What Jackie Taught Us: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis [Mass Market Paperback]

Tina Santi Flaherty (Author), Susan Lucci (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2005

She was a woman of confidence, focus, and passion, and it made her one of the world's greatest sources of inspiration and influence. She drew on a remarkable wealth of self-knowledge and a sense of purpose to cope with extraordinary public demands and overwhelming private needs. How can anyone emulate Jackie?

What Jackie Taught Us offers Jackie's own personal lessons about how best to live one's life with poise, grace, and zest, including wisdom about image and style, courage and vision, men, marriage, motherhood, and motivation, and how best to apply those lessons to everyday life. With the shining example of this American icon, we can illuminate who we are, what we want—and what we truly need from ourselves and each other.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The very interesting life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929â€"1994), married to the 35th president of the U.S., continues to fascinate, which should insure readership for this laudatory life lesson. The author, a corporate executive, once lived in the same New York City apartment building as her subject and, though she never actually met her, describes herself as an admirer. Flaherty contends that Onassis was never given credit for her leadership abilities and focuses on episodes of her life that illuminate the positive influence she had on others. Drawing on secondary sources and secondary interviews that one imagines would have appalled the famously reclusive Mrs. Onassis, Flaherty takes us over the familiar territory of her subject's childhood with a distant, critical mother and adoring but womanizing alcoholic father. She faithfully details Onassis's splendid education, which honed a passion for knowledge that sustained her through John Kennedy's extramarital affairs and his tragic assassination. Although the writing is competent, it too frequently tends to be repetitive and cloying. The areas that Flaherty believes Onassis taught by example include dealing with men (play hard to get), motherhood (loving but strict) and courage (the ability to withstand pain without crumbling). Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Tina Santi Flaherty, a lifelong admirer of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, was the first woman elected a vice president at three of America's largest companies: Colgate-Palmolive, GTE, and Grey Advertising. Described by Business Week as one of America's top corporate women, she is a much sought-after motivational speaker and the author of Talk Your Way to the Top and The Savvy Woman's Success Bible. She coaches politicians, educators, and Fortune 500 executives in the art of communicating with creativity.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade (April 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399530800
• ISBN-13: 978-0399530807
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #655,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #55 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( O ) > Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jackie. An Example to Follow, April 15, 2004

By 

Barbara Rose (BornToInspire.com) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Jackie Taught Us: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Hardcover)

Tina Santi Flaherty brings us another wonderful book about the remarkable woman of character we all remember as Jackie.
Through this heart-felt book, we are reminded of the qualities that I personally have always admired and watched when Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was alive.
She was a lady, and maintained her dignity. She kept her private life private, and was an example of fine character. She loved her husband unconditionally, and raised two beautiful children as a devoted mother.

Jacqueline was the epitome of grace and elegance. She wrote thoughtful notes to people whenever they did something kind for her. She overcame deep pain and adversity by bringing out her true inner strength, rather than crumble. She was charitable, philanthropic and humane. She cared about preserving art and culture. She worked as an editor, and maintained her humility.
No matter what tragic or painful circumstance was before her, she faced it, and overcame much.

Thank you Tina for keeping the beautiful memory of an exceptional woman alive.
This Book is A Great Read!
Barbara Rose, author of "Stop Being the String Along: A Relationship Guide to Being THE ONE" and 'If God Was Like Man'
Editor of inspire! magazine

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jackie's Grace and Humility lives on., April 16, 2004

By 

Katherine F. Fay "Book lover" (Delray Beach, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Jackie Taught Us: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Hardcover)

Having had the incredible privilege of knowing Jackie Kennedy personally, Tina Flaherty's "What Jackie Taught Us" definitely captured the essence and depth of a remarkable woman. I was a young teenager when my family spent many occasions with the President & the First Lady. What stood out for me as Tina so adeptly describes, was Jackie's amazing sensitivity and intuitiveness. As in the chapter about the humble gardener bringing the small bunch of violets to Jackie's "Grampy Jack" funeral and one of the rapacacious Aunts grabs the bouquet and sticks it in a larger bunch. Jackie later retrieves the violets and secretly places them in her grand fathers coffin not only to defy her Aunt's rudeness but to validate the tender jesture of the gardener. A similar situation happened when I was in line at The White House waiting my turn to give my condolences to Jackie. I was told not to cry when it came my turn to be with her as with all the other dignitaries and various relatives in the room this would be very inappropriate behavior. Needless to say to this 15 year old, I could barely get the words out of how sorry I was when I burst into tears. Jackie then proceeded to hug me and silently weep in what seemed to be elongated moment of genuine release. This authenticity of Jackie's Grace & Humility reverberates throughout the pages of Tina Flaherty's book. A must read for many lessons this world needs to revive!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn how to be great through Jackie's example, August 7, 2005

By 

Joy Gatewood Fulton "Joyrenee" (Reston VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Jackie Taught Us: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (Hardcover)

I bought this book from an Animal Rescue Thrift Shop in Middleburg, VA where Jackie Kennedy and her family once had a weekend retreat and the residents there still remember them with a combination of love and pride.

Jackie's life - and her values - are truly old-fashioned but are very much needed today. She excelled at her studies. She spoke not only fluent French, but also conversational Italian and Spanish. She cared about how she looked and her style was a breath of fresh air. She was an expert in the arts and also in horsemanship. She correctly assessed that just revamping the White House wasn't enough - she'd have to make sure it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places so that it was preserved as it should be. She wrote thank you notes to those who were kind to her.

And yet her life was full of hardships. Her parents divorced when she was young and her father did not attend her wedding. Her husband was assasinated and the famiy money was tied up in trust funds so that she had to petition Joe and Rose Kennedy for funds - like if she needed a new family car. She was harshly criticized and even ostracized by the Catholic Church when she married Aristotle Onassis. Her family was stalked for years by a Kennedy-obsessed photographer. Jackie withstood her hardships with courage and grace and style - which the book reveals was much harder than it may have looked to the public eye.

Ms. Flaherty has written an easy to read book about a remarkable woman and provides meaningful analysis of what Jackie accomplished what she did - and at the end of every chapter provides a thoughtful overview of what we can learn though Jackie's life.

There were other negative reviews of this book appearing here. I don't agree. If you believe that by reading the accomplishments of others, you might be inspired to be a better person yourself - than you will love this book.