President George W. Bush has said of Condoleezza Rice, "Whatever she says, it’s like talking to me." Mabry writes that many of Rice’s sponsors, from Brent Scowcroft to a Marxist professor, have felt the same affinity, each to be "left scratching his head as he saw Rice make a 180-degree turn away from the core beliefs he thought they shared." Mabry, who had Rice’s coöperation here, succeeds in giving coherence to her character, from her roots in segregated Birmingham—where her middle-class parents were both inspired and mortified by Martin Luther King’s radicalism—to her broken engagement to the 1975 N.F.L. Rookie of the Year and her bond with George Bush. On Iraq, Mabry has less to offer, in part, perhaps, because of his subject’s detachment; her supreme self-confidence, he writes, has made it hard for her to recognize the disaster unfolding on her watch.

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"Marcus Mabry uncovers what has never been shown before--what some suspected didn't exist--the personal Condoleezza Rice. A tour de force!"

-Richard Ben Cramer, Author of Joe DiMaggio and What It Takes

"If you think you know superstar Condi Rice, think again, and read this book. Marcus Mabry has dug into her past and present and found someone stronger as a person and weaker as a foreign policy strategist than the usual mythologies. This Condi is pure superhuman steel and a true believer in whatever cause she marries, almost no matter how contradictory the causes. All this is told by a real reporter with old-fashioned fairness."-Leslie H. Gelb, former foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times and President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations"Marcus Mabry has given us a remarkable portrait of one of the most remarkable figures of our time, or of any time: a woman who rose from the segregated South to command the world stage as America's emissary to the globe. Deeply reported and vividly told, Mabry's new book offers us an indispensable window onto Condoleezza Rice, an American original whose story is far from over. This is a vital work for anyone who wants to understand modern foreign policy and its makers."-Jon Meacham, author of Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship and Founding Fathers"Twice as Good is a riveting, deeply revealing portrait of the woman who became 'the face of America' around the world - Condoleezza Rice - arguably one of the most powerful, complex and enigmatic black women of our times. With rare access, solid reporting and deft writing, Mabry chronicles Condoleezza Rice's extraordinary strengths, as well as her sometimes surprisingly blinding weaknesses, including her fierce loyalties to those she cares about, including George W. Bush. Marcus Mabry's books may be as close as anyone gets to knowing how a black girl from the segregated South traveled the road not taken and re-drew the map."-Charlayne Hunter-Gault, author of New News out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance