From Publishers Weekly
Intended primarily, if not exclusively, for female readers, this highly personal reminiscence looks at the author's life before her success in Washington as Lady Bird Johnson's press aid and following her widowhood and subsequent return to Texas. There are chapters on Carpenter's ancestors, important to the history of the Lone Star State, but more about the challenge of living alone and the concerns of aging. She writes about the problems of finding a man interested in a woman in her 60s, of avoiding loneliness in the interim, of leading an active social life, of preparing food and, above all, of fighting for women's rights. Regrettably, the book is pervaded by a cloying lump-in-the-throat sentimentality.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Carpenter ( Ruffles and Flourishes ) was a reporter, LBJ's vice-presidential aide, and Lady Bird's press secretary, and she does have a story to tell. Someone else should have told it, however. "Sixty-five years! My Medicare birthday! The day I have marked to begin writing an account of my life and the wisdoms I have learned," she says in her introduction. Her writing is self-indulgent and cluttered with trite phrases, flowery prose, and more than one "oh my" and "just imagine." She does have a fine sense of humor and is at her best when reminiscing about Lyndon Johnson and Capitol politics. You want Getting Better to get better. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Jo Cates, Poynter Inst. for Media Studies Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
