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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Easy to read and insightful into a world that's very familiar and at the same time extremely removed from anything a normal person would ever experience. The main character is very interesting and has many facets, I felt I'd really gotten to know her. But then the book has more than 600 pages so you'd expect a bit of detail.
I enjoyed this very much. I know next to nothing about Laura Bush, so I was quite happy to plough on in and get to understand 'Alice'. I was less keen on the constant sex scenes with 'Charlie' (aka George W Bush, whom I have never felt the least bit attracted to).
My only criticism is that the book could have been 200 pages shorter. As others have commented, the story is really engaging until they go to the White House, then it becomes less interesting.
To understand the experience of a first lady, the Michelle Obama autobiography was much more enlightening. But of course, this one's fiction, and hats off to Curtis Sittenfeld for a fun read.
I'm now looking forward to reading 'Rodham'.
My only criticism is that the book could have been 200 pages shorter. As others have commented, the story is really engaging until they go to the White House, then it becomes less interesting.
To understand the experience of a first lady, the Michelle Obama autobiography was much more enlightening. But of course, this one's fiction, and hats off to Curtis Sittenfeld for a fun read.
I'm now looking forward to reading 'Rodham'.
Despite the fact that this is a work of fiction, I think the book gives a great insight into the other side of the story. I can't say I'm a big Bush fan, but I do think there is always another side to the story. And even if this book was more a speculation on what that story is, it still gives food for thought. The story itself held my interest throughout, and I liked the writing style. I really liked the concept of mixing fact with fiction. Overall I very much enjoyed it.
Infuriatingly sympathy-inducing and somewhat poorly paced, I think. This book should have been about the lesbian grandma and her illegal-abortion-providing partner.
If I had realized this book was "loosely" based on the life of an American wife (Laura Bush) I wouldn't have read it. THe early story line was interesting (altho I don't know how accurate). However, the end is so closely written to re-enact George W Bush's white house is it annoying. I detest when an author uses real events and proposes to know the inner workings of people when the book is presented as fiction.
I thought this book was pretty well written and very enlightening. I did feel that at times it dragged on and gave some seemingly unimportant details about their lives. I would've liked for there to be more about the time of the presidency and how it affected her as that was the most interesting part of the book for me, but otherwise I thought it was a pretty good book and was definitely worth a read in my opinion.
I loved the first 2/3 and liked the last 1/3. On the other hand, I liked the provocative nature of the last third. Amazing story. Makes me interested in Laura Bush even more.
This book is so intriguing. Based loosely on the life of Laura Bush, I was completely drawn in by her character, admiring of her patience and frustrated by so many of her choices. The clan into which she marries is so suffocating that at times during these chapters I had to put down the book. Overall, I thought the first half of the book was better written than the second half. The book was long, and the second half seemed to summarize too much, so in that way I thought the balance was off. But a good read, well worth the time.
I thought this book was entertaining for the most part with a main character whose personality i found kind of relatable despite her life's out of the ordinary excitements and tragedies. Similar to other reviews, I found the first 2/3 of the book to be very captivating but the final 1/3 was not as enjoyable.
FINALLY done with this long winded book! On the flip, I did enjoy this 'faux bio' about Laura Bush. It makes me want to read her memoir. The story of Alice's evolution from small-town Midwestern girl to FLOTUS was a page turner but there were moments of the book that could have been shortened. Looking forward to other Sittenfeld works.