviews....and it took me forever to get this book from the library... ( ebook) ... I’m still on the waitlist for the Audiobook.

Here are a few of my ‘LATE-TO-THE-PARTY’ THOUGHTS....

It must be very odd for Hillary... “being in her shoes”..
Her conflicting feelings must be an ongoing ongoing ongoing-basically never ending conflict!!! Happy if Trump is failing?/! yet crazy worried for Americans and the world at large.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Hilary was real.

I shared Hilary’s anger when after the election many people ( young women mostly) said they were so sorry they didn’t do more - they didn’t even vote.
Hilary was thinking ...( but didn’t say )..
“YOU WANT ME TO FEEL SORRY FOR YOU”....for not voting?
As it turns out - would it have made any difference anyway? She won the popular vote. Something is so wrong with this system today!!!

I also share the same thoughts as Hilary when she said ....
“As an American I’m worried about our country, as for me, I’m doing ok”.


Maybe I was late to the party, but this book was still worth reading!!!!!

[Owlseyes]

"When you lose to somebody who has 40% popularity, you don't blame other things -- Comey, Russia -- you blame yourself," Chuck Schumer

You lost it. You lost. Elizabeth Warren has a chance now, you don't. You lost. Blame the mainstream media which supported you; those papers that endorsed you; those who said your opponent would never win. You lost. Blame the fake polls up to the last minute of the election; check the 8th of November 2016 in The New York Times.



You may even blame Nate Silver and Comey and the Democratic Party infrastructure. Nevertheless, you lost. Still, you may blame Wikileaks . Yet, you lost. Right, blame Brexit. In the end, you lost.

(The Week, November 11, 2016)

--
Hillary Clinton to 'let her guard down' in candid 2016 election memoir
in: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Democrats Fret as Clinton Book Rollout Looms
in: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articl...

Clinton’s score-settling frustrates Democrats
In: http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/...

Hillary Clinton’s new book blasts Republicans and Russia. She’s 100 percent right.
in: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...

The Strange Authenticity of Hillary Clinton
in: http://www.politico.com/magazine/stor...

UPDATE
2019
She's found another explaining factor for her loss: the Voting Rights Act.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/hillary...

Ha! Her e-mails turned into art.

UPDATE
2020

It will be interesting seeing Hillary supporting Bernie Sanders. If.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn....

She supports Biden.

UPDATE
2022
Fined!

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/ne...

UPDATE
2023


Hillary "profound sadness" on Trump's indictments. Really? How profound?
https://nypost.com/2023/08/15/hillary...

UPDATE 2024
"Round 2". What???

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/...

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It takes a village to raise a child, but only a single politician to destroy that village and a bigoted wing of a political party to sully the fabric of a country. And that became clear on January 20, 2017, when Donald Trump assumed the office of President of the United States (though I still think he thought he’d bought Twitter and was just given a large office from which to offer inane social commentary). With the country unsure of what lay ahead, many were still asking themselves ‘what happened?’, including the Democratic Party’s candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton. This book seeks not only to analyse what happened during the campaign and on the lead-up to Election Day, but also instil into the reader some of the key issues at hand, as well as given personal insight into those issues from the losing candidate. There are, surely, some degree of sour grapes, but not from a bitter perspective. Clinton does not come across as a sore loser, but one who had a deck stacked against her. She discusses some of the key hurdles she faced, as well as two overwhelming issues (Russia and the FBI) that proved devastating to a campaign that sought to shatter glass ceilings once and for all. A wonderful piece for all those who want a closer look at Election 2016 without all the academic analysis. Clinton personalises much of the book in a sensible fashion, which will likely keep readers pleasantly surprised.

The US Presidential election in 2016 made history, of that there is no doubt. On the one hand, the Democrats nominated the first female as their candidate, while on the other, the Republicans chose a racist fear-monger who could not brag enough about his misogynistic ways. Surely, historians will have a field day with this in the next fifty years. With both camps armed and ready to go, it would seem that the list of hot button issues would shape the campaign and give voters something on which they could chew throughout the final months. Both Clinton and Trump had worked hard to etch out of their own positions throughout the primaries, facing daunting opponents, but sticking to their guns and presenting the general public with the most dichotomous set of beliefs possible. Issues such as women’s rights, minorities, socio-economic diversity, international diplomacy, executive branch continuity, and constitutional integrity prove interesting threads that emerge throughout the book. As Clinton discusses these areas, she also personalises it with her own take on events. Professional and personal experience are plentiful and she is able to spin things to show a more heart-felt approach to the entire process. That these issues reverberate throughout the narrative and help drive a wedge between the two candidates is an understatement, but it is surely Clinton’s reason for bringing them up so often.

While most campaigns are all about the issues, Clinton faced two major opponents that could not be debated away or reprimanded by the electorate. FBI involvement in the campaign, albeit indirectly, causes many headaches for Clinton, as she tried to explain her personal emails/server issue to the reader. I am no expert, but Clinton expressed that her use of a personal email was by no means a first amongst Secretaries of State, nor were there any known leaks or information of a highly classified nature that could have placed the United States in peril. The James Comey (FBI Director) insistence that there may be something criminal (or at least ethically problematic) could only serve to tip the balance against Clinton. The ongoing investigation and struggles left the American public uncertain if any wrongdoing had been uncovered, and the cryptic public sentiments made by Comey leading up to the election helped brand Clinton in a horrible way. The direct (and illegal) involvement of Russian money and meddling in the election, through social media, proved to sway the opinions of many with things that appeared online or could be found with a simple click of a cursor. I hate to use the phrase, but the amount of fake news that was floating around surely kept some of the electorate in dismay, forced to choose between two evils. It is stunning to hear what Clinton has been able to piece together on this topic. I cannot wait for more of the formal inquiry findings, at least until they are silenced. (Might this be what we all need to begin impeachment hearings?) Holding their noses, the vast majority of Americans made a choice, though I do wonder if they would have held the same opinion had all the information been readily available.

What I enjoyed most about the book was that it was not a sob story or a recitation of all the bad things done to Clinton, but an exploration of the entire election cycle, from primary fights with Bernie, through to the bitter defeat at the polls. Clinton came knocking on the glass ceiling (twice the bridesmaid, never the bride) and it would not shatter, though this is not her sole concern. The narrative is full of poignant and well-grounded thoughts about the America that chose Trump and where that will lead until 2020, when a course correction may be in order. Clinton also provides some stunning commentary from what she has seen of POTUS and his choices, using filters discussed throughout the book. This is a telling book that takes the reader through many of the areas of greatest strain in the country, which have surely been exacerbated by the election of Donald Trump. Bigotry, racism, misogyny, and elitism provide the foundation for a set of beliefs owned by the man occupying the Oval Office. While there have surely been others who have dabbled in these areas of divisiveness, it is more than the leader, the person elected to represent the populace, refuses to look outside his narrow view and govern with the best interests of all in mind. Then again, any jackass can knock down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one!

Kudos, Madam Clinton, for such insightful thoughts for all to share. I know some will scream #fakenews at every page turn, but we cannot expect the ignorant to be able to hold meaningful and well-rounded discussions without rushing back under their rocks. I await November 3, 2020 to see how the public will react, though I am close to positive we need only read Twitter feeds the moment the impeachment vote is tallied in the Senate.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[Jaidee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 "intelligent, insightful, healing" stars !!!

2017 Honorable Mention Read

I am not one to follow politics and yet this last election in the USA had me riveted. I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing in the land to the south of us. A tyrannical man was not only nominated but in the end, he won. How could this be ? What does this mean for my American friends and my native land of Canada ?

I took Ms. Hilary Clinton with me to Europe in order to find out her perspective. I was not expecting much as I did not think much of her but through reading this book my opinion for her has changed as well as feeling a lot of empathy for her difficult experience and the affection I feel for her policies, viewpoints and ways of being in the world.

Ms. Clinton is a very talented writer that guides the reader from beginning to end, her experience of the past presidential election. She talks about minutiae such as her wardrobe choices and the food they eat on the road to explanations of very complicated events that make sense and are surprisingly well-balanced, gracious and fair !!

Ms. Clinton comes across as extremely intelligent, hardworking, collaborative, caring but also a bit smug, perhaps arrogant. I imagine some of this is for self-preservation. Imagine having many millions of people hating you, vilifying you at times even harassing and persecuting you. You need a thick skin and a good sense of self and values in order to survive that.

I appreciate her policies around healthcare, women and children, workers, people of color and LGBT rights. She is a wise feminist that loves men but also understands the limitations and constraints of WASP heterosexist patriarchal systems. She does not vilify these groups but wants to understand their frustrations with the many social changes that they too are experiencing. I am very proud of her for that. She also believes in fiscal responsibility and is a stickler for policy and policy change. I think a blind spot for her is her relative privilege and that she sometimes minimizes how immensely wealthy she and her family are and how most people do have to struggle a bit more in the day to day than she does. This is not a criticism, simply an observation.

I think Hilary was strong enough to admit her errors in misreading particular segments of society but most of all for underestimating the Donald's appeal to many segments of disgruntled American society.

Don't get me started on the email scandal which was a complete witch hunt ! Ridiculous !

I am very proud that she has run for president and although I am not certain that she would have been one of the greats she certainly would have tried her best and kept her love of America front and foremost in her decision making.

Hilary...ya I do...I wanna give you a great big Hug !!

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

First let me just stress this point - no matter what your political ideology this book is very important. It is important for two reasons: because it is a post mortem of the most vicious political battle in recent history and because Hillary Clinton looks at her role in this stunning defeat. While I did not agree with all the points she made I do believe it is her attempt to come to terms with this stunning loss. Going forward both parties need to realize that there is a political entrenchment that is being dug deeper than ever before - and no man's land is shrinking as the trenches cover the country - cutting through both blue and red states alike.

[Christine Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've preordered Hillary Clinton's book and am giving it 5 stars in advance to help offset the actions of her haters, who also haven't read her book but are giving it 1 star apiece in an attempt to hold down her sales and her side of the story. Almost 100 years ago another group of authoritarian "Christian" men and their wives stood against the suffragettes, and they were wrong too. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but misogyny won the election.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the week or so it took me to read this book, I noticed that the reaction from my friends was almost universally the same. While discussing our latest books, the exchange would go something like this:

Me: "I'm reading Hillary Clinton's book."

Friend: "Wow. I don't think I could handle that. It's just too upsetting."

Me: "It's actually rather comforting."

Friend: "What? Huh? Please explain."

Me: "Well, I'm listening to Hillary read it on audio, and it's nice to hear her voice, to remember that she's still around and wanting to do good in the world. She is so smart and thoughtful, and she has great insights into the 2016 presidential election and the state of our country. In the last year, I have read countless articles and several books trying to understand how the most qualified person to ever run for U.S. president lost to that disgusting moron. But if I really want to try and understand what happened during the election, I need to go to the source: I need to hear what Hillary says. She suffered through it more than anyone else, and her story is worthwhile."

Friend: "That's a good point. You're turning me around on this."

Me: "I'm glad to hear it. And the book isn't all election doom and gloom. Hillary also shares some uplifting stories from her life. She lets down her guard and is more open about her feelings. She's got a dry sense of humor that made me chuckle. She wrote this great section on feminism and sexism, and she had this line (which I'll paraphrase): 'When I first heard the term Mansplaining, I thought, yes, we needed a word for that.'"

Friend: "Ha! Hillary has probably been mansplained to more than any woman in modern times!"

Me: "I know! She's put up with so much sexism and bullshit in her career I'm amazed she isn't totally bitter and cynical. But she still has hope, and includes suggestions for how we can climb out of this mess. Overall, I would highly recommend the book."

Friend: "Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out. I hope you get to read something lighter after this."

Me: "I'll try. Happy reading to you, too!"

[Esil · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I finish a book, I usually write a review almost instantly and I do it quickly trying to go from the gut. For some reason, I've been dawdling over my review of What Happened.

I listened to the audio as I walked to and from work over the last several weeks. In parallel, being the news junky that I am, I have watched the ongoing craziness south of the border. This is not a perfect book and Hillary Clinton is not perfect, but Jeez Louise, really?

My favourite parts of the book are those where she speaks about who she is -- her family, her personality, her education and early career, Bill and Chelsea, and her core values. She comes across as polished, careful and reserved, but also as caring and compassionate. If this is who she is, surely these are all qualities that would have made her an excellent president.

Not to mention her intelligence, deep understanding and commitment to so many issues. And I love her concluding call for "deep empathy" -- the need for people to try to understand each other and try to work together across their differences -- a concept that resonates acutely with me.

The middle felt a bit saggy, which explains my 4 stars. There was a bit too much rehashing and discussion about issues that felt an awful lot like she was still on the campaign trail.

But, again, what a missed opportunity for Americans and the world. And what an amazing role model she would have been for our daughters...

Clinton reads the audio herself. It's well worth listening to her tell her story in her own voice.

[Whitney Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

I definitely was sobbing so hard while listening to this that I had to pause the audiobook and cuddle my blankie. It ripped open old wounds from January 2017 and fleshed out Hillary's side to the election that I was previously blind to. I've tried to read political books before and gotten lost in all of the policy discussion, but every page of this made sense because I read every article she referenced and I lived through and clicked away from all the discussion surrounding this election. It was like a punch in the gut to relive it, but it was also comforting and empowering to know Hillary's stance on why the election panned out as it did and how to move on from it. I loved that there were sections dedicated to feminism, the emails, russia, and election night. This was sectioned off so well, and the balance between personal stories and others' research and talk about policy kept me engaged.

I listened to this on audio and there were several impactful moments because Hillary is its narrator, but I'm also finding myself grappling to remember details because I'm sure I would have read this much closer had I picked it up physically, which is why I removed .5 stars. Nevertheless, I'm so glad this won the Goodreads award because it deserves it.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book flies in the beginning, slows later on, but despite the vicissitudes, I couldn't put it down.

I voted for Bernie Sanders in the presidential primaries, and his book, Our Revolution , was the first I read about the election.

The second related book I read more recently, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump , and it was like an infusion of sanity.

What Happened feels like the third in a medicinal trilogy. It is healing to read a funny (the specifics of the phone and email stuff are laugh-out-loud funny!), articulate, sane person admit her flaws, take responsibility for most of them, introspectively process what happened, learn, and consider new policies and future actions in a more open way because of it.

I am amazed by the reviews that say she blames everybody else for what happened. It simply isn't true. Yes, she's angry at plenty of people, but she mostly is analytical and takes full responsibility. For instance, for the bad choice to make speeches to big business. Also, she explains her alliances in order to raise funds—she doesn't say she did the right thing; she says it was necessary in today's environment and will go on being necessary until there is campaign finance law change. I get it. (And if anybody thinks the current cabinet billionaire cronies with zero experience in their departments, who are dismantling their offices and taking tax-payer-funded private jets for personal pleasure is a swamp-clearing, I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you.) She reports the many times she was pushed and rather than get as outraged as Bernie Sanders did, she did the female thing: "I remained polite, albeit exasperated, and I played the political game as it used to be, not as it would become. That was a mistake." She gets it. However, she does use this book to rehash what happened, offer different analyses, examining them all, and in some cases say what she wishes she would have done (used a government email) or said or not said; perhaps that feels like blaming to some readers. (To that, I would ask: Imagine a man responding as she is now doing in this book. Would you call that blaming? Or strong analysis and post mortem in order to learn? Rhetorical questions. I don't want to debate this review. And perhaps I am doing the girl thing by saying that. So be it. I don't like fighting and have a right to choose not to.)

Clinton says she wore her composure like a suit of armor. This is verbatim: "I wear my composure like a suit of armor, for better or worse. In some ways, it felt like I had been training for this latest feat of self-control for decades." And then she proceeds to explain how all that became her M.O. in what is essentially a first-person account of the historic and ongoing struggle for women's equal rights and humane treatment in the workplace. I was with her every step of the way. And I marvel that any woman who works would not understand the tightrope walking she describes to get the job done while also not triggering judgments and resentments that no man in similar circumstances faces.

The material about her daughter brought me to tears. And you don't have to be a mother to feel this—I'm not.

The section on emails, government classification of emails, press coverage of those two issues, and James Comey reads like a Kafka story. Both hilarious and scream-worthy: the Salem witch trials seen from a rational point of view. I changed my opinion about several things because I never understood this level of detail before! Who could? It takes a book, and it is so much easier to listen to sound bites or half-baked opinions about partial facts. I admit I was wrong on several counts. I'm sorry.

Her researched chronology about the Russia attack on not only our election but our psyches is a much needed call to arms. (The attack is ongoing and it remains shocking to me how blasé so many of us are about this, preferring our righteous anger to facts about what's inflating it.)

My one beef with Sanders's book (I bought the hardcover) was a lack of an index. The first part was story but the second part was pure education with no way to find it out of context. Clinton has a complete index at the end of her book (for me, a Kindle, with a careful explanation that the page numbers apply to the hard copy, but if I click them, I'll go to the correct place in the e-book). And there was way more personal story, blow-by-blow of the campaign, and a mind-numbing level of detail in the final analysis of why she lost. However there was far less than Sanders on evergreen issues (trade, health care, education, etc.) to mull over for the future. So together these books really work as a comprehensive source.

Identical to Sanders's book, there are endless references to all the people on Clinton's team and in her life who help and support her efforts. It sometimes got tiresome to read so many names, but it is honest crediting and derives from a generosity of spirit. Both Sanders and Clinton innately function with this spirit and therefore their accounts of their own histories and the histories of their campaigns are infused with gratitude. (Oh, how I miss this in our current politics.) And with all the details of people, policy thinking, and the process of politics, both books offer a valuable and complete historical record that one day may contribute to a bird's-eye-view understanding of what is going on.

Yes, there is pain and resentment—for instance, when Bernie Sanders moved from his position on national single-payer health insurance to one that accommodates improving ACA, which is what Clinton advocates. She seems to miss that he also moved the conversation to health care as a right (or what I prefer to call "infrastructure," because nobody is a "consumer" when they're deathly ill. There is no possibility of cost comparison or making sure that doctors are on your plan or that you happen to have had your heart attack in your own state. In my opinion, asking states to come up with policies is like telling drivers they must pay a toll every single time they change roads. We will all eventually need health care, the same as we need roads and bridges! End of tirade.) But I certainly understand her feelings. She is human, somebody disagreed with her, used it against her, and then came over to her way of thinking. I've gotten pissed when that's happened to me. (And in a later chapter, she does acknowledge the merits of influencing the overall health care conversation.)

As with Sanders's book, when I read her deep, personal involvement with people and the way she translated this into creating policy—using facts, research, history, science, whatever was necessary—her ability to expand big enough to hold all this feeling and information put me in a state of awe. But she feels a similar humility and awe in the face of all the people who share their stories with her. So we have a circle of awe and appreciation. (This is reminiscent of what I experienced when she was my senator during 9/11. How nice it was to have a real human being who voiced her admiration of all the welders who were first responders. I vividly recall her simple statement that she didn't know how to cut metal pipes and how grateful she was for their expertise and selfless work. She was one of us and she spoke for all of us. And I met that person again in this book.)

So even though I still don't agree with her on everything—I certainly take issue with her flippant denial of the fact that the DNC rigged the primary in her favor (the case was dismissed because it was found that the DNC had no legal obligation not to be biased), and I'm not at all sanguine about the Democratic party which created the Sanders/Clinton rift without need of Russian trolls (who certainly helped it along) and whose refusal to acknowledge responsibility and abdication of ethics (see new Donna Brazile article: "If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity.") may be responsible for the fury of people who voted for third-party candidates or didn't vote—despite all this, I really do like and admire Hillary Clinton and I'm glad I voted for her in the election . . . just like 65,844,610 other Americans—a majority of three million.

In summary, this is a well-written necessary history, I'm grateful for it, I certainly better understand the woman who wrote it—she elicited in me the "radical empathy" she calls for at the end of the book—and I kind of love her.

***
11/4/17 UPDATE for anybody who is seething after having read the Donna Brazile excerpt (linked in this review, above).

Yes, the primary was biased. This is old news that was settled in court in August. If you are just learning about it now and are enraged, I have some thoughts for you.

For most of my life I functioned like a feral animal, judging everyone on only 2 criteria: safe/unsafe. You miss the truth by doing that. You condemn a complex person or event and reduce it to one thing. I drafted my review of What Happened as I read the book. This is a great exercise in seeing a whole picture: I constantly added thoughts as I read different sections, revising the whole. And I came away with a huge picture and the experience presented. As I say in the review, I was angry about her flippant denial of the DNC stuff, but there was much more there.

Yes, I'm angry that the primary wasn't a fair fight. However according to the August court papers, the DNC had no legal obligation to be unbiased. This is the truth and it sucks. It is not new news!

To descend into self-destructive fighting because of that now is just that: self-destruction.

Now is the time to deal with NOW.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't sure I could relive the trauma of the election. But too many people are telling her to be quiet. And you know how I feel about telling women to shut up? It just makes me want them to be louder.

If the Democratic party is to continue, it would do well to think very thoughtfully about what went wrong in 2016. Luckily, HRC had a front row seat to it, and is probably the best person to tell us.

ACTUAL REVIEW TIME

This was as difficult to read as I could imagine. There were a lot of tears, frustration, fear, grief.

But ultimately, this is why you should read this book:

"I understand why some people don't want to hear anything that sounds remotely like 'relitigating' the election. People are tired. Some are traumatized. Others are focused on keeping the discussion about Russia in the national security realm and away from politics. I get all that. But it's important that we understand what really happened. Because that's the only way we can stop it from happening again" (393).

I've seen a lot of critics (mostly who haven't read it) that this is a book where HRC dodges the blame. Nothing can be further from the truth. "I was the candidate" she says over and over. These were her decisions, how to act and not act in the face of an election cycle we've never seen before. But the forces that she was working against seem insurmountable.

But they're not.

We're in a cyber war with Russia whether we know it or not. Most Republicans don't know it. We have to tell them.

Let's get to work. There's an election on Tuesday, there's an election next year. I'm committed to helping where I can and when I can. You should too.

[Margitte]

What a remarkable woman. What a story.

However, I started reading this memoir of a woman who could have become the most powerful person in the world, and suddenly I just could not continue reading. Honestly, I had enough of the bickering, mudslinging, power play and mad politics. The press will not allow us to get away from it, and then it continues in memoirs like this.

I read 50% and put it aside. Not Hillary's writing's fault. She is a remarkably good writer, unless I missed the name of the ghost writer somewhere. To do what she did, is almost beyond totally inhumane as far as energy, guts and determination is concerned. She did not have to spell it out in the book as she so eloquently did. Everyone who has been there knows exactly what she's talking about and can appreciate her even more for going that route. It is an ungrateful life, with enemies in every hook, cranny and unthinkable outpost of the universe. The choice requires unimaginable strength of character.

The memoir is about the good bad and exciting. There were just too much self-slapping-on-the-back, or self-promotion in it. An almost desperate effort to be loved and heard, as though the press did not grant her enough opportunities already. She was the chosen winner after all. The Anointed. Yet, the complete Hillary, according to her, never surfaced and the world need to know who she really is.

Instead of trying to explain my own feelings around the book, I would rather paste a word or two by theguardian.com's review:
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton review – entertainingly mean but essentially wrong-headed

The announcement of an autopsy by Hillary Clinton of the 2016 election raised a distressing possibility: the defeated candidate was back. After 25 years in the public eye, she simply could not leave the political arena, and her campaign memoir would play prelude to the next phase, no matter how badly US politics needed new blood. We needn’t have worried. What Happened is quite different from Clinton’s careful, tedious autobiographies. Those books tried to sell a wise and relatable candidate to the public, while playing down controversies. Her new book is more gossipy, it is meaner, more entertaining and more wrong-headed than anything she or her speechwriters have written before.

The memoir aims to be a holistic tale of a complicated woman. I might continue reading when my mood changes. I just got too bored with the self-aggrandizement. It is expected of a memoir like this, but good heavens, I'm not in the mood for it right now. I also downloaded Big Agenda: President Trump's Plan To Save America by David Horowitz, but now will put that aside as well. I need some air!

So, no rating at this point. However, as a memoir it is very well written - if she was the actually author.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

9/12/17
Unlike some people - I'm actually going to wait until AFTER I read the book, to give it a rating. Imagine having enough free time to randomly rate a book they haven't (and probably won't) bother to read, simply to try and cancel out someone else's rating.

9/14. Finished.
Was it a perfect book? No. It went on a bit too long, and it seemed a little rambling at times.
But, overall I found it to be insightful and moving.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a big supporter of Clinton in the 2016 election and am about 3/4 through the book because SHOCKER I WAITED UNTIL READING IT TO WRITE A REVIEW.

Clinton has an absolute right to write whatever she wants. She has been in politics for decades. She has done advocacy work. She arguably had the most relevant experience of any presidential candidate in American history. She was pilloried by the press, targeted by Russia, and won by 3+ million votes. Bernie Sanders lost to her in the primary, published a book, and no one is asking him to go away (okay, I am in this review, but in the general political sphere, I haven't seen any vitriolic, hysterical calls for him to sit down and shut up) I pre-ordered her book along with millions of other people who actually wanted to hear what she had to say. I wasn't disappointed.

I don't understand why people think she's not taking responsibility for her loss; she does from the introduction on. But she also explains why Russian interference, the media, Bernie, and Comey had an impact on the election, which they absolutely did; most pundits agree that she might have won if Anthony Weiner could have kept it in his pants and Comey had made as much noise about Trump and Russia as he did about her emails.

Aside from the content, I'm finding this to be a very readable book. Her voice is humorous and yes, authentic. Her thoughts about the future of the Democratic Party are relevant. Her experiences dealing with sexism resonated with me and millions of other women who have experienced a modicum of what she's dealt with. I think her contributions are invaluable for anyone who is scared for the future of this country, particularly any women who may be thinking of running for office or taking a more public role in policy-making.

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe later I will give it another chance. Not today, though.

I'll give it 3 stars, so far. For the effort. Maybe I'll review it later. We'll see.

Just a few takeouts of what NOT to do or say if you are running for office:
Q: I’m not saying that all Trump voters are racist or xenophobic. (c) Yeah, right. You're just labelling an unknown quantity of them.

Q: When I said, “You could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,” I was talking about well-documented reality. (c) I'd really love to see that documentation of that reality. Just imagine documents stating that someone is 'deplorable' and belongs to a basket. Nice, huh.

Q: Generalizing about a broad group of people is almost always unwise. And I regret handing Trump a political gift with my “deplorables” comment. I know that a lot of well-intentioned people were insulted because they misunderstood me to be criticizing all Trump voters. I’m sorry about that. (c) Yeah, offending your voters is generally a losing strategy. Here I concur. Why it would have occurred to a mature politician only after the deed, that's the million dollar question.

Q: But too many of Trump’s core supporters do hold views that I find—there’s no other word for it—deplorable. (c) And here we go again. 'I'm sorry but you're deplorable'. Hillary, people have the right to believe in whatever Buddha they prefer, you can't just offend people because you don't like their views. That's democracy for you: people are entitled to have differing opinions you don't share.

Q: But whatever Trump was up to was just the latest in a long-term Republican strategy to discourage and disenfranchise Democratic-leaning voters. (c) Yeah, when you have 2 parties they are likely to be opposing each other. Only to be expected, no? Or what, was Mr Trump expected to help Democrats win?

Q: The use of private email didn’t start with me. It also didn’t end with me. (c) Nice. So there was no need for Russian hackers. Or any hackers. Any bored kid could hack that... Half the government was using private unprotected mail accounts, according to the author. Freaking fantastic!

Q: Unfortunately, most people didn’t read the emails; they just knew what the press and the Republicans said about them, so they figured they must contain some dark, mysterious secrets. (c) No, people did realise those were mostly mundane. What people didn't understand is how the hell can a person that is supposed to work for the highest echelones of government, be that lax about security. There could have been things discussed that are NOT supposed to be stored unprotected at google.com or wherever. And that there seems to be a systemic problem, doesn't mean that is was ok to store state secrets among all the lasagna recipes at random places. Cooking and state business might be best kept separately.

Q: I had nothing to hide, and I thought that if the public actually read all of these thousands of messages, many people would see that my use of a personal account was never an attempt to cover up anything nefarious. (c) Whatever. Work emails are invented and implemented for a purpose. And it's not to discover whether you are up to something nasty. It's to protect information from undue disclosure. How can a person not know that after being under investigation, beats me. Posturing, that's what it is.

Q:
For example, an email from Dennis Ross, one of our country’s most experienced diplomats, was declared classified retroactively. It described back-channel negotiations he’d conducted with Israelis and Palestinians as a private citizen back in 2011. Government officials had already cleared him to publish the same information in a book, which he had done, but now different officials were trying to classify it. “It shows the arbitrariness of what is now being classified,” Dennis observed.
Something similar happened to Henry Kissinger around the same time. The State Department released the transcript of a 1974 conversation about Cyprus between then-Secretary of State Kissinger and the director of the CIA, but much of the text was blacked out because it was now considered classified. This puzzled historians because State had published the full, unredacted transcript eight years before in an official history book . . . and on the department’s website!
....
The second shot was both completely unexpected and inappropriate. Comey said that although my State Department colleagues and I had not violated the law about handling classified information, we—all three hundred of us who had written emails later classified—were nevertheless “extremely careless.” He said the FBI had found that “the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified email systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.” It was one thing to go after me, but disparaging the entire State Department was totally out-of-bounds and revealed how much age-old institutional rivalries between agencies colored this entire process. (c) From the above fragments it does infer that the 'security culture WAS severely lacking'. Any audit would have pointed that out. Was the guy supposed to LIE about that lack of security culture? Lying by omission would still be lying.

Q: The Times, as usual, played an outsized role in shaping the coverage of my emails throughout the election. To me, the paper’s approach felt schizophrenic. It spent nearly two years beating me up about emails, but its glowing endorsement applied some sanity to the controversy. Then, in the homestretch of the race, when it mattered most, the paper went right back to its old ways. (c) Papers, NT included, should be allowed to publish whatever they deem necessary. This fragment to me feels as if NT was unduly influenced by Ms Clinton's supporters to portray a favourable picture of her. I might be mistaken and this might be just a case of her wishful thinking, though.

Q: The Times was taken to task by its ombudsman for downplaying the seriousness of Russia’s meddling. (c) What meddling? The proof is still unmentionable. Where is the proof? Who paid who? Who hacked what exactly? What information was accessed and changed to what extent and with what results? What systems have been breached and what was the result of it? The published reports are a discussion on Internet trolls activities, which is not exactly the proof one envisions here.
And don't get me started on the trolls, because it looks as if trolls, freaking trolls (!), are subjected to severe dicrimination now. Pro-Hillary trolls, which had quite a trollfest, are ok and not worthy of investigations. And pro-Trump trolls have been investigated for what, a year?... To no results, of course, but hey, it's easier to spend the taxpayers' money on fiction investigations than on Irma (Jose, Maria, whatever etc...) survivors.
Another thing that doesn't sit well with me is WHAT THE HELL? 'Russian meddling' has never been proven, not at the time of the publications nor now. This paragraph is a public admission of politicians influencing the mass media... NT, in this case. Basically, that ombudsman demanded that the paper publish unproven views that are likely divorced from reality. Are they sane that they even published that?

Q: We’ve learned that members of Trump’s White House staff use encrypted messaging apps that seem to evade federal records laws. (c) If they do that to discuss their personal stuff, they are perfectly entitled to do that. And if they use it for work, once again we go to dismal security structure.

Q: And we know now that Trump associates are under federal investigation for far more serious things. (c) Yeah, associates. Not Trump, unlike Hillary at that moment. And it would have been respectful of the readers to state clearly which associates and for what wrongdoings they have been convicted. It would have given substance to this statement, which is just hearsay otherwise.

Q: The further we get from the election, the stranger it seems that this controversy could swing a national election with such monumental consequences. I picture future historians scratching their heads, trying to understand what happened. I’m still scratching mine, too. (c) What boggles one's mind is how a person who had an ongoing criminal investigation into their conduct manages to get even allowed to be a candidate for presidency. Security breach is an important thing for a future president. The next thing you know, you'll get nuclear codes mixed with lasagna recipes and whatnot. And then what? You will say that Russian hackers started the nuclear war for the US?

Q: A former KGB spy with a taste for over-the-top macho theatrics and baroque violence (a public inquiry in the United Kingdom concluded that he probably approved the killing of one of his enemies in London by poisoning his tea with polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope)... (c) That's what? You stop passers by, somewhere in London, and ask them whether Putin approved or not of something? That's one hell of an intriguing technique. Why on earth should those people be knowledgeable of his approvals? Was that a special crossing for Russian spies? Maybe those guys doubled as the notorious hackers? Substance, we need more substance!

Q: George W. Bush famously said that after looking Putin in the eye, he found him “very straightforward and trustworthy,” and was “able to get a sense of his soul.” My somewhat tongue-in-cheek response was: “He was a KGB agent—by definition, he doesn’t have a soul.” (c) Nice clip. Anatagonising foreign leaders is so very politically mature. You do realise he probably found your show of wit at least as offensive as you his referral to the women being the weaker sex. Russians are Christians and joking about souls or lack thereof is not considered socially acceptable.

Q: “I don’t think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC,” Trump insisted. “I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs four hundred pounds, okay?” What was he talking about? A four-hundred-pound guy in his basement? Was he thinking of a character out of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? I wondered who told Trump to say that. (c) Well, yeah. There are clever people out there who do know their way around computers. That they were actually spies does need proof.

Q: In 2016 our democracy was assaulted by a foreign adversary determined to mislead our people, enflame our divisions, and throw an election to its preferred candidate. That attack succeeded because our immune system had been slowly eroded over years. Many Americans had lost faith in the institutions that previous generations relied on for objective information, including government, academia, and the press, leaving them vulnerable to a sophisticated misinformation campaign. There are many reasons why this happened, but one is that a small group of right-wing billionaires—people like the Mercer family and Charles and David Koch—recognized long ago that, as Stephen Colbert once joked, “reality has a well-known liberal bias.” More generally, the right spent a lot of time and money building an alternative reality. Think of a partisan petri dish where science is denied, lies masquerade as truth, and paranoia flourishes. Their efforts were amplified in 2016 by a presidential candidate who trafficked in dark conspiracy theories drawn from the pages of supermarket tabloids and the far reaches of the internet; a candidate who deflected any criticism by attacking others with made-up facts and an uncanny gift for humiliating zingers. He helped to further blur news and entertainment, reality TV and reality.
As a result, by the time Vladimir Putin came along, our democracy was already far sicker than we realized.
Now that the Russians have infected us and seen how weak our defenses are, they’ll keep at it. Maybe other foreign powers will join them. They’ll also continue targeting our friends and allies. Their ultimate goal is to undermine—perhaps even destroy—Western democracy itself. (c)
Pure scaremongering. Not a single word of proven info.

Why do the US think Russia cares that much about them? Of course no country in the world would care about a fanatic leading the US, but not to that extent.

One has to state that there is no democracy in the current US. Overall this book was entirely too revealing of this sad fact.
A democratic country where the Democrat leader calls half the voters deplorables? Really? Democracy should be about mutual respect not about name-calling.
A democratic country where ombudsmen influence publications in papers? What about the freedom of speech?

[Justin Tate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hillary Clinton is like Jesus Christ. No, she's not an immaculate deity descended from God, but she has been crucified for the most ridiculous things. People hate her for the same reasons people hated Jesus. They can't stand that she's the smartest person in the room, not willing to conform to tradition, and, most infuriatingly, will never give up. No matter how hard they try to bring her down, she keeps going.

Not to get too religious, but I always wondered how the son of God could face such intense backlash from the public. Hillary helps me understand. You can be the best person for the job, have the best intentions, and still people will hate you for it. Also, Jesus's political skills were probably as bad as Hillary's.

Not electing Hillary was an American tragedy, but, like Jesus, her defeat makes her even more inspiring. She paid the ultimate price so women of the future don't have to. Whenever you feel down, think about Hillary Clinton, all she's been through, and the fact that she's still going.

As for the book itself, it's pretty good. There's a few pages where she shows personality--or at least her idea of what personality looks like. The woman is a machine, and I mean that with the most sincere admiration. She thinks in terms of policy, data, and historical significance. She doesn't really think about herself. I doubt Jesus thought about himself much either. He had a mission.

Her extensive concerns about foreign influence in 2016 are expected, but she also lays out clear evidence as to why we should be worried about future elections. It's actually pretty scary. Overall, though, What Happened is a page-turner even though we already know what happened. I was often on the verge of tears reading it. Her loss devastated me and always will, but as I point out, she's more inspiring now than ever before. We will remember you, Hillary, and future generations will live in a better place because of your work.

[Sketchbook · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yes, I voted for Milady Pantsuit; there was no choice. Now in this overwritten "ghosted" giblet of a memoir we're reminded that with all the money behind her and all the media too, she lost to a demented clown. What happened? Given the corrupt DNC, neither Biden nor Bernie could be nominated. What happened? Hillary gave America Donald Trump. That's exactly what happened.

[Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever you think of Hillary Clinton, this book is a living historical document – a personal account of our grueling presidential process from the first American woman to be a major party nominee – and your children and grandchildren will be reading parts of it in their political science classes. Personally, I think the second half (which deals with the email “crisis,” Russian interference, fake news, election night itself, and Clinton’s overall take on why she lost) is a lot more gripping than the first. But the whole book is written clearly and cogently, with funny little jabs peppered throughout. Clinton comes across as a details-oriented go-getter who’s fundamentally (and in my opinion, crazily) optimistic about America as a country, and the interesting thing is that this is exactly how she represented herself in the election, too – people just assumed that her public personality must be a shadowy front for another personality. She doesn’t get into the trenches of past controversies, but she’s thorough on the 2016 election, including when it comes to assessing her own weaknesses and failures as a candidate. People who didn’t follow the whole process closely might be confused by the level of detail, or by why Clinton chooses to write about certain things (hint: she’s almost always addressing criticisms she faced, more explicitly in some moments than in others). But if you’re interested in what she has to say, you won’t be disappointed.