Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read for Political Afficionados
Review: If you are looking into a behind-the-scenes look at how the White House interacts with the press corps, told by the premiere White House reporter of all time, this is the book for you. Thomas tells her wonderful story in an easy-to-read style that makes this book very, very hard to put down. I read it in less than two days. This will make a valuable addition to any political buff's library.
Rating:
Summary: Living with the Presidents
Review: It's amazing that Helen Thomas should know every President from Kennedy through Clinton and that there is still so much to tell about them -- things we hadn't known or see in a new light through her account. It also is the story of one woman's integrity and constant determination to learn the truth. You wind up wishing there were hundreds more like her in the press and government.
Rating: 
Summary: Her heart bleeds.
Review: Just because she's been around awhile and was the FIRST woman to blah, blah, etc, don't assume she has any credibility. To be outspoken for the sake of being outspoken doesn't hold any weight with me. She epitomizes the liberal press and her reporting is unfairly selective. If you're going to do something - like reporting the news - for heavens sake, do it right!
Rating: 
Summary: Ms. Thomas confirms how the media is stuck on themselves.
Review: On page 139, Ms. Thomas chides former President Johnson for giving the Pop a "twelve-inch bust of himself" when the Pope gave Johnson "a fourteenth-century painting." I was looking for a fourteenth century painting in this book, but all I got was a twelve-inch bust of a self-absorbed (self-described) journalist. The Beltway has consumed another media-type. Save your money on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing string of ancedotes without insights
Review: One would think that after having been a reporter for decades, Ms. Thomas would be able to write. One would be wrong. She apparently doesn't know what the word "ironically" means, nor the word "quipped." She repeats ancedotes several times, even ones that weren't that great to begin with. She quotes presidents and first ladies complaining about the press, without seeming to realize that their arguments are often much stronger than her lame "freedom of the press" argument. Does the public REALLY need to know about Caroline Kennedy''s dead hamster? Does it REALLY matter what reporter called in a story seconds earlier than a competitor? And do we REALLY need to know about every award she ever won, every compliment she was ever paid? This book might have been much better if Ms. Thomas had retired first, and thought about her life's work with some perspective.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful and charming
Review: Only a reader from Palmdale CA could so deeply miss the point of Ms. Thomas' Memoirs! Ms. Thomas is and will continue to be an inspiration from all aspiring writers. It is her grace and charm that allows her to skewer presidents with her questions, and still have the m celebrate her birthdays. Her book is insightful and educational, and one of the best books on politics from the inside looking out that I have ever read. Since it is her memoirs, I think she should be allowed and encouraged to blow her own horn. She's earned the right.
Rating: 
Summary: The news media demands accountability from an elected presid
Review: Reading Helen's book is like sitting across the table from her at dinner and having a long conversation. One can hear her speak each word. That conversational quality is most attractive and quickly draws any reader inside. What makes the most significant impact is Helen's passion for accountability from an elected president. She clearly speaks for a free press and champions an aggressive news media as defense against tyranny. We Americans need to be grateful for the shouts, the questions, and the persistence of the news media.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read
Review: Reading this book is like living history through a legend's eyes!
Rating:
Summary: Front Row at the White House
Review: The book began very slowly and I found the author repeating herself. I was hoping with each new chapter that somehow she would begin to discuss each president one at a time and not constantly jump between them from one paragraph to another. When Ms. Thomas finally did start recounting each First Lady from the past to the present and then continued in the next chapter recounting her stories of each President I was unable to put the book down. At that point I began to enjoy her writing and to gain a new insight through her most exciting career working for the press and spending so much time at the White House.In the end I found it to be a wonderful book well worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: It's a joy to read.
Review: The hours that I spent reading Helen Thomas' book have been a joy. If Helen has been re-reading her book, she must have filled in many more stories that have not been told. What a life Helen has had! As I was reading the book, I felt like going into the press room doing the routine of a White House correspondent every day and I could imagine the closeness that the correspondents had with the Presidents in the early years. "Don't lie" - her advice to any President. I hope journalists of today would follow her example of trying to be factual and objective, a quality that has been lost in the quest for circulation. The book has aroused my interest in the life of White House correspondents so much so that I have made a lot of efforts trying to track down "Thank You, Mr President" written in 1946 by Helen's colleague Merriman Smith. I have just started reading "some of the things that were overlooked in the big news of the day" as told by Smitty.
| 
