Book comment: It Takes a Village, Tenth Anniversary Edition by Hillary Clinton

Book: It Takes a Village, Tenth Anniversary Edition by Hillary Clinton
Published 2006
Version reviewed: audiobook, read  by the author

I had purchased the audiobook some years ago.   I started it a couple of  times.  I  had difficulties getting past the beginning.  It seemed to me  that she  was being too political.   Her current bid  for the presidency motivated me to try again.

Once I got deep enough into  the book, I realized that there were useful things in the book.  Although there was a political pattern, I believe that she conveyed some useful views and opinions.  I don't agree with everything.  Some things which seemed quite important were lacking verifying information.  And there was definitely a political pattern.  This is especially apparent with areas where she might appear to contradict religion.  At first, I thought that the periodic references to religionist elements might be purely  attempts by her to show her progressive mix of secular and religionist views.  But one pattern was that she would start certain topics with some religionist or right leaning element before going into the parts which would conflict with Christians. For example, she was rather negative about abortion before discussing birth control.  I know that some people are harshly against abortion while being for birth control.  This might have been how  it would have come across in her book.  But she sounded a bit too forceful in the audiobook when she derided abortion.  Another thing which she did several times was to add words like church, minister, god-given and so on in places where they did not seem relevant.

Some of her ideas are progressive but others are more conservative and a bit absolutist.  It's hard to avoid the feeling that she supplies  the conservative views for political purposes.  it may be that the more conservative view and religious perspectives really are hers.  Well, she still seems to  be on a better path than Republicans.

Overall, I think that the book is a good conversation starter about some important topics.  But it is not groundbreaking nor as consistent as I expected.