Eileen

Even when she is writing about mundane daily lie topics, Norah Ephron makes them more- more interesting, have more meaning and usually more fun. Maybe because her life has been so different from mine, I like being transported into Ms Ephron's day to day world.

This book does an excellent job of reviewing the attempted assassination of President Reagan from a historical point of view. The author adds details and context from the perspective of 30 years later. A few of the medical details are off, but not enough so to alter the story. The only drawback- the story isn't an objective look at Reagan. If all you know about the former president is what you learn from this book, you would think that Mr. Reagan and Nancy were perfect and never made a mis-step. I am supporter, and even I don't buy their wonderfulness in this book. When it comes to the assassination attempt though, Mr. Wilbur does a great job of documenting the roles of all involved and providing details that weren't common knowledge before.

This book was FASCINATING. The author posits a very credible theory about the true cause of FDR's death that makes more sense then the "he had heart disease and his doctors ignored it" that I have read in several other books.

The story is well told, and the medical events and terminolgy are written at a level that is very understable for a lay person. I highly recommend this book to any history or FDR buff.

This book is fabulous!! Laura Moriarty somehow beautifully and plausibly wrote a book about two very different women coming from very different era's amd both main characters stand out. The story is interesting with some unexpected turns, and is very well written.

To highlight all of this, Elizabeth McGovern's reading is a delight. She acts the story with emotion, accents and timing. There couldn't have been a better choice to be both Cora and Loise.

Reading the reviews on Audible, I am convinced that either some listeners heard an entirely different book or they listened to this with such preconceived opinions that there is no way they can hear the facts.

CBS was targeted by the right for reporting information the right didn't want the public to know. Mary Mapes and Dan Rather paid the price, while their bosses at CBS knuckled under and either moved up or took the money and ran. Shame on them.

Mapes had no way of knowing that people she talked with to verify information would also knuckle under and lie when the story was broadcast. I guess she learned the hard way that power talks and principles walk. She does admit in the book to placing faith in memos that couldn't be 100% verified because they were copies. That error in judgment opened the door to wild and wildly untrue attacks. The diversion caused by these attacks on the memos successfully diverted people from the REAL story that was supported by fact after fact and witness after witness- George W Bush didn't fulfill his obligation and lied about it.

Mapes tells a compelling story of the truth, the cover-up, the exposure of the truth and the price she and a handful of others paid. Her account of life inside the storm and the fallout is absorbing. Dan Rather's book "Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News" makes an excellent companion read.

Mr. Rather has had a very interesting career; he has covered a lot of news in a lot of places. This book recounts some of those experiences (good and bad).

His experiences as a journalist make him uniquely qualified to set the record straight about the event that ended his career at CBS. Mr. Rather lays out, in detail, the story and the story behind the story. He very astutely points out that the real story of George W Bush's military service (and the lies that surround it) got lost in the smokescreen Bush operatives initiated about the documents. If the facts aren't in your favor, divert people's attention with garbage! If anyone has any doubt about the influence of political parties and people in power on a free press, this book and the attack ads in the current presidential campaign will erase those doubts.

Hearing the story in Mr. Rather's own voice also adds interest to the story.

Sarah Vowell writes beautifully. This book is fun, funny AND informative. Her journey through presidential history is filled with things no teacher ever told me and her reading enhances the story. Vowell's politics are evident throughout the book but also proof that people of all political persuasions can love this country. The material is interesting and filled with obscure facts that help keep it from being just another dry history book. I highly recommend this book.

This should be a more interesting book to listen to. It is an account of a part of Ronald Reagan's life that little is known about, and includes Hollywood, the studio system, movies and beautiful co-stars.

Instead, the listener is terribly distracted by the performance. Mr. Eliot reads this book like he is absolutely unfamiliar with the material. There are long gaps when he seems to have lost his page, and every third sentence contains the words "author's note". If a professional reader had been engaged, the story could have been more interesting and my mind wouldn't have drifted every time the reader got too close to the microphone.

This book broke a personal record- the biggest waste of time and a credit both in one book. There is no new information here- you have probably read every bit of the trivia, slime and innuendo in this book in the National Enquirer. What's really bad is the Enquire probably told it better. The narrartor is a drama queen and you finish the book feeling like you need a shower.

The author does a great job of exploring all aspects of the events surrounding the assination of President Garfield, especially the motives and actions of the assassin. It is easy to see the mental illness that both drove Giteau to shoot the president and made him so unlikeable that he didn't stand a chance afterward.

The most interesting part of the story were the actions of the president's physicians. The author placed his actions, as well as everything else that occurred, in the context of the tmes. By the end of the book, you will want to see the doctor on trial with the man who pulled the gun!

As with most Nevil Shute novels, this book seems to begin slowly. Once you're in the middle of the story though, you will realize that the beginning of the book introduces the characters and that their subsquent actions are built on the foundation laid in the first few pages. This book is a fascinating look at the "stiff upper lip" Britains at the beginning of the war- even more fasscinating when you realize that the book was written before the first bombs dropped! If you have read "On the Beach", you will recognize many of these characters as the literary parents of the people in Mr. Shute's last novel.

I highly recommend this and every other work by Nevil Shute.