Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: If I wanted to read a blow by blow of JFK's most notable presidential descisions, then I would read a book strictly about his presidency. The book is entitled "Mrs. Kennedy..." yet she takes the backburner. I also do not grasp how a book which was supposed to focus less on this particular era in Jackie's life ("America's Queen: The Life of Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis" by Sarah Bradford) gave the most important details. In short, the title of this book is false advertising at its worst and the author might have done well to spend less time trying to read minds. The most repeated themes of this book are contridictory and the writer's voice is projected too loudly.
Rating:
Summary: I'm having a read problem with this book
Review: Jackie may have done some great things to keep her marriage together, but after reading this book, I wonder why she put up with Jack. It is really disgusting to read how he acted while many important events were going on. I've lost all respect for him and I can't feel sorry for her for putting up with it.What a poor excuse for a leader JFK was. It was all smoke and mirrors and we didn't know it.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: Overall the book was boring. Once again, as is becoming the case with many Kennedy inspired books, the information contained is not shocking or even new to reader, despite what the author promises. This " missing history" can be found in many other books written about this self-destructive family. Indeed I read not one thing that captured my attention as having never been mentioned before. Not only that, but the book seemed to contain more information about Jack than about Jackie. Perhaps the title should have been Jack Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years.
Rating: 
Summary: AN INSIDE VIEW OF A FASCINATING LADY!
Review: Readers know all about the political and public life of this incredible lady. However, when it comes to the private life of Jacqueline Kennedy, she has been seen from many different angles - quiet, reserved, independent, but always she revealed an image which exuded class and style. It is very difficult for anyone to know what really goes on in someone's private life no matter how well one believes they know an individual; Jacqueline Kennedy's life is no exception. What this book does reveal is a better understanding of what actually motivated Jacqueline, where she appeared to find her inner personal strength and what might have "made her tick" from a psychological perspective. Was she really a materialistic woman? After all, aside from being the wife of one of history's most acclaimed U.S. Presidents, she did ultimately marry one of the world's wealthiest men who was many years her senior. Or, was Jacqueline simply a lonely lady, like many women, looking for all the love, acceptance and companionship she rightfully deserved? Only Jacqueline, herself, would be able to answer that question and, unfortunately, she is no longer here to tell us. It seems ironic that books of this nature quite often surface after the person is deceased and no longer able to speak their own views. In this case, the reader must rely on Barbara Leaming's words and assessment. I did enjoy this book very much; however, the one downside was the rather grainy black and white photographs. Had coloured photography been used, it certainly would have added a more professional quality to the book, and, let's face it, Jacqueline was indeed a "quality woman". Jacqueline Kennedy was, and always will be, one of the world's most extraordinary women of her time.
Rating:
Summary: the fascination seems to remain
Review: The American public seems to remain fascinated with the "Camelot" years of the Kennedys; no doubt this
continuing interest is part of the cult of celebrity that has arisen in recent years. Joe Kennedy, clan patriarch, was well acquainted with image-making and public relations. Unlike previous political administrations, the Kennedy presidency was a well-orchestrated exercise in this questionable enterprise.
Barbara Leaming has relied on Jackie Kennedy's extensive correspondence with former British P.M. Harold MacMillan to gain new material on the well-covered tale of Jackie's White House years. A sad picture emerges, of a lonely woman without even one intimate friend, and without the spiritual resources that consoled her mother-in-law Rose. Forced to endure the deaths of two newborns as well as several miscarriages, she had to deal with her husband's pathological sexual infidelities and the lack of privacy her role as First Lady entailed. She tried to fill her empty heart and empty days with trivial activities like constant interior decorating and re-decorating, and shopping for outrageously expensive wardrobes. Does this sound like a rosy life in Camelot, the dream world where all is smiling perfection? A deeper question after forty years is, why do we continue to purchase books about these people?
Rating:
Summary: St. Jacqueline
Review: This book begins with an interesting premise -- that JFK modeled his relationship with his wife on his relationship with his dear sister, Kick. Fair enough, but where's the evidence? It's all speculation, and it may not be true. The book is well written and highly sympathetic to a woman I agree was gallant throughout her life, but it also strays wildly from other published Kennedy accounts without much substantiation. The Mary Meyer in this book bears NO resemblence to the one in the excellent Burleigh biography. Janet Auchincloss is treated much better in both Spoto's recent book on JBKO and the new JANET AND JACKIE book available on amazon. Rose Kennedy seems very different in the Laurence Leamer book on all the Kennedy women than she does here. And JFK himself? Are we to believe that he was a paper tiger, a playboy who would have been nothing without the brilliant behind-the-scenes machinations of his wife? And let's not forget that this wife -- who was referred to as a Dresden doll when she was named deb of the year by Cholly Knickerbocker and graced movie magazine covers from the moment she hit the national scene -- was supposedly crippled with doubts about her own appearance. The author says the couple was sexually incompatible; yet Jackie was pregnant five times in ten years. Also, if the President were merely looking for a partner he was compatible with, he could have easily settled on one mistress -- not the parade described here. Clearly his sexual escapades had more to do with his own psychology than with his relationship with his wife. I enjoyed the author's Hepburn bio very much and approached this book with great expectations. Alas, they were not met.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: While the book offers insight on Jackie Kennedy, I felt the author took liberties with assumptions about behavior on the parts of both John and Jackie Kennedy. I feel that motivations asserted by Leaming could not have been backed up with appropriate documentation. The reader also gets bogged down in details of the Cuban Missile Crisis, so I often felt I was reading a history of the presidency rather that documented detail that would illustrate the essence of Jackie Kennedy. I did enjoy the book but found it missed the mark in providing a greatly illustrative book about who Jackie Kennedy really was.
Rating: 
Summary: More about MR. Kennedy
Review: While the book offers insight on Jackie Kennedy, I felt the author took liberties with assumptions about behavior on the parts of both John and Jackie Kennedy. I feel that motivations asserted by Leaming could not have been backed up with appropriate documentation. The reader also gets bogged down in details of the Cuban Missile Crisis, so I often felt I was reading a history of the presidency rather that documented detail that would illustrate the essence of Jackie Kennedy. I did enjoy the book but found it missed the mark in providing a greatly illustrative book about who Jackie Kennedy really was.
| 
