Audiobooks by Barbara Bush

Your Own True Colors: Timeless Wisdom from America's Grandmother

An inspiring and beautiful way to commemorate Barbara Bush-the complete recording of her historic speech to the 1990 graduating class of Wellesley College, which NPR included in their list of the "Best Commencement Speeches, Ever."Barbara Bush is one of America's most beloved first ladies, and one of only two in our history to be both the wife and the mother of a President. Celebrated for her wit, compassion, candor, and ebullience, she was embraced on both sides of the political aisle. In the outpouring of national admiration and affection in the days following her death in the spring of 2018 at age ninety-two, many remembered the commencement address Mrs. Bush gave to the Wellesley College class of 1990. She urged the graduates to believe in something larger than themselves, citing her own commitment to literacy and her belief that, "if more people could read, write, and comprehend, we would be much closer to solving many of the problems plaguing our society." Filled with timeless wisdom, Your Own True Colors is a perfect gift book for graduation or any occasion. Barbara Bush's message about men, women, diversity, and big ideals-finding one's own true colors-is as timely, important, and inspiring as ever.

Barbara Bush (Author), Barbara Bush (Narrator)

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Reflections: Life After the White House

Barbara Bush was born in Rye, New York, and married George H.W. Bush in 1945. She was the First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She has five children, including President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and is the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

Barbara Bush (Author), Barbara Bush (Narrator)

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Pearls of Wisdom: Little Pieces of Advice (That Go a Long Way)

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! In this 'sage, valuable volume' (Publishers Weekly), First Lady Barbara Bush shares the best of her advice to family, staff, and close friends. First Lady Barbara Bush was famous for handing out advice. From friends and family to heads of state and Supreme Court justices, and certainly to her staff, her advice ranged from what to wear, what to say or not say, and how to live your life. She especially loved visiting with students of all ages, from kindergartners to college graduates. When she turned 80, she owned up to all her advice-giving and explained it this way: After all, in 80 years of living, I have survived 6 children, 17 grandchildren, 6 wars, a book by Kitty Kelly, two presidents, two governors, big Election Day wins and big Election Day losses, and 61 years of marriage to a husband who keeps jumping out of perfectly good airplanes. So, it's just possible that along the way I've learned a thing or two. At the end of the day, she taught all of us some valuable lessons. As First Lady, she made a point of cuddling a baby with AIDS and hugging a young man who was HIV positive and whose family had rejected him, showing us by example the importance of compassion and the myth of fear. As a mother, she made sure we all knew that your children must come first, and one of the most important things you can do is to read to them. As a friend and mentor, she showed that you had to be true to yourself, and even at the end of her life, she taught us how to die with grace. Full of Barbara Bush's trademark wit and thoughtfulness, Pearls of Wisdom is a poignant reflection on life, love, family, and the world by one of America's most iconic -- and beloved -- public figures.

Barbara Bush (Author), Allan Robertson, Brian Troxell, Brittany Wilkerson, Cara Reid, Kevin Stillwell, Nicholas Tecosky, Suehyla El Attar, Suehyla El-Attar, Susan Larkin (Narrator)

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Barbara Bush: A Memoir

Barbara Bush is certainly among the most popular First Ladies ever to live in the White House. Politics aside, people worldwide have come to admire her wit, her candor and compassion, as well as her unswerving devotion to her husband and children. In her memoir, Mrs. Bush for the first time gives readers a very private look at a life lived in the public eye for more than twenty-five years. She begins with a compelling portrait of her early years, including: growing up in Rye, New York, and meeting George Bush; life as a young bride and mother, moving far away from home to West Texas; and the almost unbearable pain of losing a child. With contemporary American history as the backdrop, Mrs. Bush remembers the shock of learning that her fiance has been shot down in the Pacific during World War II; the disbelief when a black friend is refused service in a Southern restaurant in the 1950s; and the fear when she is caught in the middle of a student protest march in the 1960s. She recounts her years in public life, from first moving to Washington when George Bush was elected to Congress; to her experience living in New York as the wife of the Ambassador to the United Nations and in China as wife of the U.S. envoy. She talks candidly about the ups and downs of three presidential campaigns and describes her role as the wife of the Vice President, culminating in the climactic White House years. Drawing upon excerpts from her diary, which she has compiled for more than thirty years, Mrs. Bush takes us behind the scenes of the Persian Gulf conflict and the end of the Cold War. She talks about both the Bushes' struggle to overcome Graves' disease and how she faced the controversy that erupted at Wellesley College before her commencement speech. Through the friendships she developed over the years with world leaders and their spouses, we meet and get to know the Gorbachevs, the Thatchers, the Mitterrands, the Mubaraks, and many others. And she tells us why she threw so much of her energy and compassion behind the important cause of making more Americans literate. This memoir includes hundreds of the funny, often self-deprecating, and occasionally touching anecdotes for which Mrs. Bush is well known: surprising a rat while swimming in the White House pool; accidentally stomping on Boris Yeltsin's foot under the table during a state dinner; wearing a $29 pair of shoes for her husband's inaugural ball. She also talks about the disappointments of the 1992 presidential campaign and the joys of rediscovering private life, including driving and cooking again for the first time in twelve years. This is a warm and funny memoir that will charm Mrs. Bush's millions of admirers and earn her many more.

Barbara Bush (Author), Barbara Bush (Narrator)

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All The Best

In lieu of a memoir, All the Best, George Bush collects correspondence and diary entries from the former U.S. president to show, as he says, "what my own heartbeat is, what my values are, what has motivated me in life." The letters begin in 1942--when, fresh out of high school, Bush volunteered for U.S. Navy flight school--and continue to the brink of the 21st century, as the retired chief executive worries about the Melissa virus infecting his office's server and keeping his visiting grandchildren in line. ("I realize," he muses, "Keep the freezer door closed from now on and I mean it lacks the rhetorical depth of This will not stand or Read my lips.") All the Best hits all the highlights of Bush's career, from the Texas oil business to his role as ambassador to China, then CIA director, vice president under Ronald Reagan, and finally president himself. Along the way, he reveals a personality that is at turns compassionate, respectful, silly, doting, and resolute--a man for whom being a father and a grandfather matters as much as, and maybe even more than, being leader of the free world. Fans and detractors alike will find in All the Best an intimate human portrait that offers as sure a self-definition of Bush's personal life as A World Transformed did his presidential career.

Barbara Bush, George Bush, George H.W. Bush (Author), Barbara Bush, George Bush, George H.W. Bush (Narrator)

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