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Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service
A grounded and intimate portrait of life by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro
Where We Keep the Light is the story of public service and personal faith. From an early age, Josh Shapiro learned and practiced the power of showing up, listening, and executing, to make people’s lives a little better. In the pages of this account of his life, Shapiro relates powerful stories about his family, his faith, and what matters to Americans tired of all the divisiveness and distrust in our leaders.
Reflecting on what he’s learned by knocking on doors, serving his community, and tackling the tough problems that no one wanted to touch in new and different ways, Shapiro reminds us that government can be a force for good, that conventional wisdom is rarely wise, and there’s more that unites Americans than divides us.
Shapiro is answering a call to service at a time when we need leaders like him to step up. Where We Keep the Light is a must-read account of his life and what lies ahead.
Where We Keep the Light is the story of public service and personal faith. From an early age, Josh Shapiro learned and practiced the power of showing up, listening, and executing, to make people’s lives a little better. In the pages of this account of his life, Shapiro relates powerful stories about his family, his faith, and what matters to Americans tired of all the divisiveness and distrust in our leaders.
Reflecting on what he’s learned by knocking on doors, serving his community, and tackling the tough problems that no one wanted to touch in new and different ways, Shapiro reminds us that government can be a force for good, that conventional wisdom is rarely wise, and there’s more that unites Americans than divides us.
Shapiro is answering a call to service at a time when we need leaders like him to step up. Where We Keep the Light is a must-read account of his life and what lies ahead.
283 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 27, 2026
211 people are currently reading
3036 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 1, 2026
I’ve known Josh since 1999 when he was Chief of Staff to my political mentor, Joe Hoeffel and attending Georgetown Law School at night. Two things I’ve always known about Josh since the day we met, he loved Lori and he was dedicated to public service (this was before he became a father). This book shows both and also his commitment and love for his children. Among Josh’s super powers is his empathy and ability to listen and connect with people. But he doesn’t just listens, he gets stuff done. I’ve proudly voted for Josh in every race he’s run since 2011 because he’s a great public servant but an even better person. His family is his North Star and this book shows that.
Shapiro for America!
Shapiro for America!
January 31, 2026
On the writing: A little clunky at first, but he found his rhythm, and I found it super enjoyable. Some political books can just be look at how awesome I am, while this had genuinely interesting stories.
On the content: I actually got so emotional. I do not align with many of Shapiro's views, but you can tell he genuinely cares about his constituents, and I firmly believe we need more people like him in politics. I also loved how he explained his evolving thoughts on issues and policies and was not scared to admit when he was wrong. At the end he also had a great PA pride moment which I am always a sucker for.
On the content: I actually got so emotional. I do not align with many of Shapiro's views, but you can tell he genuinely cares about his constituents, and I firmly believe we need more people like him in politics. I also loved how he explained his evolving thoughts on issues and policies and was not scared to admit when he was wrong. At the end he also had a great PA pride moment which I am always a sucker for.
Want to read
January 16, 2026Weird title to use when the person in question was under fire for servicing and supporting a foreign military. Curious to find out if it's a decent book or just SEO cover-up.
January 31, 2026
Where we keep the light
I loved this book! So refreshing to read in these sad times in our country "leadership". What a wonderful example of how humanity should look. Josh Shapiro for president - PLEASE!
I have already recommended this read to everyone I know. I wish the book had more pages to read. I will re-read this daily as sort of a daily devotional.
I loved this book! So refreshing to read in these sad times in our country "leadership". What a wonderful example of how humanity should look. Josh Shapiro for president - PLEASE!
I have already recommended this read to everyone I know. I wish the book had more pages to read. I will re-read this daily as sort of a daily devotional.
February 2, 2026
A pretty standard get to know the politician before he runs for another office book. Shapiro comes across as genuine, hard working, family focused and profoundly and proudly Jewish. He’s done much good for the people of Pennsylvania. Could he do the same for the nation?
January 30, 2026
I’m a Josh Shapiro fan. I think he is a great person. This book gave me more insight into his life. Interesting and informative!
January 31, 2026
In this compelling memoir, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro shares stories about his childhood and political rise and the faith that drives his devotion to public service. He begins by telling the story of surviving an arsonist’s 2025 attack on the Governor’s Residence while he and his family slept after celebrating Passover, culminating with a strong condemnation of political violence. Knocking on doors in his race for Pennsylvania State Representative taught him the value of listening to voters’ problems. As Pennsylvania Attorney General, he sought justice for victims of the Catholic Church’s decades of child abuse and fought monopolistic healthcare company practices.
A pragmatist, Shapiro focuses on four issues that he hopes can unite voters: decent jobs, good schools, safe communities, and rights and freedoms. It remains to be seen whether he will run for president in 2028; he may have a hard time in the Democratic primary given leftwing distrust of his moderate positions on the environment and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, among other issues. Regardless, Where We Keep the Light is an inspiring political memoir and an exciting page-turner.
A pragmatist, Shapiro focuses on four issues that he hopes can unite voters: decent jobs, good schools, safe communities, and rights and freedoms. It remains to be seen whether he will run for president in 2028; he may have a hard time in the Democratic primary given leftwing distrust of his moderate positions on the environment and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, among other issues. Regardless, Where We Keep the Light is an inspiring political memoir and an exciting page-turner.
February 8, 2026
Enjoyed learning more about Josh Shapiro. He seems like a decent human being who actually cares about his constituents. Such a rare trait in our leaders from both parties who seem to spend more time fighting with each other than taking care of the American people.
Read
January 29, 2026what to say, what to say.....
he's a great storyteller and an even better politician (I mean that genuinely)
he's a great storyteller and an even better politician (I mean that genuinely)
February 2, 2026
Josh Shapiro
An extraordinary and inspirational biography of faith in action ! A candid and powerful portrayal by this courageous ,compassionate and dedicated man.
An extraordinary and inspirational biography of faith in action ! A candid and powerful portrayal by this courageous ,compassionate and dedicated man.
February 6, 2026
I am a big fan of Josh Shapiro the politician. He’s my governor, and he used to be my state treasurer, and I have voted for him every chance I’ve had. I had the chance to meet him a couple months ago, and I was stunned by how charismatic he is in person. If he decides to run for President – and, face it, writing this book is a soft declaration of his intent – I’ll continue to be a fan and a supporter. I want to see the other candidates, but he’s a favorite son at the start of the race.
But I’m not reviewing Shapiro the politician here. Instead, I’m reviewing a book for which I had fairly low expectations. At one point, early, I had the not-nice thought that, while some books are now composed using AI, this is the sort of book that you should read with AI. He’s writing it for his candidacy, and the bigger aspect of it is how people review and react to it.
This turns out to be better than that low bar, but not dramatically so.
For long stretches, we get vague discussions of the way he’s committed to serving community. I’ve certainly seen worse, but it’s predictable and necessary to the form even as it doesn’t tell us too much.
There’s also an understandable commitment to ‘safe’ topics. He does confront his sometimes being out of step with other Democrats, but that’s largely to set him up for talking about how important it is to cross the aisle on issues. That’s his lane – a centrist Democrat who’s still there for all the key party priorities – and he’s not going to veer out of it.
And I’ll add that the title metaphor is…lacking. He implies the idea that “light” is a good thing, but he never quite tells us who keeps it or how. Every so often there’ll be a reference, but it feels as if as editor tried to weave it in after the fact.
So, I think it’s fair to say that close to two-thirds of this is stuff you’re better reading about than reading.
Still, there are some highlights.
Lots of news stories have talked about the surprising, and troubling, account of the Kamala Harris campaign focusing on his Jewishness as a potentially disqualifying element. He soft-steps up to and beyond the parts that most news stories have quoted, but those quotes are here. He’s not critical of Harris overall, but he makes it clear that he thinks she’d have been a hard President to serve as Vice-President to, and he implies that she might have won Pennsylvania – and maybe the country – if she’d gone with him.
But no real finger pointing even there. It’s a whisper, not a shout, and he makes clear that he’s still on Team Blue all the way.
He talks as well about his Jewishness – a lot – but it’s usually in the spirit of flashing his faith credentials. That’s a solid political move – it lets him appeal to evangelicals who might be tiring of Trump – but it’s not that compelling. (And I say that as a fellow Jew.)
He does organize the book around an opening depiction of the arson at the Governor’s mansion on Passover, and then he returns to it at the very end. It’s a troubling story, but the included color pictures do a better job than the text of showing it.
The strongest section here, though, is the chapter he dedicates to talking about his work on the Catholic child abuse scandal. I thought then, and I think now, that it was an act of real political courage. He tells us that he thought it would end his career, having pissed off too many Catholics ever to get elected again.
He handled it brilliantly, though, and it’s really what made him a national figure. As he relives it here, he goes into more detail than in most other chapters. He names names, and he talks about the challenge of keeping some much of it secret while it was still in the grand jury’s hands.
A key there is that he couldn’t even tell his wife about the case, and another highlight is the way he talks about their partnership. She seems to have a great sense of humor, and he gives several examples of how she cuts him down to size when his ego starts getting out of control. Their relationship feels authentic in the context of a book where it could easily have come across as a word-photo-op.
As far as I’m concerned, the next Presidential election can’t come soon enough. Shapiro should be part of it, and, even if we collectively select someone else as the candidate, we’re doing OK to have him as part of our bench.
But I’m not reviewing Shapiro the politician here. Instead, I’m reviewing a book for which I had fairly low expectations. At one point, early, I had the not-nice thought that, while some books are now composed using AI, this is the sort of book that you should read with AI. He’s writing it for his candidacy, and the bigger aspect of it is how people review and react to it.
This turns out to be better than that low bar, but not dramatically so.
For long stretches, we get vague discussions of the way he’s committed to serving community. I’ve certainly seen worse, but it’s predictable and necessary to the form even as it doesn’t tell us too much.
There’s also an understandable commitment to ‘safe’ topics. He does confront his sometimes being out of step with other Democrats, but that’s largely to set him up for talking about how important it is to cross the aisle on issues. That’s his lane – a centrist Democrat who’s still there for all the key party priorities – and he’s not going to veer out of it.
And I’ll add that the title metaphor is…lacking. He implies the idea that “light” is a good thing, but he never quite tells us who keeps it or how. Every so often there’ll be a reference, but it feels as if as editor tried to weave it in after the fact.
So, I think it’s fair to say that close to two-thirds of this is stuff you’re better reading about than reading.
Still, there are some highlights.
Lots of news stories have talked about the surprising, and troubling, account of the Kamala Harris campaign focusing on his Jewishness as a potentially disqualifying element. He soft-steps up to and beyond the parts that most news stories have quoted, but those quotes are here. He’s not critical of Harris overall, but he makes it clear that he thinks she’d have been a hard President to serve as Vice-President to, and he implies that she might have won Pennsylvania – and maybe the country – if she’d gone with him.
But no real finger pointing even there. It’s a whisper, not a shout, and he makes clear that he’s still on Team Blue all the way.
He talks as well about his Jewishness – a lot – but it’s usually in the spirit of flashing his faith credentials. That’s a solid political move – it lets him appeal to evangelicals who might be tiring of Trump – but it’s not that compelling. (And I say that as a fellow Jew.)
He does organize the book around an opening depiction of the arson at the Governor’s mansion on Passover, and then he returns to it at the very end. It’s a troubling story, but the included color pictures do a better job than the text of showing it.
The strongest section here, though, is the chapter he dedicates to talking about his work on the Catholic child abuse scandal. I thought then, and I think now, that it was an act of real political courage. He tells us that he thought it would end his career, having pissed off too many Catholics ever to get elected again.
He handled it brilliantly, though, and it’s really what made him a national figure. As he relives it here, he goes into more detail than in most other chapters. He names names, and he talks about the challenge of keeping some much of it secret while it was still in the grand jury’s hands.
A key there is that he couldn’t even tell his wife about the case, and another highlight is the way he talks about their partnership. She seems to have a great sense of humor, and he gives several examples of how she cuts him down to size when his ego starts getting out of control. Their relationship feels authentic in the context of a book where it could easily have come across as a word-photo-op.
As far as I’m concerned, the next Presidential election can’t come soon enough. Shapiro should be part of it, and, even if we collectively select someone else as the candidate, we’re doing OK to have him as part of our bench.
February 1, 2026
There's a lot to unpack here.
1) If he announced that he plans to run for President tomorrow, he'd likely be my first choice. He understands Pennsylvanians deeply. He is extremely pro-worker/pro-union to the degree where almost everyone who works for a Union has met or shaken hands with him. I'm assuming he'll understand the student debt crisis, given Pennsylvania is one of the worse states for it.
2) I would've liked to have seen more about what he would do if he would run for president or policies he's in favor of, but it's more a snapshot of his career up to that point and statements against political violence, his ability to work across the aisle, and different victories against big powerful interests that work to take advantage of those who have less of a voice.
3) I do appreciate that he sticks to his conventions, but at the same time is willing to have his views evolves, as he is introduced to more information, such as his stance regarding the death penalty.
4) I haven't read Kamala Harris' 107 Days, but I heard that there was some critical stuff towards Shapiro in there. His viewpoints in the book run with what I have heard within the months after he withdrew his name from consideration. The questions he was asked may have been offensive, but I believe that it could be a way to gauge how he'd answer those questions on the trail. In his book, it made it seem like he was being asked to abandon PA if he was running as VP on the trail. It seemed like he had received pushback for having different viewpoints than Kamala at different times. It also seemed like how the vetting process went, he was being discouraged from continuing on.
1) If he announced that he plans to run for President tomorrow, he'd likely be my first choice. He understands Pennsylvanians deeply. He is extremely pro-worker/pro-union to the degree where almost everyone who works for a Union has met or shaken hands with him. I'm assuming he'll understand the student debt crisis, given Pennsylvania is one of the worse states for it.
2) I would've liked to have seen more about what he would do if he would run for president or policies he's in favor of, but it's more a snapshot of his career up to that point and statements against political violence, his ability to work across the aisle, and different victories against big powerful interests that work to take advantage of those who have less of a voice.
3) I do appreciate that he sticks to his conventions, but at the same time is willing to have his views evolves, as he is introduced to more information, such as his stance regarding the death penalty.
4) I haven't read Kamala Harris' 107 Days, but I heard that there was some critical stuff towards Shapiro in there. His viewpoints in the book run with what I have heard within the months after he withdrew his name from consideration. The questions he was asked may have been offensive, but I believe that it could be a way to gauge how he'd answer those questions on the trail. In his book, it made it seem like he was being asked to abandon PA if he was running as VP on the trail. It seemed like he had received pushback for having different viewpoints than Kamala at different times. It also seemed like how the vetting process went, he was being discouraged from continuing on.
February 6, 2026
What i know about Josh from his interviews and media appearances, I like, and this was a chance to learn more about him. He’s always come across as very articulate and poised to me.
This book reinforces all of that. He comes across as a bit of a goody-two-shoes, which is fine. And also a devoted family man and a man of faith. He outlines a bit about his life, his career and how he arrived at some of the big decisions in his personal and political life.
This to me feels very much like a book someone writes before running for President. I’ll definitely give him some consideration as I evaluate him and whatever other candidates decide to run.
3.75 stars, rounded up to 4.
This book reinforces all of that. He comes across as a bit of a goody-two-shoes, which is fine. And also a devoted family man and a man of faith. He outlines a bit about his life, his career and how he arrived at some of the big decisions in his personal and political life.
This to me feels very much like a book someone writes before running for President. I’ll definitely give him some consideration as I evaluate him and whatever other candidates decide to run.
3.75 stars, rounded up to 4.
January 30, 2026
Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service is an inspiring and grounded account of public service and personal faith. Josh Shapiro shares intimate stories from his life, illustrating the power of showing up, listening, and taking action for the common good. Honest, relatable, and thoughtful, this book offers lessons on leadership, community, and unity in a time when genuine service matters most.
February 6, 2026
Listened to the audio book (and read along the physical copy for some). Really great compilation of anecdotes and lessons! Love how much he leaned into his Judaism, rather than shying away from it as some might have expected (or wanted) him to. I appreciated his candor about the vetting process and overall thoroughly enjoyed!
February 6, 2026
This was fairly standard boiler plate political wind-up-for-likely-presidential run kind of fare. Shaprio has a decent stump speech about "working across the aisle" and I want to believe what he's dishing here, but my guess is when he flames out in the primary he'll join a very highly compensated law firm position (he says he hasn't earned much mostly being a Pol for most of his adulthood).
February 7, 2026
A book length political ad (of course); however, it is charming and interesting and most of the stories were new to me. He is perhaps a bit too self-deprecating and pleonastic, but I do end up liking him very much (so, a successful political ad at least in my case.)
February 8, 2026
I’m so appreciative of this book and the heartfelt sincerity and transparency shared by the Governor.
…This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man…
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3.
…This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man…
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3.
February 1, 2026
4.25 audio
Liked hearing about his common sense approach and highlighting some of his discussions on the campaign trail
Easy to understand why he has been successful in PA
Liked hearing about his common sense approach and highlighting some of his discussions on the campaign trail
Easy to understand why he has been successful in PA
February 3, 2026
It would be a much better world if politicians approached their calling the way Shapiro does. Recommended reading in these troubled times.
February 6, 2026
There is far too much about his high school election campaign. it takes more than 150 pages to get to the good stuff. his wife emerges as possibly the more interesting figure in all of this
February 8, 2026
Renews my hope in public service.
February 8, 2026
A great memoir of a politician who lives his values.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews