Letters to My Daughters, Mary Matalin
Letters to My Daughters, Mary Matalin
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Letters to My Daughters

Author: Mary Matalin

Narrator: Mary Matalin

Abridged: 4 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2004


Synopsis

In Letters to My Daughters, famed political consultant and TV personality Mary Matalin shares the moral, ethical, and occasionally comic life lessons gleaned from her mother's experiences and her own. These intimate, personal letters range from the spiritual to the practical, from giving life to accepting death, from civic to personal responsibility, from looking and feeling good to dealing with those pesky boys, and more.
Here's a sampling of the mother wisdom found in these pages:

Crying is not a weakness; it's cathartic and cleansing. People who live life with the fullest commitment tend to cry a lot. It's a healthy expression of deep emotions. I don't like or trust people who don't or can't cry.
When I tell you I understand what you're going through, it's not just because I remember what it felt like to be a teenage girl whose body is being hijacked by hormones against her will. It's because I'm a fifty-something whose body is being hijacked by hormones against her will at this very moment. And if you don't believe me, just ask your father.
I believe in my heart of hearts that a life without faith is unanchored and unfulfilling. Without it, you're just wandering in the desert. You experience deeply that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts -- and the singing is damn good.
Ma had a complex philosophy of sex, which I heard almost every day from age ten. "Boys would screw a snake if it would lay still long enough." Let's flash forward forty years and allow your mother to give you a twenty-first-century take on boys and S-E-X: "Boys would screw a snake if it would lay still long enough."...And the men in Washington think that's a compliment.
A deep sense of loyalty can help you overcome almost any bump in the road. The disloyal may advantage themselves in some work situations, but their gains will be temporary, fleeting. They will fail their institutions, their colleagues, and worst of all, themselves.

Filled with warmth, common sense, a belief in the values that keep families strong, and her trademark sense of humor, Mary Matalin's letters will inspire, guide, entertain, and inform. They're the perfect companion for any mother looking for a smart, sensible fellow traveler on the road to raising good daughters.

About The Author

Mary Matalin served as assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney. She hosted CNN's Crossfire, was founding co-host of Equal Time, and recently starred in Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's K Street. She also co-authored the bestselling All's Fair: Love, War, and Running for President with her husband, James Carville. She and Carville reside in Virginia with their daughters, Matalin "Matty" Carville and Emerson Normand Carville, as well as three dogs, four cats, two hamsters, and several turtles, two of which coincidentally are ingredients in her husband's gumbo. She is known to remind people at PTA meetings that she is an expert on children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, having married one in 1993.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Gypsy on October 22, 2012

I picked up this book because I was fascinated by the seemingly impossible marriage of James Carville & Mary Matalin. I don’t really buy their public image of a bickering couple; jabs & insults aside they were never truly hostile toward each other whenever they appear together. Even though they cann......more

Goodreads review by Brooke on July 20, 2010

I think this couple is fascinating. She's a staunch Republican and he's a loyal Democrat (James Carville). They both actually kind of annoy me to watch but I think their relationship is really interesting and I loved the letters. It sort of reminded me that in reality, most people have the same goal......more

Goodreads review by Les on March 04, 2008

Mary writes letters to her two little girls, giving them advice, telling them about her own life, and sharing secrets and stories. This is the kind of thing I'd say to my own daughters, if I were this eloquent and well-spoken. I loved this book, and gave copies of the audio version to my girls for C......more

Goodreads review by Christine on April 01, 2016

I never quite trust a book that is supposedly written for someone but that you know was actually written to sell. I found much of the book boring, though the advice was decent, but enjoyed the last sections on marriage which featured details of the Matalin-Carville union.......more

Goodreads review by Blaine on July 02, 2012

Who knew Mary Matalin could be so warm, wise, and affectionate? I certainly was pleasantly surprised by this book, which is well-written and which I would gladly share with my own daughter as sage advice.......more