Tough Love
My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For
by Susan Rice
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“Ive known @AmbassadorRice for 35 years. Believe me when I tell you that she is passionate about racial injustice & progressive causes. Our first projects together as @Stanford & @UniofOxford concerned antiapartheid. (Read her excellent book, Tough Love!)”
Source →Recommended by 3 notable people, including Barack Obama and Shonda Rhimes
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Reading Profile
Should I read this?
This is a career memoir built from scene-by-scene recollections of diplomatic crises and behind-the-scenes meetings, written for readers who want immediacy rather than technical policy papers. Its useful part is vivid anecdote and a sense of what limitations felt like to someone making decisions under pressure. Its main limitation is selectivity: events are presented through the author’s memory and priorities, so the narrative can feel defensive, repetitive, and light on systematic policy argumentation or fresh archival detail.
Read this if...
- •a graduate student in international relations writing a seminar paper who needs vivid primary-source anecdotes about recent diplomatic decision moments to flesh out an argument
- •a mid-career foreign service officer preparing for an assignment who wants practical, scenario-based reading about negotiation tactics and crisis management from someone who spent years on the policy front lines
- •a civically engaged local leader following national debates who wants a readable insider account to understand why messy trade-offs and opaque choices happen in high-stakes diplomacy
Skip this if...
- •you'll likely put it down when long passages shift into defensive justification or repeated retelling of the same incidents — that’s the most common drop-off point
- •annoying if you prefer tightly sourced, analytical policy work rather than anecdotal memoir and narrative recollection
- •not for readers seeking practical how-to exercises or step-by-step policy prescriptions — the book offers memories and perspectives, not hands-on tools or structured policy manuals
Recalling pivotal moments from her dynamic career on the front lines of American diplomacy and foreign policy, Susan E. RiceNational Security Advisor to President Barack Obama and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nationsdelivers an inspiring account of a life in service to family and country.Although you may think you know Susan Ricewhose name b...
Before You Buy
Reading Specifications
Difficulty:hard
Audience Fit
- a graduate student in international relations writing a seminar paper who needs vivid primary-source anecdotes about recent diplomatic decision moments to flesh out an argument
- a mid-career foreign service officer preparing for an assignment who wants practical, scenario-based reading about negotiation tactics and crisis management from someone who spent years on the policy front lines
- a civically engaged local leader following national debates who wants a readable insider account to understand why messy trade-offs and opaque choices happen in high-stakes diplomacy
- you'll likely put it down when long passages shift into defensive justification or repeated retelling of the same incidents — that’s the most common drop-off point
- annoying if you prefer tightly sourced, analytical policy work rather than anecdotal memoir and narrative recollection
- not for readers seeking practical how-to exercises or step-by-step policy prescriptions — the book offers memories and perspectives, not hands-on tools or structured policy manuals
Check formats, pricing, and availability options for Kindle, physical print, or audiobooks directly.
View available editions on AmazonKey themes
Why recommended
Recommended by 5 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books, Politics, and History.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Shonda Rhimes
“Ive known @AmbassadorRice for 35 years. Believe me when I tell you that she is passionate about racial injustice & progressive causes. Our first projects together as @Stanford & @UniofOxford concerned antiapartheid. (Read her excellent book, Tough Love!)”
View sources (2) ▾80%
Appears In
Not sure if this is the right fit?
Consider The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. Recommended by 8 sources.
“Soft-spoken, heavily illustrated fable built from short dialogues and watercolor sketches. Each spread pairs a spare line of text with a loose drawing, so the pleasure is visual and aphoristic rather than narrative; readers collect felt-true sentences more than plot. Most useful when you want quick consolations, a prompt for conversation with a child, or a pause during a rough day. Limiting if you want sustained argument, concrete advice, or tightly plotted storytelling: the repetition of gentleness can feel sentimental or thin after a while.”
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Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.