The Sheepish Scribe

Decision Points by George W. Bush

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What I liked best was the way this book is laid out. Instead of being written chronologically, it's laid out by topic. I read the book all the way through, but one could just as easily take it topic by topic as desired without losing any of the context.

President Bush's humor shines through in the opening chapters where he talks about his family. I found that the best part of the whole book. The love and reference for his dad is incredible. Oh, that my son would ever write the same way about me some day! I enjoyed that glimpse into his family and was surprised at how comfortable such a powerful figure was/is at sharing it. Good stuff!

I'm very glad this was not a "tell all" type of book with "gotcha" moments against political opponents. There was none of that. I felt there were areas where things were not said, but that's okay. As my mom used to tell me, "If you can't say something nice..." He was frank about some issues and named everyone who was involved in whatever the topic was. He made very few disparaging comments about the actions of others, there were a couple, but only on issues well covered by the media already.

The foreign policy stuff was both fascinating and boring. That's probably sums up foreign policy in a nutshell. I found the players fascinating but struggled to keep an interest up in the more mundane political maneuvering between countries. This may be why I've never been tempted to work in a foreign policy field.

His insights into Iran and Afghanistan were compelling for me, as were his thoughts about our soldiers and the welfare of our country. While I didn't learn anything new, I will look at those situations in a little different light now.

Overall I'm giving this one a 4 star rating. It's well written and worth reading, but not a light or quick read by any means. Read it when you have time to digest a plethora of foreign names and weighty issues.




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