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Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win
Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win
Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win
Audiobook9 hours

Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win

Written by Jo Piazza

Narrated by Tavia Gilbert

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

From bestselling author Jo Piazza comes one of People’s “Best Summer Books,” a “comically accurate” (New York Post) novel about what happens when a woman wants it all—political power, marriage, and happiness.

Charlotte Walsh is running for Senate in the most important race in the country during a midterm election that will decide the balance of power in Congress. Reeling from a presidential election that shocked and divided the country and inspired to make a difference, she’s left her high-powered job in Silicon Valley and returned, with her husband and three young daughters, to her downtrodden Pennsylvania hometown to run for office in the Rust Belt state.

Once the campaign gets underway, Charlotte is blindsided by just how dirty her opponent is willing to fight, how harshly she is judged by the press and her peers, and how exhausting it becomes to navigate a marriage with an increasingly ambivalent and often resentful husband. When the opposition uncovers a secret that could threaten not just her campaign but everything Charlotte holds dear, she must decide just how badly she wants to win and at what cost.

“The essential political novel for the 2018 midterms” (Salon), Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win is an insightful portrait of what it takes for a woman to run for national office in America today. In a dramatic political moment like no other with more women running for office than ever before, this searing, suspenseful story of political ambition, marriage, class, sexual politics, and infidelity is timely, engrossing, and perfect for readers on both sides of the aisle.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 24, 2018
ISBN9781508259985
Author

Jo Piazza

Jo Piazza is a bestselling author, podcast creator, and award-winning journalist. She is the national and international bestselling author of many critically acclaimed novels and nonfiction books including We Are Not Like Them, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, The Knockoff, and How to Be Married. Her work has been published in ten languages in twelve countries and four of her books have been optioned for film and television. A former editor, columnist, and travel writer with Yahoo, Current TV, and the Daily News (New York), her work has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, New York magazine, Glamour, Elle, Time, Marie Claire, The Daily Beast, and Slate. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania in economics and communication, a master’s in journalism from Columbia University, and a master’s in religious studies from New York University. 

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Reviews for Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win

Rating: 3.902173913043478 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    For me, this was probably a 3.5 star read. I thought it was very entertaining, and I loved the resistant political theme. The current setting of this story made it readable and likely relatable to many readers. There was a sense of strength and challenge to the powers that be in the candidate, Charlotte, that I found refreshing.As the book continued, I got a bit bogged down by the many challenges in the lives and marriage of Charlotte and her husband, Max. It seemed almost clique that things would ratchet up so much at the end of the campaign. Although I thought it a tiny bit over done, I still found it enjoyable and worth the read.As to the finale- somehow I knew what I would find as I turned that last page. You will have to read the book to find out what I mean by that statement.My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Thank you to Simon &Schuster and NetGalley for an e-ARC of Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza in exchange for an honest review. This novel reads like a day-by-day accounting of Charlotte Walsh's campaign for the Pennsylvania Senate seat, starting at 479 days to Election Day. Charlotte is an executive at a high tech company in California when she decides to enter the political ring against Senator Tug Slaughter, an 80-year-old man who has held the seat for 40 years. He is a much-married philanderer who seems unbeatable. She moves with her husband Max and three young daughters to her hometown in Pennsylvania. She soon realizes that she is judged differently because she is a woman: her wardrobe, marriage, family and character are ruthlessly examined and criticized. As the campaign proceeds, secrets become public, her marriage is tested, her stamina is stretched to its limit. This novel gives us a close look at how difficult it is to run for public office, especially for a woman who is a wife, a mother and a self-made successful career woman. The ending of the book is unexpected but really works. This is a fascinating inside look at politics in this day and age. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Many thanks to Netgalley, Simon and Schuster and Jo Piazza for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.Josh, her campaign manager, asks “Charlotte?…Are you still in this race? I can end it now. You can end it now. It still won’t be pretty, but I promise it will be easier.”…Charlotte made her voice equally low. “I want to stay in.”Charlotte Walsh likes to win. Even when her whole life is crumbling around her, she still needs to win. Why did she decide to do this? Why run for Senate in a state that has never elected a woman. Why give up her high paying, successful career at a Silicon Valley job to join the campaign trail that is full of fast food, driving across the state in a minivan and eighteen hour days smiling and shaking hands? Why did she think with three young children and a strained marriage that this was a great next move. Most importantly, why did she decide to do this when she knew that her secret was pretty much guaranteed to come out and ruin not only her chances, but also her family. Charlotte’s struggle is real. Her marriage has suffered an affair but was it really built on a strong foundation? During one of their fights her husband, Max, tells her that he only married her because he felt sorry for her. In her heart, Charlotte always believed it to be true. When a woman is smart, driven and successful, it seems to have a direct effect onto a man’s ego. Max gets a huge boost of respect and admiration for giving up his career to stay at home and look after their three children. Charlotte takes an enormous amount of heat for abandoning her family to pursue her selfish goal. It is still a crime in this country for a woman to want things for herself. I mean if you want to run a marathon or sell home made crafts on Etsy, you should be fine, but you are not allowed to want the same things men want. Charlotte notes that she still gets the kids ready in the morning while Max goes on a run and she looks after them in the evenings when she gets home at dinner time. This is an age old problem. You can work, but you are still responsible for everything pertaining to home life. I felt that issues women face were made relevant in this book without becoming preachy. It wasn’t thrown in your face, you just got to see what Charlotte was going through and as a character, I not only liked her, but I felt for her. All the characters were flushed out, real, complex and multi dimensional which I appreciated.Politics is a rough game and worse if you are a woman. She gets asked what colour of nail polish she is wearing, wearing flats is making a statement, and everything from her femininity to her parenting skills are called into question. You are simultaneously a “little lady” who can’t get anything done and the biggest current threat to democracy. I guess it could be called timely considering the political climate these days, but I feel like this could have been written any time. That’s what I loved. Politics was the perfect back drop for this story. This was a great read. Exciting, fast paced and an authentic story told in a very real, complex and thoughtful way. It was multi layered, I was involved in the journey and I enjoyed the characters. Once again, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was in the book and I was unprepared for and really shocked when the ending came. It is really abrupt so be forewarned. It doesn’t mean I didn’t like the ending, just not what I expected. I think a lot of people will respond to this book and was a really great read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    She is one of the most successful women in the Silicon Valley, but now she wants more: Charlotte Walsh is running for Senate in her home state Pennsylvania. She has got a great team, her campaign manager Josh has won several times before and is an experienced spin doctor and her assistant Laila has been with her in San Francisco before. But the most important are her husband Max and their three young daughters. So, the family leaves the bay area and moves in the house in the small town Charlotte grew up and that thirty years before she had sworn never to come back to again. Once the campaign starts, Max and Charlotte have to realise that they had no idea what these eighteen months would mean and the brittle marriage is getting closer to breaking. And their well-kept secrets suddenly threaten to come out when the fight for the win becomes ugly.I really adored the character of Charlotte from the start. On the one hand, she is the successful businesswoman who made her way from a poor background to the top and is not afraid of taking hard decisions. On the other hand, we get her thoughts and years of success and a place at the top cannot prevent her from self-doubt and insecurity. She never really could get rid of the small town girl coming from a non-academic family. Also the fact that she is constantly torn between having a career and being a mother seems to be quite authentic. Max takes a sabbatical to support her, but he is considered a wonderful and extraordinary husband – yet, he only does what thousands of women have done for their husbands and he still expects her to take over household duties. Even though they have quite an equal partnership, some traditional roles just cannot be abdicated that easily and more than once Charlotte wonders why this is the case and why she is treated differently from any male candidate.Apart from those serious topics, the novel is first and foremost hilarious to read. There are so many comical situations that I several times wanted to laugh out loud, like e.g. when Charlotte picks a random pair of shoes for her first big speech since she is late and her baby daughter had “eaten” the one she wanted to wear and the media make a hype out of the question why she refuses to wear high heels and consider this an important statement – what she actually said was of only minor interest. “Charlotte Walsh wants to win” is the perfect summer read, it gives insight in a political campaign which is fought with all means, also the very hideous ones, and adds to the discussion of gender roles and the question if women actually can achieve everything that men can.