Kay Bailey Hutchison

Well done theatically organized memoirs of nine women Senators. Brief biographies are included at the back of the book. The memoirs are organized around such ideas as "Don't Get Mad - Get Elected," which discusses the turning point in all these women's careers when they decided to run for office. Another section is entitled "Balancing Acts," which discusses how these female politicians have managed to handle the conflicting demands of politics and family. In Barbara Mikulski's case, she had to make time to care for an aging parent - with some of the other women it was children. OTher themes include "Different but Important," "Consuming Passions," and "Out on a Limb."… (mehr)

Hutchison was a sitting U.S. Senator from Texas and the Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference when this book was published in 2004. The book is a collection of short biographies (from around 8 to 20 pages in length) of influential women in many different fields and many different time periods throughout American history. The bios are presented by category, with one or two of the bios per section followed by one or two short Q&A conversations with category-appropriate contemporary (as per 2004) women.

All in all, the biographies are well written and interesting. There are a decent number of African American, Latina and Native American women represented, as well. Some of the biographies served as good refresher courses for me, but quite a few were women whose stories and accomplishments were entirely new to me. In the acknowledgements, Howard Cohn is acknowledged as researcher and draft writer. I don't know how much of the actual writing is his and how much is hers. I say that not because I doubt Hutchison's abilities as a writer--why should I?--but only because she was a sitting senator at the time, so I'm wondering where she would have found the time. At any rate, as I said, the book is clearly and informatively written.

So I think this is in fact a valuable and interesting volume. I could see it used in a high school or even a college syllabus.… (mehr)

5600. Nine and Counting, written with Catherine Whitney (read 30 Nov 2018) This is a 2000 book which is old and so not very current. But I have for many years had much interest in United States Senators--hey, when I was a kid I collected pictures of senators found in newspapers and when I went to Washington, D.C., in 1950 and went to the Capitol I often recognized Senators since I had succeeded in collecting newspaper pictures of nearly all of them. This book is a kind of a fluff book, written in part by the nine women who were in the U. S. Senate in 2000: Barbara Mikulski, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Diann Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Mary Landrieu, and Blanche Lincoln. Now, 18 years later, Feinstein, Murray, and Collins are still in the Senate. In 2000 only 27 women had been U.S. Senators in all the years up to then. At the present time there are 20 women in the Senate.… (mehr)