Security Mom

March 21, 2016
As Kayyem admits in this lively debut, she is a “security mom”—a member of a voting bloc, first identified in 2004, of suburban mothers “really, really worried about terrorism.” She is also a consummate insider: former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, on the faculty at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and head of her own security advising company. She knows what can happen during local and national emergencies, and how best to prepare families and communities. Kayyem advocates that Americans develop “grip”—an active form of resiliency by which we can “prepare, respond, adapt, and then brace for the next thing.” Her accessible, appealing personal narrative includes a Lebanese-American upbringing, Harvard undergrad and law school years, married life in Washington, D.C., a stint in the Clinton administration’s Justice Department, and overseeing both a growing family (she’s now a mother of three) and burgeoning career back in Cambridge, Mass. Kayyem bolsters her own story with real-life case studies, from the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the Boston Marathon bombing (nearly in her own backyard), and plenty of enthusiastic “can-do” advice. While not exactly the average security mom, Kayyem identifies with and is a leading voice for the worry-prone parents who will most appreciate her memoir.