--- title: A Zagat Guide to Hillary Clinton's 'Hard Choices'—by Amazon Reviewers description: This “well-written stage setter” of an “engaging memoir” comes across as "election propaganda." canonical: https://time.com/2857757/hillary-clinton-hard-choices-zagat-amazon/ author: Claire Howorth article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-11T16:28:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:54:14.760Z article:section: Ideas og:title: A Zagat Guide to Hillary Clinton's 'Hard Choices'—by Amazon Reviewers og:description: This “well-written stage setter” of an “engaging memoir” comes across as "election propaganda." og:url: https://time.com/2857757/hillary-clinton-hard-choices-zagat-amazon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Zagat Guide to Hillary Clinton's 'Hard Choices'—by Amazon Reviewers twitter:description: This “well-written stage setter” of an “engaging memoir” comes across as "election propaganda." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Zagat Guide to 'Hard Choices'—According to Amazon Reviewers  by [Claire Howorth](https://time.com/author/claire-howorth/)  ## Claire Howorth Jun 11, 2014 4:28 PM UTC  by [Claire Howorth](https://time.com/author/claire-howorth/)  ## Claire Howorth Jun 11, 2014 4:28 PM UTC _On its first day out, Hillary Clinton’s Hard Choices hit #2 on Amazon’s bestseller list (sorry, Hillary—John Green_ [_trumps Tom Cruise,_](http://time.com/2848117/is-john-green-a-bigger-star-than-tom-cruise/) _too_ _), and is picking up around 12 user reviews per hour. Whether or not_ [_the reviews_](http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Choices-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/product-reviews/1476751447/ref=cm%5Fcr%5Fdp%5Fqt%5Fsee%5Fall%5Ftop?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=byRankDescending) _are based on actual digested information, well, you be the critic…_ ## Hard Choices ### by Hillary Rodham Clinton ### Political memoir | Ubiquitous **Prose**: 25 | **Poesy**: 17 | **Candidness**: 12 | **Cost**: $35.00 $21.00 This “well-written stage setter” of an “engaging memoir” comes across as “election propaganda” “designed not so much to enlighten as to persuade” to some; others think it could give _The Manchurian Candidate_ some competition “in the fiction section.” Clinton’s “resume is quite impressive” stands among the fainter praise, though another reader “had to stop myself from vomiting”—perhaps there is some political salmonella in the “low-salt, low-fat, low-calorie offering with vanilla pudding as the dessert.” Or maybe that was from someone else “just here to troll the Democrats.” For anyone “hoping for something more,” um, duh, get the net—“Hello, people, she can’t reveal too much until AFTER her presidency.” (I mean, really, “It’s a memoir—did they expect her to paint herself in a negative light?”) Several reviewers were skeptical of peer ethics: “Unless you’re really fast readers, I doubt that you finished reading the book, let alone bought it.” To read or not to read, ain’t that the question? “Under no circumstances would I ever read this book even if Hillary paid me a million $$… I am serious!” (And we will bet another million “$$” you’re not serious.) Nevermind all the Benghazi brouhaha, though; Hillary failed to answer that other all-important question: “I was really hoping to find out who killed Vincent Foster.” _Claire Howorth is an editor at Time and a writer for other publications_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2857757/hillary-clinton-hard-choices-zagat-amazon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2857757/hillary-clinton-hard-choices-zagat-amazon/"},"headline":"A Zagat Guide to 'Hard Choices'—According to Amazon Reviewers","datePublished":"2014-06-11T16:28:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:54:14.760Z","description":"Hillary Clinton's new book already has as many reviews as the hottest restaurant—so why not harness the \"wisdom\" of the online bookseller's crowd?","url":"https://time.com/2857757/hillary-clinton-hard-choices-zagat-amazon/","keywords":["politics","Hillary Clinton","democrats","GOP"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Claire Howorth","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/claire-howorth/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/politics/","name":"politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2857757/hillary-clinton-hard-choices-zagat-amazon/","name":"A Zagat Guide to 'Hard Choices'—According to Amazon Reviewers"}}]}] ```