Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant Writing, Captivating Reading
Review: "First Mothers" is for mothers, sons, fathers, daughters, and anyone else who is intersted in good history written by a first-rate journalist (Bonnie Angelo) without equal. But "First Mothers" is more than just a good story. It is a fascinating insight into family dynamics and psychology. Whoever is reading the book immediately places himself or herself in the corresponding position in the book. We become mother, son, daughter or father. The writer subtly draws us into the action without our knowing it. It also becomes a "how to" book without our being aware of it. We learn what it takes to form a child to be great--even though there are many ways. You uncles and aunts, take notice too! The book is so enjoyable that one is not aware of how much skill has gone into the concept and its execution. This unbelabored work of hard labor is one of the true marks of genius, and it manifests itself from time to time in literature and history. "First Mothers" is surely both. I have given it to all my friends, and I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Writing, Captivating Reading
Review: "First Mothers" is for mothers, sons, fathers, daughters, and anyone else who is intersted in good history written by a first-rate journalist (Bonnie Angelo) without equal. But "First Mothers" is more than just a good story. It is a fascinating insight into family dynamics and psychology. Whoever is reading the book immediately places himself or herself in the corresponding position in the book. We become mother, son, daughter or father. The writer subtly draws us into the action without our knowing it. It also becomes a "how to" book without our being aware of it. We learn what it takes to form a child to be great--even though there are many ways. You uncles and aunts, take notice too! The book is so enjoyable that one is not aware of how much skill has gone into the concept and its execution. This unbelabored work of hard labor is one of the true marks of genius, and it manifests itself from time to time in literature and history. "First Mothers" is surely both. I have given it to all my friends, and I highly recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Slavish Claptrap
Review: A typical "project" from someone who has written for the likes of Time magazine to scintillate a plebian readership with "interesting" tidbits. Her account of Sara Delano Roosevelt is laden with errors. She was not of "old Hudson River aristocracy". Her father Warren Delano was from Massachusetts, as was her mother Catherine Lyman. They built their estate at Algonac, near Newburgh NY, after Warren Delano made his fortune trafficking opium into China. Sara was an elitist snob who never worked a day in her life. AS Eleanor Roosevelt said of her: she was prejudiced against anyone who wasn't of the social elite her family aspired to. Indeed, her father lost much of his fortune during the Panic of 1857 and had to return to China one more time to make a second fortune in the 19th century drug trade.
Rating:
Summary: Slavish Claptrap
Review: A typical "project" from someone who has written for the likes of Time magazine to scintillate a plebian readership with "interesting" tidbits. Her account of Sara Delano Roosevelt is laden with errors. She was not of "old Hudson River aristocracy". Her father Warren Delano was from Massachusetts, as was her mother Catherine Lyman. They built their estate at Algonac, near Newburgh NY, after Warren Delano made his fortune trafficking opium into China. Sara was an elitist snob who never worked a day in her life. AS Eleanor Roosevelt said of her: she was prejudiced against anyone who wasn't of the social elite her family aspired to. Indeed, her father lost much of his fortune during the Panic of 1857 and had to return to China one more time to make a second fortune in the 19th century drug trade.
Rating: 
Summary: An Eye Opener!
Review: As a mom to 2 sons, and also as Host of BellaOnline's Sons Channel, I have always been of the opinion that boys are shaped and molded more so by their mothers words and deeds than anyone else they come into contact with. This is never more apparent than in Bonnie Angelo's book, "First Mothers". These women, whether knowingly or unknowingly, raised their boys to achieve the highest pinnacle of leadership our country offers. The stories told in this book are poignant, reveling and speak volumes about the mother/son bond.A must read for any mom of boys!
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant Concept
Review: Bonnie Angelo has a brilliant concept for a book and enough material for about one-third of her pages. The text is padded with cliches; cliched images; unattributed quotes; guessed-at thoughts, reflections and reactions; gratuitous comments and asides; contrived conclusions; uncertain focuses - now the mother, now the son, now the wife, now the wife's family. Bonnie apparently dropped her notes when she was beginning her writing and she never sorted them again. There is no order to her scrambled text.
For all the fact that an editor was needed badly, this book offers some wonderfully diverting material and introductions to a neglected aspect of American history and to some notable life stories. The chapter on Sara Delano Roosevelt may be worth the modest paperback price of admission.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read
Review: Bonnie Angelo was my roommate on a White House Press trip for Mrs. Johnson's New England beautification projects during the six-day Middle East war in June, 1967. It was a time when our editors were, particularly, disinterested in flower and covered bridge stories. However, Bonnie worked hard and resourcefully, earning my respect for her abilities and sunny disposition. It was my first year with the N.Y. Daily News Washington bureau. She was a star of TIME, a tiny dynamo often chosen when an able White House "pool reporter" was needed for an elegant event, one where reporters were barely tolerated. That December she was stationed -- for Lynda Byrd Johnson's marriage to Charles Robb -- behind a white panel specially erected to match the East Room wall with holes for her to peek through. Bonnie curled up in her "spy hole" facing the bride and groom, taking notes through the service, hidden from the V.I.P. guests. Then she came down to the pressroom to tell other reporters all about it. During her years covering Washington she heard so many presidents mention the influence of their mothers -- not their fathers -- on their lives that she decided to go back, wherever possible and get the stories first hand. She spent two years interviewing presidents and hundreds of surviving friends and family members. First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents benefits from the friendly contacts she made over twenty-five years here and from her eye for the human story behind the pomp and circumstance. Washington used to be a place where a man left his past behind when he made it here, and newspapers ignored present scandals unless they occurred publicly -- in the street frightening the horses -- as the saying went. First Mothers is a new look at presidential families behind all those brave smiles. It is candid about the difficulties these strong women overcame -- or created. Sara Roosevelt came from a wealthy family, built a six-story New York city townhouse for her only son, Franklin, and his young wife and one for herself next to it with connecting doors. Ida Eisenhower made a home for a family of seven in an 818 square foot, one-story, frame house in Abilene, Kansas. Mothers coped with their lives when there was no popular mood-altering drug for a woman with a husband whose business had failed or whose child died. Hannah Nixon lost two sons to tuberculosis. One went quickly as a small boy, and another ailed from his late teens for several years, nursed by his mother until he died in his twenties. Before antibiotics, treatment was a dry climate and rest, which everyone knew would just delay death. However, pasteurization of milk could prevent the spread of the disease. Hannah's husband, a man with a hot temper, didn't believe in pasteurization and had refused to have the family cow tested for tuberculosis. First Mothers is full of such character-building and president-making anecdotes. These women are really admirable when contrasted with how much better off women in America are today. With entrenched resistance to what contraceptive methods there were, the only sure method of birth control was abstinence. Perhaps some of these families wouldn't have been so large or the husbands so cranky, abusive or alcoholic if their wives had the benefits of modern medicine available.
Rating:
Summary: Well-researched, fascinating read!
Review: FDR was an incurable mama's boy? Truman's mom was an independent upstart with vision ahead of her time? Who knew?? What attracted me to this book was its tremendous amount of well-researched, detailed historic information that I've not seen published anywhere else. So many books have been written about past leaders, but so little has been written about the women who influenced these men so greatly during their formative years. It really gives a whole new perspective on how our former Presidents developed their value systems and their way of thinking that ultimately led them to success.
Rating:
Summary: You could fall asleep after page 10
Review: Goodness, is this book ever a snoozer. Because of the way the book acts on the reader it should be retitled Mommy Dearest. It might take a coat hanger to revive the reader after reading this boring, stale and overhyped book about a subject that is more gossip than history. The saying might be true that behind every good man there is a good mother, but this book goes to show that behind every book does not reside a good story.
Rating:
Summary: Love it !
Review: I love it !
As an non-amercican , it gave profound information on the presidents themselves as well as their family, childhood and of course their mothers and their influence on their sons . I even met Bonnie Angelo in person ! And got a copy of "First Mothers ..." autographed (My mom who has another copy was SOOO jealous). We only spoke for a minute or two , but she seemed like a very cheerful , lively woman to me . (She came to a autograph segment at the biggest bookstore in Korea , which where I live ... Oh , not the bookstore , Korea !)
|
