Ten Minutes from Normal

by Karen Hughes

Book Overview

The rule of thumb in any White House is that nobody is indispensable except the president,? said The New York Times, but Karen Hughes has come as close to that description as any recent presidential aide.? Karen Hughes has worked beside President George W. Bush since, as she says, the motorcade was only one car and he was sometimes the one driving it.? As counselor to the president, she brought the working mom?s perspective to the White House, often...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670033057
• ISBN13: 9780670033058
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

fascinating, inspiring

I highly recommend this book. The negative reviews here are obviously from those who have a different political position than the author. How sad some can't look past partisan politics to enjoy a book. FYI: There are talented people in BOTH parties & I find it inspiring to read about those who choose to use their considerable talents in service to their country and what they believe is best for it.

Personal journal of a political leader, suporter of President Bush - Karen Hughes

I really enjoyed this book. It gives a good insight into a busy life of a politician.. BEAWERE, Karen Hughes is a friend and a supporter of President Bush, so if you lack respect for the president you won't rate this book very high!

Great Read

I read this book straight through as soon as I bought it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is an honest, feel-good account of her life and service to this country and the President of the United States during her years with George W. Bush's Gubernatorial and Presidential administrations. Other positive reviews have covered the content of her book so nicely I find little else I might add.If a reader is looking for barbs and insider gossip, don't expect to find much - if any - in this book. Ms. Hughes, although frank, stays way, way up on the high ground throughout her personal story. Perhaps too much so... but that is her nature I suspect, and if it suits her then nobody should mind. It is slightly tortuous in its grammatical correctness and makes one long for a simpler writing style, but this is faint criticism when there is so much to enjoy about her storytelling.Well worth buying!

book reviews shouldn't be about polical view bashing

Karen Hughes is an advisor and personal friend of the President. This book presents a postive view of the president and the White House policies and processes. Duh.But that is not primarily what this book is about. This book is presents a relatively "normal" professional working mom who finds herself in an important role in the innermost circles of the Presidential Power. She describes what that experience is like, and most importantly the conflict between that appeal to the intensity and importance of that power and her role as a mother and spouse. The book provides some limited insight (almost certainly the negative filtered away) of decision processes of the President, gives some insights into how Political PR (should) work, and confirmation that a number of the President's close advisor's draw heavily upon their Christian faith.The book gives some insights into the current President. He is has tremendous discipline, he apparently is always on time or early...for those of you who interact with executives who run businesses and/or organizations know how rare this is--as the imporance of issues that CEO's deal with often mean subordinates learn to wait. He is either "simple-minded" lacking in-depth understanding or cuts immediately to the core of the issue, depending on your view. He does tend to see decisions as right and wrong (it's not just Karl Rove pandering to the hard-core right).But again, those insights are sidebars to main theme of the book--a mom wrestlhing with the consuming requirements of very intense work environment versus desire to invest in one's family.The book is am enjoyable read and a thought provoking book for those of us with consuming worklife and a family. On the other hand, if you're the kind of person who would write a review trashing a book that you haven't read because you don't like the politics should probably skip this one-you won't be able to get past the politics to engage with the book.

A Long Way from Normal

is ultimately how Karen Hughes describes her life, declaring that it wasn't her ultimate destination anyway.Rushing against fleeing traffic from Washington to an evacuated White House in order to make a statement of reassurance to our hysterical and dumbfounded country that the government was still functioning, she met met with a surreal scene of White House lawns covered with men in black brandishing weapons.She portrays an eerie tale as she steps into an empty WH and is led downward through a maze of tunnels and hallways, impenetrable doors slamming closed behind her, before finally entering the secret bunker where dramatic action was already being coordinated by the vice president, national security adviser and others in response to the largest, most viscous attack ever on American soil.The most negative and pessimistic comment this unusually upbeat and positive woman made was on September 12th, when the White House was under serious threat of attack, and President Bush declared that he (along with the senior staff, of which she was one) was NOT leaving. Under the stress he abandoned his salad diet and sent a mess steward scurrying to bring him a quick hamburger. Karen added with a sinking heart that he "might as well add the cheese."Highly intriguing are the up-close and truly personal looks at both President Bush and some of the "inner circle" principals (Andy Card, Condi Rice, Karl Rove, Colin Powell and others) of an administration that is turning out to be one of the most critical in America's young history.Before this book becomes a page-turner, beginning chapters swing humorously through her life-shaping experiences of childhood as an "army brat" who sometimes changes countries but clearly has a foundation that doesn't shift. An early adult career in news reporting further weaves into the fabric of her being the tools necessary for her crucial role in WH communications.As a woman who really knows who she is, and that work is "what you do and not who you are" she refused to play the games of the Washington scene or be sucked under in its negative political landscape. She didn't vie for the usual power grabs or even the highly coveted and now famous "Stephanopoulos" office space. She kept her identity intact and in no way elevated herself simply because she had the listening and attentive ear of the leader of the most powerful nation on earth. she uses her unusual platform to exhort and encourage individual every day Americans to understand their personal worth in the "larger scheme of things."Included in some powerful pages of this book are inadvertent lessons in how to discern "the truth" while being barraged by the darker subtext of biased newspaper headlines, and avoid the pitfalls of edited television clips taken out of context. Only a person like Ms. Hughes who has been a media player herself, could report so effectively "to the media" with honesty, yet not void of some clever Republican strategy.As counselor to the president s