Where the Light Enters

March 25, 2019
In this charming memoir, Biden shares an intimate story of her life with former vice president Joe Biden. Biden grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the 1950s, the eldest of five girls born to a bank teller and a homemaker. A rebellious teenager—she smoked cigarettes and snuck out to swim at night—Biden attended the University of Delaware and got married at age 18 but divorced a few years later. At 23, on her own and teaching English in Chadds Ford, Pa., she was surprised when dapper 31-year-old Sen. Joe Biden asked her on a date. Biden soon found herself engulfed in the “boisterous” Biden clan, a close-knit and fiercely loyal crew—Joe had two sons with his first wife, who died in a car accident along with their baby daughter a few years earlier—and she and Joe were married two years later. Biden describes the closeness of the family; for example, after the couple decided to have a child together, Joe’s sons from his first marriage were the first to tell their dad of Biden’s pregnancy. The book ends with a moving tribute to her son Beau, who died from brain cancer in 2015. This generous and inspiring portrait of the Biden family is sure to be widely welcomed and enjoyed. (May)
Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the year the author's son Beau died as well as the age of the author and her husband when they started dating.

April 15, 2019
A former second lady talks about her family, relationships, and career as an educator. In this often poignant retelling, Biden shares some of the more meaningful moments of her life. She tells how she married when she was 18 and then divorced, an act that made her hesitant to enter into marriage again. But she was wooed by then Sen. Joe Biden and fell in love despite her previous failed marriage and fears of being a mother to two young boys. Throughout, the author discusses the importance of family and traditions, such as lighting candles for an evening meal or traveling to Nantucket for Thanksgiving, and of her prankster nature as a child and adult. She shares how the Bidens stand together as a united front in the face of adversity, something that has helped them through extremely difficult times, most significantly the death of Beau Biden from brain cancer in 2015. She explores her insecurities and introverted nature, two issues that made it difficult to be in the spotlight as the wife of a public figure. However, she was able to overcome these concerns in order to present speeches and provide support for her husband during his run for president and later when he became vice president during the Obama administration. The author also shows us her deep involvement with her students and the importance of having her own career and rewarding work with military families and the education of girls and women. Biden's tone is conversational and partially confessional, an endearing quality. Through this personal disclosure, readers gain insight into the fortitude and courage it takes to be a woman with a career and a close-knit family, with the obligations that come with a life as the second lady. Sincere and uplifting stories of being a mother, a wife, and a career woman while juggling the responsibilities of being the vice president's wife.

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