Book Review: The Residence by Kate Andersen Brower

About:
The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower is a nonfiction book which encompasses interviews and stories told to the author by the White House residential staff.

The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book  –to enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the post.

 

• 320 pages
• Publisher: Harper
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062305190

My rat­ing for The Residence — 5

Buy this book in paper or elec­tor­nic format*

Thoughts:
The nice thing about The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower is that you know exactly what you’re getting when you pick it up. The book gives fascinating insights into the life of the butlers, maid, florists and other White House staff who work very hard to welcome and serve the presidential families.

As a fan of history, I really enjoy the small, intimate stories which give a most excellent background to world events, and this book is filled with them. It was wonderful to read about the friendship, intimacy, companionship and service the staff provides the families who are on a world stage and sometimes can feel lonely and battered.

Obviously, the staff cannot and will not be completely open due to the nature of their jobs and the honor and privilege they fell fulfilling it. Some of the staffers did open up to the author about some of the relationships they had with the first families, who they absolutely loved (the Bushes) and who they struggled with only to come to like later (the Clintons).

This is not a book about politics, there is very little about any presidential or political agenda in it. The time between the pages is spent following the experience of living and working in the White House.

I enjoyed this book very much, it is a wonderful companion to anyone interested in presidential politics or American history. As always, I learned several things and found the little trivial tidbits the most interesting.

Buy this book in paper or elec­tor­nic format*

Give­away

• Give­away ends: May 11, 2015
  

• US / Canada Ship­ping Addresses Only

• No PO Boxes

• Win­ners will have 24 hours to write back with their address, oth­er­wise an alter­nate win­ner will be picked

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