political memoir | Bookshelf Fantasies

Title: 107 Days
Author: Kamala Harris
Narrators: Kamala Harris
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication date: September 23, 2025
Print length: 304 pages
Audio length: 9 hours 58 minutes
Genre: Non-fiction / political memoir
Source: Library
Rating:

For the first time, and with surprising and revealing insights, former Vice President Kamala Harris tells the story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history.

Your Secret Service code name is Pioneer.
You are the first woman in history to be elected vice president of the United States.
On July 21, 2024, your running mate, Joe Biden, announces that he will not be seeking reelection.
The presidential election will occur on November 5, 2024.
You have 107 days.

From the chaos of campaign strategy sessions to the intensity of debate prep under relentless scrutiny and the private moments that rarely make headlines, Kamala Harris offers an unfiltered look at the pressures, triumphs, and heartbreaks of a history-defining race. With behind-the-scenes details and a voice that is both intimate and urgent, this is more than a political memoir—it’s a chronicle of resilience, leadership, and the high stakes of democracy in action.

Written with candor, a unique perspective, and the pace of a page-turning novel, 107 Days takes you inside the race for the presidency as no one has ever done before.

In 107 Days, Kamala Harris takes us through her experiences during the dramatic presidential campaign of 2024… from the day Joe Biden officially dropped out of the race and she became the Democratic candidate for president through election day (and slightly beyond). Day by day, she shares the highs and low of the campaign trail, as well as personal reflections on her career, her family, and the hopes she carried into the race for president.

It’s a revealing look behind the scenes. If nothing else, listening to this audiobook gives me a new-found appreciation for how much candidates endure for the sake of their party and their country. The lack of privacy or downtime is astounding, as is the absolutely intense scrutiny of every word and every gesture.

I suspect how you react to this book will depend largely on how you voted in the 2024 election. If you weren’t a Harris supporter then, I’m sure you’ll either avoid this book or find plenty to criticize. As someone who voted for Harris, I found a deeper sense of appreciation for her expertise, sense of values, and commitment to a campaign that was an uphill battle from the start.

Early critics of this book seem to take Harris to task for not owning more of the failures of the campaign. I don’t believe that’s entirely fair. She does examine the ways in which her messages didn’t land, places where she wishes she could go back and rephrase or re-do a key interview or speech. She reminds the reader/listener continuously of just how little time there was to campaign — hence the book’s title. Sure, she could go deeper on content: Were there themes or issues that her campaign didn’t fully embrace, or where they miscalculated the importance to voters? Endless political analyses post-election say yes, but these do not get addressed in depth in this book.

Still, what she does reveal is informative. The odds were always stacked against such an abbreviated campaign. Harris is careful to hold back on criticisms of Biden — for the most part — although it’s clear that some of his actions, statements, and decisions caused great frustration and obstacles for her as a candidate. It was interesting to hear about her approach to combatting the lies and slurs directed toward her by the opposition, refusing to engage in rebuttals and keeping the focus on her own agenda and values.

While there are sweeter moments shared, including time with her family and her husband, I could perhaps have done without an analysis of how and why she felt let down by her husband’s lack of plans for her birthday. But other than that, there’s a warmth that comes through while talking about her loved ones that helps ground this book in a sense of Harris’s commitment to people and community, not just to political success.

Overall, I’m not sure that I learned a whole lot from this book that I hadn’t come across, one way or another, during the presidential race or afterward, but I did find it an interesting, informative listen, and I’m glad I experienced it.

Purchase links: Amazon – Audible – Bookshop.org – Libro.fm
Disclaimer: When you make a purchase through one of these affiliate links, I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.

Save

Title: Becoming
Author: Michelle Obama
Narrator: Michelle Obama
Publisher: Crown
Publication date: November 13, 2018
Print length: 426 pages
Audio length: 19 hours, 3 minutes
Genre: Memoir
Source: Purchased
Rating:

In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

I grew up with a disabled dad in a too-small house with not much money in a starting-to-fail neighborhood, and I also grew up surrounded by love and music in a diverse city in a country where an education can take you far. I had nothing or I had everything. It depends on which way you want to tell it.

Michelle Obama tells it all beautifully. In this powerful memoir, our former First Lady narrates her life with grace, dignity, and intelligence, from her childhood in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago to her life in the White House. It’s quite a journey, and by listening to the audiobook, I was able to hear the author’s own voice, and it was amazing.

There’s so much to love about this book. Michelle Obama is plain spoken as she shares her love for her family, talking about her parents, brother, and extended family, their challenges and their optimism, their dedication to making sure that no doors would be closed to them.

I really didn’t know much about her background prior to reading Becoming, and found myself impressed over and over again while hearing about her early education, her determination, and her hard work, as well as her devotion to the friends she met along the way.

The early stages of her romance with Barack Obama are simply charming, and I appreciated her no-nonsense approach to their story, getting across their mutual love and respect while also giving a sense of their challenges and where they differ as people.

Hearing more about the campaign trail and life in the White House was also fascinating, and I couldn’t help but admire the Obama’s commitment to raising their daughters with as normal a life as possible despite living in the ultimate fishbowl.

Becoming is a wonderful book, a moving memoir and an inspiring depiction of what two people dedicated to improving the world around them can accomplish. It also made me a little sad, missing the grace and intellect that the Obamas brought to the presidency, and made me wish for a time when doing good would mean more than political power.

Highly, highly recommended — and the audiobook experience is a treat.