We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,750,389.57 | Books Available: 731,041 | Members Online: 201

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Laura Bush : An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady

Laura Bush An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady
Author: Ronald Kessler

When Laura Bush moved into the White House on January 20, 2001, everyone wanted to know what kind of first lady she would be. Would she be like Mamie Eisenhower? Would she follow in Barbara Bush’s footsteps? Would she be another Hillary Clinton? — “I think I’ll just be Laura Bush,” she would say. — On Saturday, April 30, 20... more »05, the world got a glimpse of what that meant when she pushed aside the leader of the free world and stole the show at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Wearing a shimmering lime green Oscar de la Renta gown, Laura wisecracked that she was a “desperate housewife” married to a president who was always asleep at nine.

Replayed constantly on the air, the stand-up routine with its impeccable comedic timing turned the first lady into a glittering star. But while the performance catapulted her to new status, it did not answer the question of who this former teacher and librarian really is and just what role she plays in influencing her husband and shaping his administration. The Bushes are more effective than the FBI or CIA at keeping secret what goes on behind the scenes at the White House, the ranch, or Camp David.

Now, New York Times bestselling author Ronald Kessler draws back that curtain in the first biography of Laura Bush to be written with White House cooperation. Based on interviews with her closest friends and confidantes from childhood to the present, as well as family members and administration heavyweights like Condoleezza Rice and Andrew Card, Kessler paints a portrait of a woman who, even as she ascended to the heights of political fortune and power, never lost touch with the bedrock American values she absorbed in her youth.

In this unprecedented account, Kessler reveals:

• How Laura’s opinions have brought budget changes to a range of federal agencies and have affected her husband’s policies, appointments, and worldview.

• Why Laura told her press secretary in May 2001 she did not want to do any more media interviews.

• What President Bush said to Laura at the dinner table after giving the “go” for the invasion of Iraq, and what his father, former President George H. W. Bush, wrote him the next day about the war.

• What Laura’s own political opinions are and what her relationship with twin daughters Jenna and Barbara is really like.

• What Laura says in private about Hillary Clinton, media attacks on her husband, and his victory in the 2004 election.

• And why Laura, at the age of seventeen, missed a stop sign and caused a fatal accident that tragically left one of her best friends dead.

Laura Bush a remarkable look at the private world of this famously reserved woman, as well as the beliefs and attitudes that shape it. The book will surprise readers whose knowledge of the first lady comes from cautious media interviews and speeches.

Laura Bush’s approval rating stands at 85 percent. Since opinion polls first began asking about them, no first lady has received a higher rating. This moving biography is the first to penetrate the secret world of the president’s stealth counselor who is one of our most admired public figures.

ISBN-13: 9780385516211
ISBN-10: 0385516215
Publication Date: 4/4/2006
Pages: 288
Rating:

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.

3.6 stars, based on 10 ratings

Publisher: Doubleday
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Alicia D. (gnipgnarps) reviewed Laura Bush : An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady on 11/17/2009 + 6 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This book was poorly written. Kessler jumps from one random fact to another random quote without anything to tie the two together. His writing was on par for a sixth grade Social Studies report on the former first lady, hardly suitable for a biography of such an influential woman in American History.

Share/Like this Review?

Read All 6 Book Reviews of "Laura Bush An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady"

Genres:

Biographies & Memoirs >> General
Biographies & Memoirs >> Historical >> United States >> General
Biographies & Memoirs >> Leaders & Notable People >> Political
Biographies & Memoirs >> Specific Groups >> Women

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Laura Bush : An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady

Top Member Book Reviews

Loading...