by Mark Silva
Add to the public bookshelf another new memoir:
Laura Bush's Spoken From the Heart
The former first lady's memoir will be available early next week, on sale May 4 with the start of a book-tour in McLean and Arlington, Va. and Washington.
The tale of the onetime school librarian from Midland, Texas, who married the town's "most eligible bachelor,'' and became the first lady of Texas and then the nation should be a wide-ranging account -- arriving in Washington as one who first shunned the limelight, Bush, during her husband's two terms, gradually assumed a greater role as an ambassador at home and abroad, traveling from Afghanistan to Africa.
With "a captivating and compelling voice that ranks with many of our greatest memoirists,'' as the reviewer at the Bush-Cheney Alumni Association explains it this morning, "Mrs. Bush tells the story of her unique path from Midland, Texas, to the world stage and the White House. Laura Bush's compassion, sense of humor, grace, and uncommon willingness to bare her heart make this book deeply revealing, surprisingly candid, and beautifully rendered.
"Spoken from the Heart is unlike any other First Lady's memoir ever written.''
The publisher, Scribner, says:
"Born in the boom-and-bust oil town of Midland, Texas, Laura Welch grew up as an only child in a family that lost three babies to miscarriage or infant death. She vividly evokes Midland's brash, rugged culture, her close relationship with her father, and the bonds of early friendships that sustain her to this day. For the first time, in heart-wrenching detail, she writes about the devastating high school car accident that left her friend Mike Douglas dead and about her decades of unspoken grief.
"When Laura Welch left West Texas in 1964, she never imagined that her journey would lead her to the world stage and the White House. She began as an elementary school teacher, working in inner-city schools, then trained to be a librarian. At age thirty, she met George W. Bush, whom she had last passed in the hallway in seventh grade. Three months later, the old maid of Midland married Midland's most eligible bachelor."
The former first lady's book tour starts May 4 in McLean, Va., moves to Arlington, Va., and Washington during the week and then back to Dallas, out to California and Arizona, through the South and into South Florida and ends toward the end of June in Waco, Texas, the town where the Bushes were double-handedly responsible for a brief economic revival during the years they flew in and out from the White House to their ranch outside of Crawford.
(This remains, of course, the home of the Dr. Pepper Museum, the Texas Rangers museum, Baylor University -- which vied for the Bush '43 presidential library that landed at Laura Bush's alma mater, Southern Methodist University -- and, well, the Branch Davidian compound, where a stone memorial stands atop a windswept hill. Our own favorite walk above the Brazos River: "Lovers' Leap.'')
Comments
I never forget Laura Bush who spoke at the 2008 Republican Convention in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota on September 1, 2008. The focus of the speech was to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Gustav, which reached the Gulf Coast the same day as the convention started.
Posted by: dsi r4 | April 28, 2010 7:59 AM
They always say that behind most successful men there always is a Good and Strong Woman. Laura Bush seems to fit into that story. She forced George Bush to clean up his act and get on with his life. Without a strong lady like Laura Bush behind him George Bush would probably never have been Governor of Texas and eventually President of the United States.
Posted by: Depot- Jim | April 28, 2010 10:31 AM
"They always say that behind most successful men there always is a Good and Strong Woman. Laura Bush seems to fit into that story. She forced George Bush to clean up his act and get on with his life. Without a strong lady like Laura Bush behind him George Bush would probably never have been Governor of Texas and eventually President of the United States.
Posted by: Depot- Jim | April 28, 2010 10:31 AM"
Yes. "Behind every great man, there's a woman -- going 'FEH! What's so great about HIM, Mr. Leaves-Tire-Tracks-In-His-Underwear and couldn't clean up after himself is his life depended on it?'"
That being said, isn't Laura Bush more like a great woman INSTEAD of a great man? Ain't NOTHING about W that made him a great man, and we'd have been in a LOT better position if he'd never been President.
Posted by: Op109 | April 28, 2010 4:36 PM
Opie,
AL Gore did such a great job preventing terrorist attacks during his 8 years as veep.
How do you think Al Gore would have reacted to the recession in 2001? Increase taxes?
How do you think he would have responded to 9-11? Cut back on our carbon footprint>? Algore couldn't lead his way out of a paperbag.
Posted by: Terry | April 28, 2010 10:31 PM
Well, Terrie, THERE YOU GO AGAIN, trying to make and then win your own argument.
Show me in my previous post where I said anything about Gore. Gore is YOUR addition, not mine.
Posted by: Op109 | April 29, 2010 11:13 AM
Opie,
If President Bush was not president in 2001, who would have been? Who was President Bush running against? Unless you wanted McCain.
Posted by: Terry | April 29, 2010 2:49 PM
Well, in an absolute sense, I think we'd have been better off with NO PRESIDENT AT ALL as opposed to Bush, but to answer your question -- minus Bush, McCain would probably have won IN 2000 (couldn't put any underlines under that, but I'm thinking underlines) because he was pretty much the last holdout, and I'd have been comfortable with that.
Actually, I'm kind of surprised that Gore had the kind of showing he did that year (might be an indication of how horrible Bush was that Gore came so close to winning). McCain would probably have had a much wider majority (I was considering voting for him myself while he was still in the race) and, while there is no actual history to show one way or the other what would really have happened (how you manage to go off into fantasyland about what this or that person would have done "if they'd been in office" frankly scares the crap out of me), there's a good chance McCain might have had a different approach to handling 9/11 and what to do about Iraq. To indulge in the "what if" game, Iraq was pretty much a hinge on which swung the rest of Bush's regime. So, if no Iraq, we might have gotten BinLaden and cleaned up Afghanistan decently (and be back home, maybe?), there'd be no financial quagmire because of Iraq and all its cost, both legitimate and corrupt (not to mention the loss of life and limb to thousands of our soldiers). With a healthier financial picture, we might not have had to go through the meltdown of 2008, late in Bush's last term. Or maybe the meltdown would still have happened, but we'd have been in a better position to deal with it.
All in all, I'm never ever ever ever gonna be a Bush fan.
Posted by: Op109 | April 30, 2010 3:24 PM
The piece is put together well enough. This publisher really farms these though, so you really do expect this quality. Nothing too interesting here. It's about as boring as she seems to be on TV. Again, I really can't believe details are narrated so emotionally, with such certainty. But who's to say things didn't happen exactly this way? Who knows, right? Whatever the case, it's moving paper. It's been on the NYT Bestsellers list for a while now. You might have even seen a copy at your local Costco, and been curious enough to buy yourself a copy.
Posted by: rolodexter | June 12, 2010 3:47 PM