Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely fascinating!
Review: I have read countless books about Jackie, but that one eclipses all the others. Barbara Leaming reveals in great details what was really going on behind the fabricated image, by the medias, of a fairy tale couple and the glittering of Camelot. Jackie was unquestionably the dignity behind the "throne" to say the very least! Her remarquable sense of History was, in part, a key factor in her decision to ignore her husband's scandalous philandering. She rolled up her sleeves and saved his presidency from disaster and shame by contributing with her grace, culture, intelligence and dignity.
Rating:
Summary: good
Review: I liked the book. Jackie is my heroine, and Ms. Leaming has made her an even bigger one.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant insight into the Kennedy marriage & presidency
Review: I loved this book. I've never read anything before that made me feel like I really knew Jackie Kennedy - but this book makes me feel not only that I know what it would have been like to meet her, but also that I know how she felt at every single moment during her husband's presidency. For the first time I can understand why she stayed with a man who was constantly cheating on her, and how she could have continued to love him. The account of the assassination brought tears to my eyes. When you know the truth of what had been going on in the Kennedys' personal lives at that time, the events are even more heartbreaking.
The book also gave me an incredible insight into Jack Kennedy - how the same man could have bungled things so terribly at the Bay of Pigs and then become such a great leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world was on the brink of nuclear war then, and this book gives a minute by minute account of how decisions were reached - which is very relevant now when the USA is facing another terrible crisis. If you want to understand how a real man can become a hero, faults and all, read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I purchased this book hoping to read a LOT about Mrs. Kennedy, a history icon. To my dismay, there was much more on President Kennedy, his infidelities, and too much on the problems that arose during his presidency. This book is titled Mrs. Kennedy, but there was so much missing about her. I was hoping to read about her as a person, wife, mother, and first lady. It seems the author "assumes" what they were thinking towards each other as a couple. Very disappointed. I would have liked to have seen more pictures of them too.
Rating: 
Summary: Unfulfilled promise
Review: I read this book hoping it would be useful in a class paper I am writing on Mrs. Kennedy's White House Restoration, to provide a little background to her work. I was sorely disappointed. The crown jewel of her time in the White House was given a few pages. Stories of Jack's infidelities fill the book, and Jackie's responses to them. But little is said of Jackie's work, only of what she did in response or in aid of Jack's policys and behaviors. If you are looking for a Biography of Mrs. Kennedy, I'd suggest another one.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed, Rude-Awakening, and Yes Suprised
Review: I received this book as a gift; I'm not particularly interested in the Kennedy saga, other than the political side. There is no doubt that Ms. Leaming is a very talented writer, researcher and biographer. In so many ways, though, this book reads as a tragedy quite separate from the events in Nov. '63. I must admit I became rather bored with the constant accounts of Mr. Kennedy's sexual addiction and his liaisons, and Mrs. Kennedy's method of distancing herself from them. Too much like bad soap opera. As one who lived through his administration, this book will read as revelation to those of a younger generation. It truly was a different world then, journalistically. This still reads as a rather sad sexual accounting of this period in our history. Not a book I'd purchase for myself.
Rating: 
Summary: Wash Your Hands Afterward!
Review: I received this book as a gift; I'm not particularly interested in the Kennedy saga, other than the political side. There is no doubt that Ms. Leaming is a very talented writer, researcher and biographer. In so many ways, though, this book reads as a tragedy quite separate from the events in Nov. '63. I must admit I became rather bored with the constant accounts of Mr. Kennedy's sexual addiction and his liaisons, and Mrs. Kennedy's method of distancing herself from them. Too much like bad soap opera. As one who lived through his administration, this book will read as revelation to those of a younger generation. It truly was a different world then, journalistically. This still reads as a rather sad sexual accounting of this period in our history. Not a book I'd purchase for myself.
Rating:
Summary: An ugly, ugly book.
Review: I saw a documentary about Jackie on the "E" channel and picked this up in a bargain bin cause I thought it might be interesting. What it really was, was ugly. The author refers to Jackies' father as "a failure and drunken fool," she refers to JFK's friend/girlfriend Mary Meyer as "a failure" and to Mary Meyer's first husband who wanted to be a writer but wound up a C.I.A. agent as (you guessed it) "a failure."
She's like that. The book is like that. I'll never forget a scene she portrays as kennedy, ten months into his presidency, sits around with a lot of hung-over party guests and they all role up their sleeves (allegedly) and get shot with speed by "dr. feelgood." The author then goes on to say something like, this is the perfect example of kennedy's "arrogance" blah-blah-blah. Speaking of hangover--this BOOK gave me one. Pretty yucky stuff.
Rating:
Summary: An ugly, ugly book.
Review: I saw a documentary about Jackie on the "E" channel and picked this up in a bargain bin cause I thought it might be interesting. What it really was, was ugly. The author refers to Jackies' father as "a failure and drunken fool," she refers to JFK's friend/girlfriend Mary Meyer as "a failure" and to Mary Meyer's first husband who wanted to be a writer but wound up a C.I.A. agent as (you guessed it) "a failure."
She's like that. The book is like that. I'll never forget a scene she portrays as kennedy, ten months into his presidency, sits around with a lot of hung-over party guests and they all role up their sleeves (allegedly) and get shot with speed by "dr. feelgood." The author then goes on to say something like, this is the perfect example of kennedy's "arrogance" blah-blah-blah. Speaking of hangover--this BOOK gave me one. Pretty yucky stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and Frightening
Review: I was 8 years old when JFK was elected president, just old enough to remember it all, from the campaign to the assasination.
Being Irish Catholic, my family idolized them. After four decades of tell-all books, movies and television programs, I thought I knew everything about JFK and Jackie. This book had my jaw dropping.
I knew all about the women (including Judith Exner, Mary Meyer and Marilyn), Dr. Feel-Good, the court jesters (Lem Billings, Dave Powers and Co.), and more. But, I had no idea how omnipresent they all were throughout JFK's thousand days.
Jack's total disregard for Jackie's feelings where his sex drive was concerned is beyond appalling. Should I say depraved? Absolutely unbelievable. His total disregard for caution or discretion put this country in far more danger than I ever imagined. Thank God for Harold Macmillan (then Prime Minister of England.) Without his friendship and influence (and Papa Joe's timely stroke), I hate to imagine how the Cuban Missle Crisis might have turned out, or anything else for that matter. Leaming's research paints a sad picture of JFK's advisors...no wonder Macmillan referred to them as "the rats". I also had no idea how little time Jackie really spent in The White House. Who could blame her? Jack's cavorting aside, one sees how life in that place must be suffocating for anyone.
Highly entertaining, insightful and frightening.
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