The Missing Kennedy Audiobook By Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff cover art

The Missing Kennedy

Rosemary Kennedy and the Secret Bonds of Four Women

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The Missing Kennedy

By: Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff
Narrated by: Denise Washington Blomberg
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Throughout her childhood, Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff frequently visited Rosemary Kennedy, President John F. Kennedy's sister. Why? Koehler-Pentacoff's aunt, Sister Paulus Koehler, a Franciscan nun, was Rosemary's devoted caregiver at St. Coletta in Jefferson, Wisconsin, for 15 years and her driver and travel companion for over 30. The resulting audiobook, which will be will be the first about this mysterious Kennedy, chronicles Rosie's life along with that of the author's aunt, and delves into the similarities between the two families. It includes Kennedy quotes from the author's interviews and anecdotes about Rosemary and her famous family.

The book delves into Rosemary's misdiagnosed condition, why her father sought an experimental brain surgery for her without his wife's knowledge, how he kept this fact hidden from the rest of his family for 20 years, and what Rosemary was actually like after her lobotomy. And it will show how Rosemary was the catalyst behind the Special Olympics and related legislation from 1960 to the present.

The Kennedys considered the author's aunt to be a member of their family. Through the author's relationship with Rosemary, Sister Paulus, and her other relatives, the author discovered how family, faith, and silence intertwine to strengthen or destroy our relationships, no matter our status or circumstance in life, whether one comes from in a rich, extraordinary family or a poor, ordinary one.

©2015 Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff (P)2015 Bancroft Press Politicians Politics & Activism Women

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All stars
Most relevant  
Thank you for bringing awareness to the way people with special needs were treated. But the narrater was monotone.

Very informative

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The subject matter of the book would be pretty good if I didn't have to listen to the most annoying narrator in the history of time. This is the story of a nun from Wisconsin, her niece, and Rosemary Kennedy from Boston. Audible, can you find a narrator who doesn't sound exactly like the perfect stereotype of those who discriminated against the Irish immigrants? Can you find a narrator who can at least pronounce the Wisconsin town that figures prominently in the book - Oconomowoc? Because this narrator butchers it over and over and over and over. Ugh.

Most Annoying Narrator Ever

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this should be required reading for high school nationally. it tells more than I can describe

great read I would suggest it as required

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I didn’t enjoy the narration. In the narrator’s defense, the writing made interesting narration difficult. The book’s topic had so much potential, but the jumping from the author’s family to Rosemary Kennedy made the story disjointed.

Didn’t enjoy narrator.

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The author has turned a story about a tragic young woman's life into a soapbox for her own political leanings thereby polarizing the reader.

About Rosemary?

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This book was a total misrepresentation. I would never have purchased a book about a stranger's family. The book has little to no information about Rosemary Kennedy and definitely no new information. It was 75% about the author's family and experiences.

Horrible Book

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What disappointed you about The Missing Kennedy?

This book was more about the authors family and story and very little about Rosemary Kennedy. If you took out the authors story this would have been a short story - maybe 3 pages long!

Has The Missing Kennedy turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Very drowl tone of voice -

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No

Missing Kennedy

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The book is not focused enough on Rosemary Kennedy to warrant the title. It is arguably Audible clickbait. I mistakenly bought this book, thinking I was buying a different book about Rosemary that has the same photo on the cover. I found myself uninterested in the author’s family, for example her ancestors’ daily farm life in the early 1900s, her uncle in CA, her own health issues, her relationship with her parents, etc. If you consolidated only the content that relates specifically to Rosemary, this book would be a magazine article, as it should have been. I ended up skipping over the family chapters.
So far it is not a deeply researched book, especially if the reader already knows Rosemary’s story and the basics of mental illness. The author engages in speculation about the Kennedy family and Rosemary in order to bring them into the story and perhaps justify the book’s title. By way of example, she imagines her aunt comforting Rosemary after John Kennedy died. She uses sentences like “Eunice [Kennedy] probably thought…”. While the author reflects on her views of sex when she was younger, she wonders what Rosemary thought about these issues. These examples are not researched facts uncovered about Rosemary or the Kennedys.
The book sometimes sounds like a school book report and other times like a reading from a creative writing class. I looked up the author, and she indeed writes for children and instructs how to write for children.
I found the narrator’s cadence annoying at first, but I got accustomed to it over time. I still gave the narration 2 stars because she mispronounces places in Wisconsin like Oconomowoc, which is repeated several times. Narrators should stop and research the correct pronunciation of places before narrating a book.

Title Should Be “My Family History and Reflections on Rosemary Kennedy”

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This book has small dusted stories about Rosemary Kennedy. This book is its whole is about the nun who took care of Rosemary. Her life on the family farm, how she told her mother she wanted to be a nun. How her life was in cloisters and and the various communities she served within. Here and there there are small glimpses into Rosemary, but placing her name and likeness on the cover was just a plain sales tactic a true bait and switch tactic.

Why is there not a photo of the nun who cared for Rosemary? Why not have a photo of the two of them together? I also have a problem with the photo that was used. This photo is pre- lobotomy, why not have a photo post-lobotomy of the time frame of when the sister was caring for Rosemary?

This book was incredibly disappointing and that it was marketed in this way is just a bait and switch on the consumer.

Not really about Rosemary, but about the nun and her family.

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Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff, who was at best an acquaintance of Rosemary Kennedy, does her best to act as if she had closer insight into the Kennedy Family than anyone else with a modicum of research experience. Most insultingly Koehler-Pentacoff believes her brief misdiagnosis of epilepsy is on par with Rosemary’s lobotomy. The audiobook narration is awful too.

Skip it

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