Barbara Bush

A Memoir

By: Barbara Bush

Narrated by: Barbara Bush

Length: 4 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Barbara Bush is certainly among the most popular First Ladies ever to live in the White House. Politics aside, people worldwide have come to admire her wit, her candor and compassion, as well as her unswerving devotion to her husband and children.

In her memoir, Mrs. Bush for the first time gives listeners a very private look at a life lived in the public eye for more than 25 years. She begins with a compelling portrait of her early years, including: growing up in Rye, New York, and meeting George Bush; life as a young bride and mother, moving far away from home to West Texas; and the almost unbearable pain of losing a child.

With contemporary American history as the backdrop, Mrs. Bush remembers the shock of learning that her fiancé has been shot down in the Pacific during World War II; the disbelief when a black friend is refused service in a Southern restaurant in the 1950s; and the fear when she is caught in the middle of a student protest march in the 1960s.

She recounts her years in public life, from first moving to Washington when George Bush was elected to Congress; to her experience living in New York as the wife of the Ambassador to the United Nations and in China as wife of the U.S. envoy. She talks candidly about the ups and downs of three presidential campaigns and describes her role as the wife of the Vice President, culminating in the climactic White House years.

Drawing upon excerpts from her diary, which she has compiled for more than 30 years, Mrs. Bush takes us behind the scenes of the Persian Gulf conflict and the end of the Cold War. She talks about both the Bushes' struggle to overcome Graves' disease and how she faced the controversy that erupted at Wellesley College before her commencement speech.

Through the friendships she developed over the years with world leaders and their spouses, we meet and get to know the Gorbachevs, the Thatchers, the Mitterrands, the Mubaraks, and many others.

©1994 Barbara Bush (P)2015 Simon & Schuster

Barbara Bush

a woman of integrity, faith wisdom, if only we all had her strength. saw the good in each other, what a different world we would leave our children. Great read!

She was incredible!

What a real person! I would have liked to have known her as a friend. I get the impression that she didn’t take herself too seriously. Someone to have a cup of coffee with and a few laughs.
I admired her loyalty to her husband and family as well as to society. Loved her sense of humor!

Loved her

Loved this memoir. She was a great speaker. And tells a magnificent story. A great listen.

Absolutely delightful!

Barbara Bush's love, warmth, intelligence and wit shines through every chapter in this book. She will make you laugh and cry. She is the consummate definition of a LADY.

This is a beautiful I love story between Barbara and George. It's a glimpse into the life of a loving and unselfish mother. It's the story of a gracious and unpretentious first kady.

I loved every minute of it and I'm going back to the "store" to look for more Bush biographies.

Loved this!!

Learned so much about the Busch family and our country. Nice read. Looking for more.

My husband and Iistened together

We listened around our campfire together. It was very easy to hear her emotion during the happy times and more through the sad times. Loved it!

Loved it

I love hearing history from people who lived through the events. Anytime you can hear or read something that's not secondary information it's golden.

Beautiful

Barbara is a woman of dignity and elegance !
A must read .
She is a role model for all of us !

You get a real sense of her personality

She sounds like she was an amazing woman. I admired her outgoing personality and her love of people. She gave a good accounting of her experiences and how they affected her. She also touched on some painful issues. Although she didn't dig super deep into her darkest emotions, that is normal for ones of that era and it's okay. One couldn't help being amazed at her energetic ability to be up for anything. I gave it 5 stars because it was good overall. I'm not a political person so my rating is not motivated by that.

Her narration was very good too.

Entertaining

Loved her wit and history that I had forgotten about. Has away of keeping you interested.