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Rating: 
Summary: An Interesting Account of Our Presidents
Review: I found this book full of information about the different Presidents and their families and how they adjusted to living in the White House.There is a lot of information about earlier, less known Presidents, and I enjoyed reading those chapters. I was also interested to read about all the pets over the years.
Every family seemed to have all sorts of animals. It was interesting to read about the First Ladies and their "quirks". Mary Todd Lincoln ran up clothing bills that she tried to hide---just like Jackie. Other stories that I found amusing were that Nixon would not allow guards or policemen to speak to him or Mrs. Nixon. Betty Ford couldn't understand why they ignored her greetings until this was explained to her. Ronald Reagan served tea to Prince Charles who did not touch it because, as he explained later, he didn't know what to do with the little bag! Many such amusing stories made this a truly enjoyable book. I recommend to anyone wanting to know about living in the White House.
Rating: 
Summary: Inside View of the White House
Review: I was just fascinated to see how forty families lived in one house. Real Life at the White House is full of wonderful anecdotes-many of them I hadn't heard before-and it really gives you a sense of how history happened, all in one place. It's well written and charming. I agree with curator Clement Conger, who calls this book "the best" of the genre.
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.
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