Reviews - A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety

248 reviews for:

A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety

I don't usually listen to audiobooks, but I've had commuting to do in the last month, so I checked this out from the library. Jimmy Carter has had a full life indeed! I admit that parts of the book dragged for me, but that was because of my lack of interest in certain political topics and not Carter's writing.

ewynn610's review against another edition

bobbo49's review against another edition

3.0

That Jimmy Carter is able to write - and read his book aloud - in his nineties is simply amazing. That he has lived this impossibly full life, and inspired so many others with his service to his local, national and international communities, is awesome. This book is really a summary of what he has accomplished, and written about at length elsewhere - but ah, what a life it has been!

wadesworld's review against another edition

4.0

To summarize anyone’s life at 90 in under 250 pages is a feat - let alone the life of a 90-year-old former President. This book was insightful on so many facet’s of President Carter’s life & events in America. I highly recommend anyone pick this up, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

jdiedrichs628's review against another edition

4.0

informative reflective medium-paced

knitter22's review against another edition

4.0

I'm not going to review Carter's presidency, nor even the book really, just comment on the remarkable man I learned about in A Full Life. He fought for civil rights and equality, was an accomplished submariner, farmer, author, peacemaker, philanthropist, carpenter, teacher, and public servant. He has won the Nobel Peace Prize and been a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He is also a poet and a painter, and examples of both of these appear in the book. As I write this, he is working on building 150 houses across Canada for Habitat for Humanity’s 34th Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

President Carter is an intelligent, thoughtful, and honest man, and I wonder if he may not have been considered a great president because he told the truth. He has made his life remarkable, and continues to do so even as he has aged. I couldn't help but be struck and saddened by the differences between President Carter and our current president.

I look back on those four years with peace and satisfaction, knowing that I did my best and had some notable accomplishments. Vice President Mondale summarized our administration by saying, "We told the truth, we obeyed the law, we kept the peace." I would add, "We championed human rights."

My hope is that our leaders will capitalize on our country's most admirable qualities. We need to be a Superpower as a champion of peace, not war; we need to be a Superpower in being a champion of basic human rights, although we're now violating a good many of the basic principles of human rights. We need to be the most generous country in the world; the most dedicated to the essence of democracy and freedom.

I think that we should be a champion of peace, and a champion of human rights, and a champion of democracy, and a champion of freedom, a champion of generosity, a champion of environmental quality. Those things won't cost us anything. They will add the admiration, and support, and I think ultimately the economic benefit to our country.

If only.

Summer Book Bingo 2017 - Recommended by a family member