It Takes a First Lady to Win for ‘Village’

Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to Washington early Wednesday night with an unusual knickknack she had picked up earlier in the day in Manhattan. The first lady won a Grammy for “It Takes a Village,” her recorded reading of her book on child rearing that was judged to be the year’s best spoken word or nonmusical album.

“I’m amazed,” she said, dressed in a gold lace overlay and a flowing green skirt backstage at Madison Square Garden. “I didn’t even know that Grammys were given to tone-deaf singers like me.”

Clinton found out she was a winner during the presentation that preceded Wednesday’s televised ceremony, thanking the president and daughter Chelsea. The book was a bestseller for 20 weeks last year.

Her recording was nominated along with Garrison Keillor’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Charles Kuralt’s America” by Kuralt. Also nominated were two collaborative efforts: “Grow Old Along With Me, the Best Is Yet to Be,” by Edward Asner, Ellen Burstyn, CCH Pounder and Alfre Woodard; and “Harry S. Truman: A Journey to Independence,” by Lauren Bacall, Martin Landau, Jack Lemmon and Gregory Peck.