Rating: 
Summary: Insight into the Mind of 'The Great Communicator'
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading Reagan's letters to friends, family members and political figures. He expressed himself so eloquently on so many different subjects, and maintained a humility and candor that are refreshing to see in the most powerful man in the world. His humor at times laugh-out-loud funny, his self-effacing attitude apparent, an excellent read that I recommend to anyone interested in learning more about this great man.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I was really disappointed with this book. I was expecting something greater. We needed to hear more about the great accomplishments of the man who saved the world. I wish that we could really honor this man the way he would have liked it.
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Summary: Reagan As No One Has Presented Him-As Himself
Review: I'll admit off the bat that I love Ronald Reagan. I think he was a fantastic President. I really do. However, I've found that biographies of the man, and his own memoirs, have only shown us a little of who he was. "An American Life", his post White House memoir, offered little in the way of great stories. It wasn't all together self-serving(that wasn't Reagan's way), but it had that same, kinda dull quality that seems to haunt all presidential memoirs. I get upset at Booth all over again when I think about what Lincoln's memoirs would have been like. Here though, in his own words, Reagan comes off as human. Flawed as any other person on this Earth, but with that absoute sense of right and wrong that galvanized his supporters and infuriated his critics. A previous reviewer who gave the book just one star obviously did not read the book, as Reagan's letters answer critics of Iran-Contra and address the Beiruit bombing. Whether you believe Reagan is up to you. That he addresses his critics in this book is a fact.The book gives a very interesting portrait of Reagan. It starts with his earliest correspondence as a boy, and moves throughhis midwest years to his Hollywood years and into the governors mansion. It follows Reagan's travels on the campaign trail, and the sheer volume of letters is staggering. The man, who many on the left portray as an empty vessell, clearly had a lot to say, and he believed in what he talked about a wrote. The book features Reagans fair-mindedness, as he responds to letters from citizens that impune his character, his motives, and his upbringing. He treats each writer with a respect and affords them the dignity they denied him. It's clear that he was a master of the written word. In fact, one of the prime reasons to read this is to relish what good letter writing could be. In the days of email, finely written letters are a lost art. Even if you are a critic of Reagan's politics, if you are an honest broker pick up the book. It reads quickly and lets you into Reagans thoughts in a way never before seen. Any person with an interest in the Reagan legacy needs to read this book.
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Summary: I love this book
Review: I've had this book for several months and have been gradually reading through it since. It is basically a collection of letters that Reagan wrote over the years, not just during his time as a politician and president but as an actor too. We are curious people, so reading the letters that people wrote can be very intriguing and offer us an insight into the life of another person that a biography may lack. There are a volume of letters that coincide with parts of Reagan's life many of us are familiar with. For myself, his presidential era and the many events around the world where he acted as peacemaker or figurehead, as well as well publicised happenings in his personal life are things that I remember as I grew up and it is interesting to find many references to these in what are sometimes very deep and personal letters to friends, colleagues and other world politicians/leaders. This is a strong attraction to the book - relating my own recollection of events with someone elses thoughts, concerns or opinions and gaining an alternate perspective from the personal communication between some very important people and peacemakers that we often entrust our security and lives to. However the reason I love this book so much is because I, like many others are just plain nosey and I just get a truly great insight into someone else's life in a way no other book can offer. Even if this man had not been president, or an actor it would have been interesting. Few people litter their lives with so many historical records as Reagan did with his letters. The book is very easy to read and can be done so like I have if needed - over a long time. It's a library book, a coffee table book, something to read before going to bed (even for a few minutes), to take on a business trip for the aircraft, something that can be picked up easily, read for a few minutes to a few hours and then put back down. There is no storyline to follow but there is a story to be learnt with letter after letter and contextual narrative. Put this way, it may sound a little boring and tedious but I can assure you it isn't. I have personally found it to take me elsewhere for a few welcome hours on many occassions. A great personal takeaway for me is that I have been touched by the great personal writings of a man I hardly know. Reagan is indeed a great communicator and writes compassionate letters that are simply an inspiration to us all. I only wish that I was as good a father, husband, friend, colleague, leader, etc as he clearly is. For me this book was an excellent purchase and Reagan's letters are simply a gift to humanity.
Rating:
Summary: Great Man, Great Book
Review: If you admired Reagan before reading this book, you will admire him even more after you read it. If you hated Reagan before reading it, you will hate this book because these letters contradict everything you beleive about this great man...
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Summary: A lost art from a great man we all lost
Review: Many Americans will agree that letter writing is truly a lost art. With chat rooms and emails and instant messages, who has the time to sit down and write a letter? Reagan, who has been called the "Great Communicator," reminds us just how great letter writing can be.
Anyone can write a boring biography of a president, but this book is different. Through Reagan's own words - with his letters to everyone from prolific world leaders to entertainers such as Sammy Davis Jr.- we become privy to a side of our 40th president that many of us did not know. It is truly a great read - not the kind of book you will want to sit down and read cover to cover in one sitting - but the kind of read that you will pick up off the book shelf from time to time and be glad every time you did.
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Summary: Here he goes again...Right on Target
Review: No one can read this book and be honest and then continue the myth that Ronald Reagan was not brilliant and insightful. Certainly, President Reagan was not only the most personally insightful person on the national stage about the world around him of any of our presidents in the last 100 years, but clearly he is the best writer since Abraham Lincoln. Read this book and you will understand why President Reagan was re-elected by the largest margin since Franklin Roosevelt.
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Summary: A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly
Review: One of the things that caught me today as the funeral at the Cathedral in DC continued was the profound respect that world leaders had for Mr. Reagan. A life like his touched the lives of so many others. I was poor when he took office, and his vision gave us all new hope and my life improved tremendously by the time he left office. His life, over 10,000 letters written, shows that he was a man of great personal depth and conviction for his family, his friends, his nation and the world we live in. I would imagine that if those who have written things about him on these and other pages were to express their anger to him for his failings, he would sincerely express his apologies for the shortcomings he had. We cannot blame him for the AIDs epidemic, he did not start it, nor could he do anything to finish it. When he started his presidency he was surrounded on all sides with one crisis after another. We had double digit inflation, a flagging economy, we almost lost one of the big three automakers and hundreds of thousands of jobs. He gave us hope, and he touched all Americans collectively as he touched the lives of the many individually through what he wrote to them. His dignity was beyond any of the negative any could say about him. What we all need to ask is, what have we done individually to aid the poor, to help those with AIDS, to help promote peace and share our prosperity with the world? Could we write to encourage and inspire as he did? "A Life In Letters" is a wonderful tribute to a man who embodied faith, love and friendship. He gave us a hope and a vision, and he shared that with us collectively as he did with those he wrote to individually over the years.
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Summary: Thank God for Ronald Reagan
Review: People sometimes say the 80s was the worst decade of the century. Most of us know different because we were there. If liberals hate Reagan so much, why don't the build a time machine and go back to the 70s when we were dealing with double digit interest rate, high inflation, unemployment. Reagan did what was desperately needed, and we can thank him for starting an expansion that lasted for more than two decades.
Rating:
Summary: Portrain of a Great Man
Review: Reagan was a man of many contradictions - a liberal New Dealer who became a conservative GOPer, a divorced man who espoused the family, a man who was friendly toward all but close toward few. The most obvious contradiction, made evident in this stunning book, is that the garralous, "life of the party" was a genuinely private man. As Peggy Noonan has noted so many times, Reagan, unlike many of the political and intellectual intelligensia, never claimed to be smarter, wiser or more knowledgable that the rest of us. The art of letter writing is dying the way of the manual typewriter. The fact that he wrote these thousands of letters by hand says something about the personal touch that he often exhibited. More telling than that, though, was the diverse spectrum of recipients - from nurses to widows to students in grade school and high school to union employees to heads of state to his children. And the range of subjects covered - from entertainment to religion to economics to literature to sports - showed a man who was interested in the whole of life. The man who "trusted America to do the right thing" demonstrated that trust in his letters time after time. While some may have disliked his policies on various subjects, few - except the diehards who we will unfortunatey always have with us - will dislike the man after reading this book. The tribute by his daughter Patty was one of the greatest I have ever seen and demonstrated that she and her father have, at last, made peace.
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