Spoken From the Heart by Laura Bush

From Goodreads: In this brave, beautiful, and deeply personal memoir, Laura Bush, one of our most beloved and private first ladies, tells her own extraordinary story.

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.


Am I a huge Laura Bush fan? I wasn't, really didn't have much of an opinion at all. I would never have picked this book up except that a dear friend's daughter, one of BookTiger's best friends was involved in a tragic car accident and several people recommended it to her because of Laura Bush's similar event. The mama bear in me came out and I just had to see what people were recommending to this vulnerable teenager as a soother. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Although, in the interest of maintaining a clean conscious, I have to admit I didn't read the last little bit as it was overdue to go back to the library and I just didn't care enough to renew it. I liked the insider look at life in the White House - the measures they take for security and to manage such a large household are really fascinating. I didn't know about Mrs. Bush's passion for literacy and literature and how she established events and programs to promote books. So I am more of a fan than when I started out. I ended up thinking that the message regarding the car accident, the idea that you could survive, live with the grief and pain, and go on to do great things was effectively presented. Don't know that plowing through everything else to get to that message is possible if you are in the midst of that grief and pain but we can hope.