Not Exactly Unbiased...

Gentle Reader, I'm sorry that it's all jammed together. I tried three times to make it STAY paragraphed. "Barbara Bush, Matriarch of a Dynasty" by Pamela Kilian Thomas Dunne Books 246 pages $24.95 (or a whopping $36.95 in Canada -- and I thought we were supposed to be friends with Canada?) Kilian, a journalist for the Scripps Howard News service, has been friends with Former President George and First Lady Barbara for "more than 20 years." So don't expect to read anything too scathing about Barbara Bush. That said, she can be quite funny (Bush, not Kilian) and is well able to poke fun at herself. She was/is adept at PR. Millie the Dog comes to mind. There is a fetching picture of Barbara holding the dog's paw up to a short plinth as if the dog is reading the inscription marking a historical event. Note to fellow writers: editors love dogs and Abe Lincoln. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. She had a unique outlook on her daughters-in-law. She gave every evidence that each one was absolutely perfect because that is how her mother-in-law had treated her. I thought there was also a strong sense of self-entitlement positively glowing from her. I got the distinct feeling that in many cases, she would strike verbally and then be oh, so very sorry -- after the damage had been done. Still and all, who can really object to a little bitchery from time to time. It's the pepper in the mashed potatoes of life. Throughout the book, she is entirely devoted to George and relished their time in China together. The kids were mostly grown and gone and she had him all to herself. On leaving the White House, she said, "On January 20th, we woke up and we had a household staff of 93. The very next morning, we woke up and it was George, me and two dogs -- and that's not all that bad."