Reviews for Collector's History of Dolls

The average rating for Collector's History of Dolls based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-01-04 00:00:00 Terence Parker Upon immersing myself in "Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years", I felt as if I were an actual witness to a marriage between 2 remarkable people, whose lives together became bound up with the politics, culture, ethos, and destiny of a nation. At the time of their marriage in September 1953, the husband, a freshman United States Senator with budding promise of reaching the White House, hailed from a rich, prestigious Irish-American family steeped in the Catholic faith. His wife, who came from a slightly less wealthier background, was a graduate from Vassar who had studied at the Sorbonne, possessed artistic and intellectual attainments, and shared certain, profound affinities with her husband, which the author makes plain in considerable detail as the story progresses. I have had a deep-seated fascination with JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy for many years, and this book I found hard to break away from once I began reading it in earnest. Even if you have little interest in politics or history, the book's human interest element alone makes for compelling reading. It makes alive to the reader the sensibilities of an era --- the 1950s and early 1960s --- in such a way that one almost feels as if the past has become the present. This is a book that I could read again and again, without tiring of it, despite the horrific tragedy of Dallas and its aftermath in which Jacqueline Kennedy, now a widow, struggled to re-establish a meaningful life for herself and her children.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-12-29 00:00:00 Patricia Holmes After reading a Doris Kearns Goodwin Kennedy book, this one seemed like reading a gossip magazine. The author of this book jumps as conclusions and calls them facts, for example she said JFK chose Jackie because she reminded him of Kit, Katherine Kennedy, his sister who passed away. She attempted to prove this point through vague similiarities between the two women, when they weren't that similiar at all. That is one example of why Miss Leaming just wasn't a trustworthy storyteller. I did like it for some things that she mentioned, what an artist Jackie was at being a graceful hostess, how cultured and intelligent she was, how her knowledge of French art and history charmed Degaulle and how her abilitity to speak other languages engaged one nation after another. How, sadly, she had little time to put her self together in the air force one lavatory before she witnessed the swearing in of LBJ, that was so sad!!! Looking at a picture of that you can see she is wearing the same outfit she was in the convertable earlier in the day, how horrible that must have been. I don't know how true it is that JFK blatantly and serially cheated on his wife, during parties at the white house, but that is almost too ugly to believe, so I dismiss it. I do believe he was unfaithful of course but I think it is wrong that Miss Leaming wrote as if she knew what Jackie was thinking day to day from reading the secret service logs of the first families comings and goings. I don't regret reading this but I think if you choose to, take everything in this book with a grain of salt.