Rating: 
Summary: Nothing new here
Review: I would recommend borrowing this book from the library. As other reviewers have pointed out-there are factual errors-one of the most glaring being that Barbara Bush is NOT a Smith graduate. She dropped out to marry George. I have read several other books and articles about the Bushes and this is just a compiliation of other people's work. It seems like one of those "quickie" books put out for an election year. A lot of the quotes and incidents cited in previous articles and books are just rehashed here. It is interesting if you haven't read anything on Laura Bush, but if you have-save your money-I wish that I had.
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Summary: Is Ann Gerhart the new Michael Moore?
Review: If you hate George Bush (and Texans) you will love this book. While it soars when describing being with Laura Bush on Capitol Hill on September 11th, it sinks when insults the Bush's parenting skills and questions whether the President supports his wife. (Page 169 "Who takes care of her?.....She takes care of herself.")I was surprised at the undercurrent of venom.
Rating: 
Summary: The Imperfect Book
Review: If you want the perspective of an East Coast liberal snob, this is the book for you. Ann Gerhart is condescending and even contemptuous about virtually everything in Laura Bush's life - her choices, her public persona, the town where she grew up, her children, and most especially, her husband. And Ms. Gerhart can't figure out why Laura Bush wouldn't be interviewed for this book!
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Summary: Drugs are the Answer!
Review: Imagine flying along the wide open spaces of Texas next to a short brainless drunk drugged out on cocaine and thinking, "Gosh oh golly, I want to have this man's children." Apparently, that's what this confused wallflower did. So, what's the explanation? She must have been on drugs, too. The obvious conclusion is that the "perfect wife" is perfectly oblivious. We'll never know the truth because it's not in this book and now that they seem to both be drunk on some pseudo-jesus-crack, they can't remember. A side effect of the perfect wife treatment seems to be terminal pastel affect resulting in the patient wearing pastel wool suits that Mary Kay would love. Ah Laura, it's time for DETOX, sweety. If you don't act now, I'm going to be seeing you in the drug induced dementia ward.
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Summary: Not as good as it could have been
Review: It starts out like Laura Bush's Rules for Driving, but skydives after the opening pages, in which the then 17-year-old Laura kills a young man with her car, who just coincidentally happens to be her boyfriend!
My interest in the book sharply dove after that, as it appears that coincidental killing is the most appealing thing about Laura Bush.
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Summary: The Wedgewood of Laura Bush and Status Value
Review: Laura Bush and her mother in law, Barbara, both reflect the enigma society has long created that women who have little or no income lack status or deserve no status, and therefore, have little or no value to society. The misconception arises from the hierarchy which values income level over social contribution and one that fails to recognize the value of marital support, childbearing and raising activities and housewivery. Women and men have been led to believe that unless they have substantial income, they have little value to society. Yet, First Ladies are always valued for their voluntary contributions, expected or not, but anticipated with enormous respect and anticipation with each new administration. Defying the logic that, by default, falls upon every female in this nation, or any nation, the income-based hierarchy of capitalism that fails to acknowledge the contributions of women to their families, to the community, and even to themselves, presents the most schizophrenic of economic philosophies to women, and the most difficult to digest over their lives. Due to the trend to adopt more women into the economic hierarchy of income earnings, Mrs. Bush represents the remnants of our civil society that once respected women for their presence, rather than the barbaric feudal world to which America continues to gravitate which defines women only by their level of income, as it does for males, and ignores their status as wives and mothers, deferring to the singular world where the benchmark of status is conferred by the status of the warrior, as measured by his conquest alone. That women allow this to happen is even more striking, and shows they lack the wisdom of the ages to allow themselves to be placed in so narrow a social box!
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Summary: Less Than Meets the Eye
Review: Let me admit up front that I am not a George W. Bush fan (does an American exist who does not have a strong opinion of him one way or the other?). But I thought there must be a deeper, more complex Laura Bush. Ann Gerhart's book is well-written and I could not stop reading it once I started. There are lots of interesting tidbits (Laura Bush smokes cigarettes, but never in public) and revealing anecdotes and interviews. The chapter on the twins is ruthless. In another chapter, Gerhart describes in detail the tragic car accident that Laura Bush caused when she was only seventeen, and what a traumatic experience it was for all concerned. So how does a woman who voted for Eugene McCarthy, who hangs out with liberal friends, and who loves her work, meet a guy who is running for congress on a Republican ticket and marry him six weeks later, giving up forever a career she has wanted since she was in second grade? I was certain that there was more to Laura Bush than meets the eye. After reading The Perfect Wife, I am convinced that there is less. Perhaps she could not abide the thought of staying single into her thirties. I don't doubt that she loves George and that he loves her. It is obvious what George gets out of the deal. Less obvious is what Laura gets. One (male) interviewee suggested to Gerhart that George was irresistibly handsome and sexy. Please. There is little evidence that Laura Bush is an introspective person. She reads a lot and knows what she thinks, even if the rest of us don't. But if she ever does evaluate her life and her decisions, I wonder how she will come to grips with having left the desperately important job of teaching at-risk children to raise a pair of self-centered and inconsiderate girls. And further, to lend support to a man who is dismantling the most important social programs this nation has. Will she ever speak out? Gerhart leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but by the time you finish The Perfect Wife, you will have enough information to form your own opinion about Laura Bush.
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Summary: Political Chum ... Again
Review: Pass on this partisan piece of trash! Regardless of your political affiliation you will be offended by this blatant hatchet job designed to hurt Bush, the husband, disguised as an admiring "biography" of his wife. Same old same old from an angry author. No credibility present here other than the fact that this author knows how to troll and dole political chum. I received this book as a gift yet held my nose and tossed it in the trash upon reading it. How can you seriously consider Ann's prose when she begins by stating her disgust with Mr. Bush and then proceeds to divulge "the truth" on Laura? Nice try, but this dull and boring book couldn't even excite me if it had been listed as fiction or maybe "dream sequence." Follow Hemmingway's advice, Ann, and write about what you know (and know about what you write). Get off the gossip chain and do some actual "research" before you try writing another book.
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Summary: The Perfect Wife
Review: She doesn't speak out about any issues of importance. The President must think that she is the prefect wife, indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Why don't they discuss it?
Review: The woman KILLED a boy - she was driving her car down the street and of all people in town for her to accidently kill - she runs over her boyfriend!!! Talk about coincidence! There's a lot of bloodshed in that family. They're the new Kennedy's!! Let's open a dialogue about what a murderer Laura Bush is! Why didn't her husband send her to the deathchair???
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