In Review: Spoken From the Heart

Spoken from the Heart

Laura Bush has once again proven her elegance and eloquence in her masterpiece of a memoir: Spoken from the Heart. the book lighted upon book shelves everywhere May 4th and I had the honor of purchasing this spectacular book on that very day and then reading it during my twenty- hour dive to Orlando, Florida. The 432 page tome covers the family history, early life, and career of Laura Bush while also allowing the reader and unprecedented glimpse into the life of one of our most private and anti-political first ladies, who has for so long captivated the collective conscience of the American nation.

The Comforter In-Chief

The story opens with the history behind an only child whose sole wish was to have brothers and sisters. This little girl was the daughter of a builder and housewife in the oil bust and boom town of Midland, Texas. This same little girl who moved from house to house and had lived in nearly every home on her street, would one day grow up to be Laura Bush, the First Lady of the United States of America. This book allows an in-depth look into the motives and imagination of this amazing lady who championed issues such as global literacy, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria.

Some of the best excerpts from this book appear in her account of the 9/11 attacks and the resulting lock down on the White House for the ensuing years. the story of how she was locked into Senator Ted Kennedy's office and then being ushered, at gun point, from the capitol and into a waiting car that took her to a bunker underneath the CIA building. The sheer fear and bewilderment captured in this part shows the genuine nature of this woman and her true empathy for those around her and the victims of that tragic day. She spends almost as much time describing the terror that had seized the Congressional aide's and staffers and expressing remorse for them as she does reflecting upon her own experiences on 9/11. The terror of others was very real to her; yet she herself was also tortured. After 9/11 the First Family was routinely bombarded with false threats and attacks that would rip them from their beds, parties, or dinners and whisk them off to the underground shelters below the White House. The chaotic life lead by our leaders has never before been documented and presented to the public, but it makes for a riveting tale.

As First Lady, Laura Bush became the champion of the downtrodden, the illiterate, and the impoverished. One of her first campaigns was an offshoot of her previous career as a teacher and then librarian, which was to promote literacy around the world through multiple programs. During this time she also set up the National Book Festival and a plethora of smaller book festivals across the nation. Her efforts even helped inspire Lyudmila Putina, the wife of Vladimir Putin, to create the first free market book festival in post-Soviet Era Russia. Other campaigns included rights for women in the Middle East where she met with leaders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. She also campaigned for women and children's health improvements in Africa championing HIV/Aids awareness and treatments, and being a driving force behind the President's Malaria Initiative. Perhaps her most surprising initiative was directly taking on the military junta of Burma by advocating further sanctions and punishments before the UN Security Council and even visiting the Burmese/Thai border areas where hundreds of thousands of refugees are stuck in political limbo. She also reveals that she and the President, as well as the entire US delegation to the 2007 G-8 Summit may have been poisoned, because she and her husband both became violently ill and their staffers experienced symptoms such as loss of equilibrium as well as hearing loss.

The normally private and apolitical Laura Bush also demonstrates her reluctant, yet perfectly tuned political skills by responding to many of the most unfair and untrue attacks against her husband. She, for it cannot be regarded as anything as anything else, reprimands House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for insensitive and unnecessary remarks that she regards as pretty and graceless. She believes in spirited and constructive debate, not petty name calling, referring to Reid calling the president a 'loser,' and in that she has a point. Not only that, she points out that if Dubya had been the name caller the political backlash would have been horrendous; but adds that he as a person is above these kinds of comments. She also takes a decisive swipe at President Obama by saying that soon enough he'd realize that being president isn't as easy as it would seem and that one day he would eat his words (in reference to his innumerable attacks against her husband in the 2008 election). Well seeing as how he has reimplemented many Bush-Era policies, I'd say that day is near.

The elegance of this woman may only be matched by the eloquence of her writing because this book has one of the best writing styles I have seen of late. Perfect flow and incredible attention getters leave the reader begging for more and racing through the tome at a frenzied pace. This woman is truly one of our nations greatest first ladies and her book, Spoken from the Heart has established itself as one of the best political memoirs of our time. The In Review rating for Laura Bush's memoir: Spoken from the Heart is an incredible 5 star rating. I urge everyone, regardless of political inclination, to read this thoroughly enjoyable, and startling read.


Later,
Cody


(Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images)