Rating: 
Summary: Poorly done
Review: I was so excited when I got this book. I love stories about Presidents. However, everything in this book I had read somehwere else. Same old boring stuff. No new pictures. Basically, I thought it was awful.
Rating: 
Summary: Lazy research, lazy writing, lazy documentation
Review: If you simply want a few raise-your-eyebrows stories about WH occupants, order this one. If you care about historical accuracy and context, forget it. The myriad misspelled names and often creatively edited/paraphrased quotations are the first big clue that these authors took the path of least resistance (how hard is it for a self-professed history teacher and an alleged professional journalist to check these simple and very important facts?). The heavy reliance on only a few sources--some of them completely unattributed and others, like Ronald Kessler's Inside the White House, entirely questionable--is the second. Certainly, most readers won't care that much about these flaws. If you're more interested in storytelling than history, this is a decent collection of cotton-candy gossip about presidents and their families. But history fans looking for a competently executed and engagingly written account of White House private life will still do better to check out the work of the wonderful William Seale, among other writers. Though it's written by self-described professionals, Real Life at the White House is amateur hour.
Rating: 
Summary: Little did you know.........
Review: Real Life at the White House not only compiles into one fascinating book the history of the house itself, but some serious insight into the office of President, the types of men who have found themselves in the position, and how it changed them for better - or worse. It is amazing what we DIDN'T know about Ike, about Kennedy and about Reagan. Some of it is downright scary! While it is reassuring to know we have managed to stumble along as a nation because of, sometimes in spite of, the people who have held this high office, one is often reminded also that "absolute power corrupts absolutely", whether it is the President, his spouse, or the chief housekeeper.
Rating:
Summary: Historical Ambrosia
Review: This book is dangerous. Were it the U. S. History highschool textbook, every student would become a history major. Or sociology. What a delicious insight into forty-two families, their joys and sorrows, idiosyncrasies and foibles, and their forty-two different relationships with this old house. John collects tasty historical tidbits with the appetite of a black hole. Claire kneads them into irresistible prows like Bonbons of chewy fact. More danger - you can't put the book down! Real Life in the White House provides a surprisingly pleasant review of U. S. history with a lot of interesting occurrences you'll want to remember and share.
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