The Upper Eschelon- Mrs. Kennedy and Me

I feel in love with books and reading in about the second grade all because a fictional freckled faced, red headed girl just fascinated me. And then I realized that I could pick up a book and go anywhere. If I was bored, I could read. I loved the Little House on the Prairie Series, the Babysitters Club Series, Emily of New Moon and Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery and I just loved Judy Bloom. Then in high school I found the romance novel- not Harlequins really, but Nora Roberts and Lyverl Spencer and Judith McNaught- all three excellent romance novelists. And then as I got a bit older my reading interest waned and finally reignited but shifted to non-fiction: self-help, autobiographies and biographies.

I really want Baby Bub to be a reader. I really want him to enjoy entertaining himself with books. I just think there are lots of good reasons to encourage him to read. It will help with his vocabulary and overall intelligence being 2 main reasons. I subscribe to an online baby/parenting community and they are constantly sending links to articles about every topic under the sun- one of them being reading. The article encouraged reading to babies starting in the womb and continuing in infancy and beyond. AND it says that it really does not mater what you read as long as you read because babies benefit from hearing the cadence of reading. Click here to read the article yourself.

Not that I don't love children's books because I do. We have already read the big book of Berenstain Bears several times. They were my favorite when I was little.

But, hey- if it doesn't matter what I read to Baby Bub, then I am going to take advantage of that while I can because I am sure he won't want me to read him my book forever. So, everyday I read to him while he eats and then falls asleep for his naps. 

Baby Bub is between me and the book- 

We just finished Mrs. Kennedy and Me by Clint Hill. 

I have to say, it was really good. It was well written and neither Baby Bub nor I wanted it to end. We just wanted Mr. Hill's narration to continue forever. Clint Hill was Mrs. Kennedy's assigned secret service agent while JFK was in office. Through his narration, it was just so easy to imagine yourself there, living with them- jet setting around the globe and in the end mourning the death of her husband and father of her children.

I came to realize several aspects about Jacqueline Kennedy that I had never even considered. Although I knew she was not a fan of the spotlight, I did not know to what lengths she went go to find privacy. While her husband was in office, she almost avoided being in Washington and at the White House simply because of the limited privacy there. And I knew that she was certainly a pop culture icon, but I was unaware of her international political influence.

Mr. Hill was with Mrs. Kennedy that infamous day in Dallas and actually clung to the back of the presidential limousine after the President was shot and was raced to the hospital. Hill blamed himself for JFK's death, although clearly, he could not have prevented it.

This book is absolutely worth the read. We both found it interesting. (However, sometimes Baby Bub just couldn't keep his eyes open and drifted off to la-la land often resulting in the need to go back and re-read a paragraph or two.)