Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Check out all of our reviews at https://reallyintothis.com
Happy Reading, friends
In most ways, Promise Me Dad by Joe Biden is a love letter to Joe’s son, Beau.
Through his writing, Joe lets readers into the Biden family and gives us a glimpse into what made and shaped our new President. We learn about Joe’s history of loss. From losing his young daughter and wife in a car accident to the seemingly insurmountable task of tackling Beau’s diagnosis of glioblastoma. With his own words, we see how and why Joe was and is able to press on. What keeps one going after these huge losses? How does that change a person? How is Joe able to harness his grief?
What To Expect
The pages are filled with passages from a personal journal, inflections that are very Joe. Certain parts have me laughing and smiling. I also love hearing about a meeting with Vladimir Putin. This one has me, even more, stoked Joe Biden is our President. It’s also very cool to see how Biden cultivated relationships with other countries and world leaders. Of course, I love the bits about his time in the White House with Barack Obama. Promise Me, Dad vacillates between likely one of the toughest and busiest times in Joe’s life. We get to see how he weighs decisions, leans on his faith, and relies on his family. I just couldn’t love it more.
Grief, loss, hope, and love are what I take from Promise Me Dad. Unlike Joe, I am not a huge person of faith, but I do believe in the strength of family, love & perseverance. This book is a testament to the strength, closeness, and relationships within the Biden family. So happy to have read this book. Promise Me Dad by Joe Biden is memorable, beautiful, heartbreaking, and intimate. Warning to other readers have a bit of Kleenex ready. In three Joe fashion, he lays it all out.
Happy Reading, friends
In most ways, Promise Me Dad by Joe Biden is a love letter to Joe’s son, Beau.
Through his writing, Joe lets readers into the Biden family and gives us a glimpse into what made and shaped our new President. We learn about Joe’s history of loss. From losing his young daughter and wife in a car accident to the seemingly insurmountable task of tackling Beau’s diagnosis of glioblastoma. With his own words, we see how and why Joe was and is able to press on. What keeps one going after these huge losses? How does that change a person? How is Joe able to harness his grief?
What To Expect
The pages are filled with passages from a personal journal, inflections that are very Joe. Certain parts have me laughing and smiling. I also love hearing about a meeting with Vladimir Putin. This one has me, even more, stoked Joe Biden is our President. It’s also very cool to see how Biden cultivated relationships with other countries and world leaders. Of course, I love the bits about his time in the White House with Barack Obama. Promise Me, Dad vacillates between likely one of the toughest and busiest times in Joe’s life. We get to see how he weighs decisions, leans on his faith, and relies on his family. I just couldn’t love it more.
Grief, loss, hope, and love are what I take from Promise Me Dad. Unlike Joe, I am not a huge person of faith, but I do believe in the strength of family, love & perseverance. This book is a testament to the strength, closeness, and relationships within the Biden family. So happy to have read this book. Promise Me Dad by Joe Biden is memorable, beautiful, heartbreaking, and intimate. Warning to other readers have a bit of Kleenex ready. In three Joe fashion, he lays it all out.
Beautifully written, excellence reading on Audible, the kindness and grace I needed in 2018. Run, Joe, run!
I really wish I had read this sooner because it gives me a deeper appreciation for the human that Joe Biden is. This was a really intimate telling of stories from being Vice President, coping with Beau’s diagnosis and death, and through to the end of the Obama administration.
I learned some things in this book, especially some history I hadn’t clearly remembered from the Obama years and new things — like the fact that the VP has a nuclear football and the Bidens also enjoy going to Kiawah Island, SC.
I think the book is especially poignant now, with so many people dealing with loss in their own life and to see Joe’s personality and his thoughts on policy, knowing that he’s the 46th President.
I learned some things in this book, especially some history I hadn’t clearly remembered from the Obama years and new things — like the fact that the VP has a nuclear football and the Bidens also enjoy going to Kiawah Island, SC.
I think the book is especially poignant now, with so many people dealing with loss in their own life and to see Joe’s personality and his thoughts on policy, knowing that he’s the 46th President.
“There is no one in the world you are closer to than your brother and sister. You have to be able to count on each other. All the time.”
Promise Me, Dad is an important story about death and grief but also about love and strength.
Joe Biden is a good and kind man and a great humanitarian. Despite the tragic loss of loved ones that he has suffered, he still has a positive outlook on life and the future of the United States. It’s not surprising that so many people are saying he’s an easy guy to like.
I wish there was less talk about foreign policy and more about Joe and his family, but aside from this the book is well-written and very touching.
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
This book was deeply encouraging and heart wrenching. I really liked Joe Biden before, but now I've fallen in love with him & his family. It is an honest, vulnerable look at a family walking through tragedy, and seeking hope in the midst of it. I didn't feel like I was reading about the former Vice President. I felt as though I was reading and living life with a family like mine. I highly recommend anyone read this book!
This book is a prime example of the authors humanity. I would imagine it took all of Biden to recount and write about the process of losing his beloved son but his words and tone are nothing less than that of a man who truly loved and is still mourning the loss of his son. If you read, be warned that you will find yourself choking up and crying throughout.
Disappointing. I hesitated to give this a 3 star rating, feeling it's more 2 - 2.5.
Let me preface my review by saying in no way does my opinion on this book reflect my political leanings. I happen to like Joe Biden. I thought he was a great VP. I have the utmost respect for him, for his longstanding career, and my heart goes out to him and his family over the loss of Beau, and previously, his first wife and daughter.
I hesitate to criticize a book being plugged as a book about the last year of Beau Biden's life. Mixed feelings about doing so, I do not intend any disrespect or diminish the loss, but an honest review is always required regardless of the subject.
This book feels much more "look at all the great things I did that year" with a little bit of looking at that last year of Beau's life thrown in. I thought this would be more about the family that year. It wasn't.
While reading about Joe's part in the Ukraine-Russia crisis, Iraq and the Northern Triangle was interesting, I didn't pick this book up to read about all the amazing and miraculous things Joe was achieving by his stellar diplomacy. It felt very, very much like he was laying out his case as to why he would be worthy President come 2020. He talked quite a bit about his potential 2016 run, naming numerous people - celebrity to political to steel worker, who would back him in the run, how everyone was convinced he'd win. Wow. Totally disagree on that one. He had run previously, didn't work out. People now hated the Dem's even more, no way would they tag the VP as the next Pres. they wanted change. He did not reflect change.
The writings about Beau's fight and the family as a whole were well written. They are clearly a tight knit, loving, supportive family. You would want to know them, be in their inner circle. I was troubled with how little he wrote about Beau's wife Hallie. When Beau was going through various testing, chemo, radiation and so on, Joe would go on & on about how Hunter, his second son, was always by Beau's side. Where was Hallie? He mentioned her being there once or twice but the overall it was intimated she wasn't in the picture. I find it hard to believe she wasn't there at he husband's side. That she wasn't included in the decision making, to hear Joe tell it it was Beau and Hunter, no one else. That felt unfair to her. Who knows? Maybe she didn't have as integral a role in being there as a spouse normally would, but that would be surprising.
At times he wasn't as glowing about President Obama as I would have expected. It felt as though he harbors resentment that Obama was pushing him to not run for office, that Obama was leaning towards Hillary almost from the get go. During their weekly lunches Obama would often inquire if Joe had made a decision on entering the race. Joe was taking so long to make a decision, while understanding to a degree, it had to have been irritating to those needing an answer on whether they should move forward in building a campaign. I think one person should have said to Joe "If it's taking you this long to decide, that's your decision. The time isn't right".
Mark my words he runs in 2020. He's laying the groundwork right now.
Let me preface my review by saying in no way does my opinion on this book reflect my political leanings. I happen to like Joe Biden. I thought he was a great VP. I have the utmost respect for him, for his longstanding career, and my heart goes out to him and his family over the loss of Beau, and previously, his first wife and daughter.
I hesitate to criticize a book being plugged as a book about the last year of Beau Biden's life. Mixed feelings about doing so, I do not intend any disrespect or diminish the loss, but an honest review is always required regardless of the subject.
This book feels much more "look at all the great things I did that year" with a little bit of looking at that last year of Beau's life thrown in. I thought this would be more about the family that year. It wasn't.
While reading about Joe's part in the Ukraine-Russia crisis, Iraq and the Northern Triangle was interesting, I didn't pick this book up to read about all the amazing and miraculous things Joe was achieving by his stellar diplomacy. It felt very, very much like he was laying out his case as to why he would be worthy President come 2020. He talked quite a bit about his potential 2016 run, naming numerous people - celebrity to political to steel worker, who would back him in the run, how everyone was convinced he'd win. Wow. Totally disagree on that one. He had run previously, didn't work out. People now hated the Dem's even more, no way would they tag the VP as the next Pres. they wanted change. He did not reflect change.
The writings about Beau's fight and the family as a whole were well written. They are clearly a tight knit, loving, supportive family. You would want to know them, be in their inner circle. I was troubled with how little he wrote about Beau's wife Hallie. When Beau was going through various testing, chemo, radiation and so on, Joe would go on & on about how Hunter, his second son, was always by Beau's side. Where was Hallie? He mentioned her being there once or twice but the overall it was intimated she wasn't in the picture. I find it hard to believe she wasn't there at he husband's side. That she wasn't included in the decision making, to hear Joe tell it it was Beau and Hunter, no one else. That felt unfair to her. Who knows? Maybe she didn't have as integral a role in being there as a spouse normally would, but that would be surprising.
At times he wasn't as glowing about President Obama as I would have expected. It felt as though he harbors resentment that Obama was pushing him to not run for office, that Obama was leaning towards Hillary almost from the get go. During their weekly lunches Obama would often inquire if Joe had made a decision on entering the race. Joe was taking so long to make a decision, while understanding to a degree, it had to have been irritating to those needing an answer on whether they should move forward in building a campaign. I think one person should have said to Joe "If it's taking you this long to decide, that's your decision. The time isn't right".
Mark my words he runs in 2020. He's laying the groundwork right now.
This was the best book to end 2017 with. This story is close to my heart and opened up my eyes to many things.
3.5/5 stars. VP Biden’s voice is relatable, approachable, and natural. The tragedy endured while in office captures the heart and leaves some wonder in how Biden managed to carry on in office while living in such an uncertain circumstance. The parts about his travels and working with the Ukraine and Iraq governments really slow the book down from its heart, however. I almost decided to stop early in the midst of a long section about Iraq but I am glad I finished.