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    Ten Minutes from Normal
    Unavailable
    Ten Minutes from Normal
    Unavailable
    Ten Minutes from Normal
    Audiobook (abridged)7 hours

    Ten Minutes from Normal

    Written by Karen Hughes

    Narrated by Karen Hughes and Robert Hughes

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    "The rule of thumb in any White House is that nobody is indispensable except the president," said The New York Times, "but Karen Hughes has come as close to that description as any recent presidential aide." Karen Hughes has worked beside President George W. Bush since, as she says, "the motorcade was only one car and he was sometimes the one driving it." As counselor to the president, she brought the working mom's perspective to the White House, often asking of President Bush's policies, "What does this mean for the average person?"

    Yet the move from Texas to Washington was hard on her family, and in a controversial, headline-making decision that reverberated across America, she summoned the courage to say, "Mr. President, I love you, but I need to move my family home to Texas." There, Hughes continues to advise the president, where the kitchen wall calendar marks the State of the Union message side by side with her son's orthodontist appointments.

    Listening to Ten Minutes from Normal—the title comes from the campaign trail—one is instantly absorbed in what it's like to be a "normal" person who goes to work at the White House as a part of the president's inner circle. Told in Karen Hughes's disarmingly down-to-earth, warm, often funny, and frank voice, the audiobook is a remarkable blend of an ordinary woman's life, with all its compromises and everyday decisions, and a keenly insightful look at American politics and America's forty-third president.

    This is an audiobook for the legions of women and men everywhere who are seeking new inspiration for how to reorder their priorities and achieve balance in their lives. Most important, in a post-9/11 world, Hughes redefines the very notion of what is "normal" as something special and precious, never to be taken for granted in America again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMay 16, 2017
    ISBN9781543612431
    Unavailable
    Ten Minutes from Normal
    Author

    Karen Hughes

    Award-winning author Karen Rose Smith was born in Pennsylvania. Although she was an only child, she remembers the bonds of an extended family. Family is a strong theme in her books and she suspects her childhood memories are the reason. In college, Karen began writing poetry and also met her husband to be. They both began married life as teachers, but when their son was born, Karen decided to try her hand at a home-decorating business. She returned to teaching for a while but changes in her life led her to writing relationship novels. Now she writes romances as well as mysteries full time. Her first book was published in 1992; her 80th novel will be published in 2013. A winner of New Jersey's Golden Leaf Award in Short Contemporary Romance, Colorado Romance Writers Award Of Excellence for short contemporary, as well as the Phoenix Desert Rose Chapter's Golden Quill for Traditional Romance, she has also been honored with Cataromance.com's award for Best Special Edition and Washington Romance Writers Career Achievement Award. Her romances have made both the USA TODAY list and the Amazon Romance and Contemporary Romance Bestseller lists. She has written for Meteor/Kismet, Kensington, Silhouette and Harlequin. Readers can contact Karen through her website, on Facebook (Karen Rose Smith Author) and on Twitter @ Karenrosesmith. They can also follow her monthly e-zine IN TOUCH with KAREN ROSE SMITH which has the latest news about her books, recipes and contests.

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    Reviews for Ten Minutes from Normal

    3.5/5

    28 ratings5 reviews

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    • 2/5
      The author takes the first four chapters to set up the story and provide history--as a result the book starts slowly. After that, it seems to become more a list of political who's who than the story of how her family never adapted to D.C. and why she left her job to move her family back to Texas.
    • 4/5
      Actually, I live just five minutes from Normal -- the one the author refers to in the title. I enjoyed this book and learned a bit of what life is like when one is a consultant to the President of the United States. Ms Hughes is a remarkable woman who had a unique opportunity to serve as an aide to one who is now becoming one of the least popular of all US Presidents, George W. Bush.Regardless of one's politics, I believe the book has value, especially those interested in learning how Presidents make decisions and manage communications to the public. Many will find the book inspirational as well.The book is indexed.
    • 4/5
      Actually, I live just five minutes from Normal -- the one the author refers to in the title. I enjoyed this book and learned a bit of what life is like when one is a consultant to the President of the United States. Ms Hughes is a remarkable woman who had a unique opportunity to serve as an aide to one who is now becoming one of the least popular of all US Presidents, George W. Bush.Regardless of one's politics, I believe the book has value, especially those interested in learning how Presidents make decisions and manage communications to the public. Many will find the book inspirational as well.The book is indexed.
    • 5/5
      Karen Hughes works as a journalist in Texas, joins G. W. Bush's run for governor, and continues with his campaign for president and works for 18 months as a counselor to the president. She and her husband chose to move back to Texas for their son's 3 remaining years of high school. She still remained involved with the Bush White House and traveled to DC from Texas. She is a Christian and includes scripture in the book. I liked learning how communication and politics works in the White House.
    • 4/5
      Karen Hughes, close confidant and advisor to George W. Bush, writes what may be the warmest memoir touching on the Bush Administration (except for the anticipated memoirs of Laura Bush). During her appointments as part of the Bush team, first in Texas, through the 2000 campaign, and the first 18 months of the administration, Hughes was the handpicked leader overseeing communications. During those years, she became a feisty on-the-record defender of her boss.Her book is filled with the same intrepid spirit, partially telling her life story, but mostly telling of her extended professional, and personal, relationship with Bush 43 and other close advisors (especially Karl Rove and Condaleeza Rice). She tells of the sacrifices that she made as a working mother, and in the end, the hyperactive career she ultimately stepped away from to spend more time with her family.If the book is not quite as revealing as George Stephanopoulos' first-rate political memoir All Too Human, it is a valuable glimpse into the challenges and opportunities of strong women in the Washington fishbowl. And it is a full-throated defense -- in the guise of a love story -- of George W. Bush, who comes across as strong, decisive, smart, funny, warm, and loyal through these pages.More personal than Bob Woodward's inside the White House books, and more winning than books by seeming turncoats like Scott McClellan, the book is certainly an enjoyable and eye-opening read. Is it to be fully believed? I'm not sure, given the rose-colored portrait of Bush; on the other hand, Hughes gives no other reason to not believe her.