Rating: 
Summary: Refreshing!!
Review: Thank you Mrs. Bush! It is so refreshing to read a book that is scandal free and that isn't laced with bitterness towards anyone. Quite the contrary, Mrs. Bush sees the best in people...a theme that should be embraced by all of us! Anyone who finds good, old fashioned values and morals threatening, stay away from this book!
Rating:
Summary: At Ease with Barbara Bush
Review: Thanks, Barbara Bush, for an enjoyable and enlightening book about yourself, your family,your travels and accomplishments since leaving the White House.This book reflects the author's zest for living. She recounts her journal entries from the past decade and takes us with her all over the world. She supports worthwhile causes, gives generously of her time, gets excited about her family, acknowledges the special bond between her and George W. Bush, counts her blessings and is unafraid to "tell it like it is". How refreshing. If you enjoy reading non fiction and would like to take a peak into the life of a former first lady, get comfortable and read this one thru. It is a happy book mostly,a true account of the author's feelings as written in her journals year by year and lots of asides that will make you laugh. Mrs. Bush enjoys reading and supplies us with some of her favorite books. I thought she could have included more non fiction and would have appreciated a listing of her favorites in the back of her book. There are some recipes, accounts of visitors at Kennebunkeport, vacations on Greek islands, travels to China and many other countries spiced up with tales of family and friends that will entertain and inform you
Barbara Bush appears to be a down to earth realist and she continues to work tirelessly for her causes which are literacy and education. She chose a pleasant, easy, elegant style in her role as first lady. You'll be amazed at her energy, her insights, her devotion and loyalty to her family, how she is coping with health problems, and how many speeches she gives. Curious about Barbara? Read the book. She doesn't disappoint.
Rating: 
Summary: Boycott This Book
Review: The inevitable comparison must be made to the last First Lady opus by Hillary Clinton. It must be said that Senator Clinton wins out in the honesty/self-scrutiny department. We get no sense of the great failures of the men in Mrs. Bush's life (Bush 41's kowtowing to the Religious Right, 43's AWOL period from the National Guard). In short, this is a self-congratulatory memoir by a narrow, arrogant, and not particularly nice woman who, shall we say displays characteristics of a word that "rhymes with rich."
Rating:
Summary: Simply a joy to read
Review: There has always been something about Mrs. Bush that I liked. Her honesty, her bluntness (no PC), her love, respect and devotion to her family and the way she has made being a wife, mother and helpmate an occupation to be admired. Sure she has had opportunities and privilege that most of us will never encounter. But that makes her approach to life even more admirable, because at its roots she never forgets what is really important. So many of the other reviewers have said what I would have said, so I wont repeat myself. I simply encourage people to read the book and enjoy it. And for those of my generation ( post WW2 ) read it and discover what really matters in life.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a wonderful life!
Review: This book details the life of Barbara Bush from the time her husband left the White House until her son took office, with a short addendum about 9/11. She describes the places she went, and the people she spent time with, as well as family events and world happenings. She is not unlike many other active women her age, with the exception that her travels are to places like Egypt and Russian and she is always greeted by local dignitaries, royalty, government officials, or some of her very large circle of influential friends. She is at her best when she describes her family members and get-togethers with her children and grandchildren. All too often, her activities are listed in a rapid-fire manner without enough description and fleshing-out to make them vivid to the reader. She has not lost her considerable wit which is turned on herself as often as it is on someone else. She is a delightful, down-to-earth lady who, as she says, "married well", but this book doesn't do justice to the life she has led in the past 10 years.
Rating: 
Summary: Tugboat Babs tells all!
Review: This is a thrilling book -- I especially enjoyed the early sections which deal with the Bush's business activities in Medellin and Cartagena. Imagine a Jimmy Buffett song as it might have been filmed by Quentin Tarentino and you have the general idea.
Rating: 
Summary: I wouldn't brag about it
Review: This is basically the same trash that you've probably heard Barbara "the witch" Bush spew forth in her various "interviews." Well, maybe slightly toned down, probably at the insistance of her editors and attorneys in order to avoid a flood of libel suits. I'd have been more interested in hearing her honest appraisal of how she managed to raise such a dysfunctional family: a drunkard, simi-literate draft-dodging son who, thanks to the Supreme Court, became the most embarrassing US President in recent history; a lying son who became governor of Florida and is shamelessly willing to use the life/death of a helpless woman and her family to advance his own career; and a third son whose life is such a marital mess that the family simplies tries to ignore him. Not to mention a hen-pecked husband who ought to show her the back of his hand (behind closed doors, of course) for the kind of disrepect that she so blatantly shows him. Finally, I was most dissappointed that she did not once in over 400 pages honestly address the persistent rumors of her ongoing extra-marital affair with Bill O'Reilly...too busy slandering patriotic Americans, I guess.
Rating:
Summary: "Shallow Reflections"
Review: What a life! Golfing with the Annenbergs! Lunching with Cardinals! Lots of fancy dinners and ribbon cuttings! But none of these are new revelations, all have been published as news items or in society columns. Whereas Mrs. Bush's first book was introspective, candidly revealing a bout with depression, her rocky relationship with her mother, and the difficulties associated with frequent moves due to her husband's career, this book is no more than a calendar log of her travels and daily activities. The deepest comment? "Wonderful" used frequently to describe grandchildren and friends.
If literacy is such an important cause to her, why doesn't she take her son to task for taking steps to end funding of Head Start programs? What about her feelings concerning her granddaughter Noelle's well publicized drug problems? Her son Neil's messy divorce? Perhaps the editors removed her more pithy observations, but I was greatly disapointed by this shallow and unsatisfying book.
Rating:
Summary: What a (First) Lady!
Review: What Barbara Bush may lack in flowery language, she more than makes up for in content. This very personal, vulnerable, inside view of the Bush family is heartwarming, often hilariously funny, and full of travel adventure. Her insights into the former president's anguish over seeing his president/son go through "media hell," as well as his governor/son's ride through politics are only a small fraction of this book. This is a diary account of how faith. family, friends, and service to country as well as charitable causes can make a difference in this modern world and individual lives around the globe. A book is yet another fine contribution that Barbara Bush makes during an era when decency and goodness are sometimes forgotten virtues. Highly enjoyable reading, but more so for the educated
regarding world events, who will recognize the names she mentions, and have an understanding of how crucial some of those relationships that were formed have affected the world we know in 2003.
| 
