Presidents' Day Books

This book is a new take on the life of the prophet Brigham Young. As the cover indicates, he was not just a brilliant leader, but a loving father as well. This is an intimate look into the life of the man, rather than a merely historical account. If you want a bunch of cold hard facts forget this one.

This very sympathetic book on Brigham Young gives an inside look at Young's life through his interaction with his family and his work in LDS. However, the writing proves to be so sympathetic that its almost useless as reference material or even an understanding look at the man's life. The author, Susan McCloud obviously cares much about Brigham Young to a point of almost hero worship. She seem unable to write about the man since she seem to be totally enamor with her subject. Not once did I believed that Brigham Young as so loving, so perfect and so holy as the author painted him to be. McCloud's Brigham Young don't even seem to be human at times. What good is it to point out his greatness without revealing his weakness? Without such contrast, how can you write about such an important man - not only in Mormon history but in the history of the American west???

For once, I would like to read a biography on Brigham Young without someone praising him to heaven or damning him to hell!!

This brief exploration of the lives of the presidents of the Relief Society is studded with interesting gems. But the gaps are large and the narrative is somewhat pedestrian. Expect a spiritual approach that leaves out some details that may interest the reader.

All these books are perfect for getting kids to take up reading, I buy them by the bunch and they get read inmediately.

A.J. hates school and when he grows up, he's going to be President so he can outlaw school for everyone! President's Day is coming up, so the teachers at A.J.'s school want the students to elect a school president and do oral reports about United States presidents. All A.J. wants is the day off from school and maybe a big screen TV! This is a weird school though, so elections and reports are not as boring as they sound-on Crazy Pets Day, a ferret runs for school president against the teachers! Mr. Macky, the wacky reading specialist, dresses up as all of the presidents to help the kids learn quirky facts, like how FDR's mom made him wear a dress until he was five years old or who was the shortest president. This fun story sneaks in other information too, such as how a democracy works and which famous Americans are on our money. The comic illustrations help the reader get an idea of how A.J.'s mind works. Filled with goofy humor, this fifteenth title in the "My Weird School" series will attract the most reluctant reader.

My seven year old reader and I found this book to contain many negative attitudes and we would not recommend this book. The character makes negative comments about classmates, teachers and grownups freely.

Consider this paragraph from pg 39:

"Knowing what Clark was up to, Eisenhower in 1950 invited him to lunch at Columbia with his good friend Bob Woodruff of the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta; soon after Clark's phone rang: leading Atlanta businessmen on the other end were offering money to the Eisenhower-for-President effort. But the road ran uphill. Not only did Taft have an abundance of backers in the Republican party. Eisenhower himself, before a top secret meeting with Taft at the Pentagon in 1951 - a meeting set up by Clark and Taft enthusiast Cole Younger - wrote out a Sherman, a declaration abjuring any entry into politics, to be revealed if the meeting produced a Taft commitment to the principle of collective security for the defense of Europe. But it didn't. It produced only, as the limousine drove the senator, Clark, and Younger away from the Pentagon, a Taft knee-slapping outburst of admiration of Ike: 'By God, that's a man.'"

The whole book is riddled with writing like. The author loves the colon and semi-colon. Its very muddled reading. While the author was an insider in the Eisenhow administration, that is not enough of an incentive to plough through the wretched prose.

If you are Mormon, this gives you all you must know about your presidents: the most clean and neat persons in this world. If you aren't Mormon, read it as a fairy tale, because what people need to know is not here.

I enjoy reading books about the Kennedys and Jackie Onassis, but this book, which was supposed to give a chronicle of sorts of the last 10-11 years of Jackie's life, did not do a very good job of that. It was a cut-and-paste biography from previous books and interviews. I didn't learn anything new from this book, and that's the biggest disappointment. It will be a nice addition to my extensive library, but it won't be the first one I pull off the shelf for anyone who wants a good narrative of her life and on who Jackie really was. This is an "okay to read if you're lonely" kind of book.

My husband claims that I've never met a book I didn't like. But two Edward Klein books that I've recently read have to be the exceptions. The Kennedy Curse was bad enough, but Farewell, Jackie: A Portrait of Her Final Days is a true dog.

Klein gives us the details of the diagnosis of Jackie's fatal illness and follows through to her death. In between, he regales us with short stories about her childhood, her lovers, her husbands, her children, her friends and her job. Jackie was fiercely protective of her privacy, and one thing that she demanded of her friends was complete loyalty. Edward Klein used to be a friend, until he wrote an article about her. After that, she cut him off completely. As a result, we're not really getting his "inside" story, but the story of dozens and dozens of Jackie's "anonymous" friends. I question how many would willingly provide him with intimate details of Jackie's deathbed scene (one that he called "her masterpiece").

Farewell, Jackie isn't much of a book. Weighing in about just a little over 200 pages, the chapters are short, the pages are small, and there are often two or three blank pages between each chapter. I read Farewell in a little over two hours, and I'm not a speed reader. At least with The Kennedy Curse, Klein provided us with some interesting information about the little-known Kennedy-Fitzgerald patriarchs. Unfortunately, Farewell, Jackie has little to redeem it. I think Klein has milked this cash cow (the Kennedy's) to the extent that the cow has run dry. It's time for him to find some new material.

The author was once a friend of Jackie's, until he had the audacity to break one of her cardinal rules...writing an article on her for Vanity Fair in 1989. Like many people, he has cashed in quite nicely on noteriety of the Kennedy's, and Jackie in particular. Hence, Jackie banished Klien from her circle as she did with many people that she felt breached her privacy. You can hardly consider Klien a true insider, he is more like a vulture picking at scraps already chewed over by many, many other gossip columnists, writers, and fans like myself.
This book is really just a re-hashing of many things that have already been published and little of it is new. I must add that most of the details in this book on her illness and treatment h were widely published in tabloids like "Enquirer" and "Star" when she died 10 years ago. The chapters on Jackie's private moments during the last months of her life-when she is in church, in the doctor's office, with her children, and even on her deathbed are hard to believe, if only because we know Jackie would not have allowed Klien within a block of her presence. Most of his sources for these are a "secret" and I really have to wonder if anyone that Mrs Onassis truly considered a friend would speak with Mr. Klien.

This book, I hate to admit, is a guilty pleasure but one that I regret indulging in, knowing disgusted the subject would have been with it.

Edward Klein needs to find a new family to write recycled books about. After peddling such ghastly books as "The Kennedy Curse" and "Just Jackie," Klein engages in literary graverobbing with the putrid "Farewell Jackie: A Portrait of Her Final Days."

His primary focus is the final illness and death of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, of non-lymphoma cancer that seemed easily treatable. By this time, Ms. Onassis had transcended her tabloid-speckled former lives and had a good job, a man she loved, and grandchildren she adored. But when her cancer spread, Onassis tried to die with the illusion of dignity she had maintained in her life.

Reading "Farewell Jackie" is a bit like watching someone break open a grave to frisk the bones of the dead. Padding the story of Jackie's illness and death are stories of her earlier life -- primarily her second marriage, and various love affairs she had (one of which has been denied by the man involved). Dirt-dishing, anyone?

Jackie Kennedy Onassis is portrayed as downright saintly in this book; Klein glosses over the hypocrises and flaws in her personality, such as being "religious" yet ignoring tenets of that religion. Even the volatile nature of her relationship with her second husband. Oddly enough, this adoration doesn't extend far enough, especially at the end. Any semblance of dignity is shredded when Klein goes into grotesque detail about Onassis's final mental and physical deterioration.

What's more, Klein's writing is deplorable. He transcribes private conversations and moments when Onassis was alone -- all obviously faked. Not to mention that Klein is in desperate need of an editor for this book's many errors. On one page, Klein informs us, "Jackie a wreck." Verbs? We don't need no stinkin' verbs.

Farewell, Jackie. Too bad Klein had to write this book and peddle it as a memorial volume for you. "Farewell Jackie," thankfully, is clearly destined to sink into the mire of obsequious, poorly-written Kennedy books.

I think that this book was a well writen portrail of Jackie's final days, with a moderate vocabulary it well conveys the beliefs of the author

The reorganized church that the author of this book is talking about isn't The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It's a church that branched off of the LDS(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). Just so you don't confuse the 2 churches. A few, I know @ least 2 churches-the reorganized and the flds(the fundamentalist)that have taken the LDS religion and changed it to the way they wanted it to be. They are in no way affiliated with the LDS church. The teachings are not the same and their doctrines are not to be confused with the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The others are merely sad branched off churches that people always seem to confuse with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.