Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing and Courageous Woman
Review: McDougal's story deserves to be read by every person in America who has ever wondered why they should do the right and painful thing in the face of powerful enemies and overwhelming temptation to save oneself at the expense of another. This is a tale of heroines and heroes, of good friends and false friends, of villains and the lowest scum to ever stride a courtroom. Ken Starr and his cronies, and those in various jails and federal prisons, who tried to assist him in breaking the spirit of this courageous and honest woman, have much to answer. She was an ordinary woman who faced a difficult challenge with rare courage. Her story is an inspiration and a source of encouragement in these difficult political times. The tale is fascinating and well written, and you will keep thinking about the book after you put it down. Susan McDougal took the hit for a lot of people when she went to prison for refusing to talk about Whitewater, and the Clinton land deal that went bad. In reading this book, you get a strong sense of McDougal's honesty and integrity, and how difficult it must have been, in the presence of so much insanity, to maintain that integrity.
Rating: 
Summary: Just not worth your time....
Review: No, I haven't read this book, but really, who *would* spend their time reading about this woman?
Rating:
Summary: Great book Great Hero
Review: Susan is the kind of friend anyone would be lucky to have. She is honest and she did the right thing even when it cost her 21 months of her life. Susan McDougal is an inspiration to me and should be for all people who value the truth above personal comfort. She is also lucky enough to have had a chance to do what thousands, perhaps millions of Americans would like to do; tell Ken Starr to go to hell.
Rating:
Summary: Now THIS is what you call a book!
Review: Susan Mc Dougal is one hell of a lady. She faced horrendous conditions in prison, was shuffled from one federal facility to another without any explanation, and calmly held her own against the extreme agenda of "Independent Counsel" Kenneth Starr (a bedfellow of far right Republicans for years prior to the well financed Clinton Witchhunt). Those that defend Starr would have done just swell in Auschwitz or Tiananmen Square. Starr was unabashed of his tactics to make Susan testify (even sending an attractive lawyer to one prison to get her cooperation) and he wouldn't have missed the opportunity to nail Susan for perjury at the first opportunity, so she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She was screwed whatever way you looked at it and she knew it. Susan was quite a few steps ahead of this creep and his band of misfits every step of the way. The saddest part of all is that when you ignore the talk radio gasbags and hysterics and actually read this woman's book, you will discover that she knew President and Hillary Clinton only slightly, and it was a relationship that occurred in the mid to late 70's. She was not the close confidant of the Clintons that Starr portrayed her to be. To be able to come out of her situation mentally intact takes a lot of guts and fortitude. Instead of dwelling over the past, Susan has taken her horrible experiences and has done well. She holds no resentment towards Starr (who cancelled an appearance at a bookstore, if I remember correctly, when he learned Susan would be there) and has said that his day will come (oh, but to be a fly on the wall!). As another person said, Susan is not whiny or self-pitying in her book. She just tells her story and lets you be the judge.
Rating:
Summary: A great book for people with CLOSED minds
Review: Susan McCrook wouldn't talk because she was afraid she'd end up taking an ADN (Akansas dirt nap). End of story.
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Summary: The truth keeps coming
Review: Susan McDougal is an unlikely hero. Afflicted with her own poor decisions she tells how she was swept up in events that landed her in jail and the unwanted media spotlight. There is very little in this book about the Clintons, which is noteworthy in itself. Even the OIC was forced to conclude that there was no crime partnership between the Clintons and the McDougals, in spite of everything they could do to force Susan McDougal to testify that was the case. The big question has been, which this book is about and answers very well, why did Susan not simply testify the truth as she now tells it to the grand jury, and thereby save herself the better part of two years in jail? To find out get and read the book. I was fully convinced. This will be unwelcome reading for the hordes of Clinton-haters who will always be convinced that the Clintons were never exonerated, that they simply "got away" with it. The pattern has been so far, as with Conason & Lyons book, as with David Brock's book, as with most other recent books dealing with ultra-conservative perfidy, to simply ignore it as much as possible. Or perhaps pick nits and find one or two small errors and claim complete fraud thereby. Don't be fooled, read it for yourself and decide. Politics aside, the story itself is quite compelling. About half of it has to do with background and events that have nothing to do with Whitewater. With very little work this could be morphed into a Lifetime-TV-for-women script since it matches the pattern so well. (Which is, a noble-but-naive woman is afflicted by all sorts of hellish events but comes through in the end older-and-wiser and gets her life together. Unfortuantely most of the bad guys get away in this one.) As I said, a good true-life story.
Rating:
Summary: Choices Have Consequences
Review: Susan McDougal is typical of people with a character disorder--anything that happens to her is somebody eles's fault. Gets convicted of felony fraud-- James McDougal's fault for making it all up about her involvement; lands in jail for ignoring the order of the court (NOT Ken Starr)to tell what she knew of the Clinton's involvement in Whitewater-- Ken Starr's fault because he was doing his job as a prosecutor assigned to get to the bottom of this matter by Janet Reno (a Clinton Democrat). This is not a matter of giving the prosecution expecting McDougal to give them the answer they wanted. Susan McDougal wouldn't talk at all, and she paid the price. What she did is called civil disobedience. And, as the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King tell us, if you CHOOSE to engage in civil disobedience, you must be prepared to pay the price without complaint. But does Susan McDougal do this? No, she writes her petty, vindictive, temper-tantrum of a book, which is nothing more than a product of her irrational, visceral hatred of prosecutors who were doing their job. C'mon Susan McDougal, it's time to be a grown-up and realize that YOU alone are responsible for your OWN choices. One final question for Susan McDougal and her lemming like supporters-- if Ken Starr and his prosecutors are so unsavory and lawless why doesn't Susan McDougal sue him and his band of thuggish prosecutors and attempt to get him disbarred? It's fine for McDougal to write her one-sided book, but if her case case against Starr is such a slam dunk and she wants to really show people what an "evil" man he is, why doesn't she take her case against him to court? There are certainly no shortage of publicity seeking lawyers out there who would do it for free. This book is nothing but trash destined to end up in the clearance sale bin at your local bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: A Woman of Courage
Review: Susan McDougal showed true courage in the face of a high power attack by the Ken Starr. It must have been a real shock to him and to his right wing political backers that she stood her ground. The most disturbing part of the book is that what Starr did was legal. He was able to keep her in jail for almost two years, move her from prison to prison, keep her in complete sensory deprivation and embarass her by showing her in public with chains. It gave me nighmares to think that something like this could be done to a person who has not been convicted of a crime. Starr wanted her as a stepping stone to get to the president but it got caught in his shoe. She did the right thing and I hope she has a good life from now on. As for Mr. Starr and his gang I hope that people remember what they did and keep reminding him that he did wrong.
Rating:
Summary: A Woman of Courage
Review: Susan McDougal showed true courage in the face of a high power attack by the Ken Starr. It must have been a real shock to him and to his right wing political backers that she stood her ground. The most disturbing part of the book is that what Starr did was legal. He was able to keep her in jail for almost two years, move her from prison to prison, keep her in complete sensory deprivation and embarass her by showing her in public with chains. It gave me nighmares to think that something like this could be done to a person who has not been convicted of a crime. Starr wanted her as a stepping stone to get to the president but it got caught in his shoe. She did the right thing and I hope she has a good life from now on. As for Mr. Starr and his gang I hope that people remember what they did and keep reminding him that he did wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Five stars to her for saying nothing
Review: Susan McDougal took the hit for a lot of people when she went to prison for refusing to talk about Whitewater, the Clinton land deal that went bad and almost brought down a kingdom. In reading this book, you get a strong sense of McDougal's honesty and integrity, and how difficult it must have been, in the presence of so much idiocy and insanity, to maintain that integrity.
Once she more or less finishes dealing with Kenneth Starr and his grandstanding attempts to elevate himself while destroying the presidency, she spends the rest of the book describing her horrendous experiences in prison, her fellow female inmates, her fear of the guards, and her interest in prison reform.
The amazing thing, after all she's been through, is that somehow McDougal decency and sense of humor survived her ordeal - and it makes her book a pleasure to read, even as it makes us wince and wish to avert our gaze.
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