Too Close to the Sun
Growing Up In the Shadow of My Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor
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Narrated by:
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Jeremy Gage
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By:
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Curtis Roosevelt
About this listen
Curtis Roosevelt was three when he and his sister, Eleanor, arrived at the White House soon after their grandfathers inauguration. The countrys First Grandchildren, a pint-sized double act, they were known to the media as Sistie and Buzzie.
In this rich memoir, Roosevelt brings us into the goldfish bowl, as his family called it - that glare of public scrutiny to which all presidential households must submit. He recounts his misadventures as a hapless kid in an unforgivably formal setting and describes his role as a tiny planet circling the dual suns of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Blending self-abasement, humor, awe and affection, Too Close to the Sun is an intimate portrait of two of the most influential and inspirational figures in modern American history and a thoughtful exploration of the emotional impact of growing up in their irresistible aura.
"Too Close to the Sun leaves the reader in no doubt that The First Grandchildren's grandparents were good as well as great. It is reassuring to know that the two conditions are not incompatible." (The Times)©2008 Curtis Roosevelt (P)2009 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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"To begin with I was in love and I am in love so that's not hard," Barbara Bush told her granddaughter Ellie LeBlond Sosa. Sosa had asked for the secret to her and President George H.W. Bush's 77-year love affair that withstood World War II separation, a leap of faith into the oil fields of West Texas, the painful loss of a child, a political climb to the highest office, and after the White House, the transition back to a "normal" life. Sosa and co-author Kelly Anne Chase paint the portrait of the enduring relationship of George and Barbara Bush.
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A Beautiful, Uplifting Read!
- By Cathi Hughes on 03-18-23
By: Ellie LeBlond Sosa, and others
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Flesh Wounds
- By: Richard Glover
- Narrated by: Richard Glover
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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A mother who invented her past, a father who was often absent, a son who wondered if this could really be his family...Richard Glover's favourite dinner-party game is called 'Who's Got the Weirdest Parents?' It's a game he always thinks he'll win. There was his mother, a deluded snob who made up large swathes of her past and who ran away with Richard's English teacher, a Tolkien devotee, nudist and stuffed toy collector.
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Such a Meaningful Reflection
- By Awarenessing on 11-28-15
By: Richard Glover
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The Diana Chronicles
- By: Tina Brown
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Diana Chronicles, you will meet a formidable female cast and understand as never before the society that shaped them: among them, Diana's sexually charged mother, her bad-girl sister-in-law, Fergie, and, most formidable of them all, her mother-in-law, the Queen. Add Camilla Parker-Bowles, the ultimate "other woman" into this combustible mix, and it's no wonder that Diana broke out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect.
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One of the best Diana's
- By J F Whitmore on 08-02-12
By: Tina Brown
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Reading My Father
- A Memoir
- By: Alexandra Styron
- Narrated by: Alexandra Styron
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Alexandra Styron's parents—the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie’s Choice and his political activist wife, Rose—were, for half a century, leading players on the world’s cultural stage. Alexandra was raised under both the halo of her father’s brilliance and the long shadow of his troubled mind. Reading My Father portrays the epic sweep of an American artist’s life. It is also a tale of filial love, beautifully written with humor, compassion, and grace.
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William Styron Ranks...
- By Douglas on 12-22-13
By: Alexandra Styron
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Jackie, Ethel, Joan
- Women of Camelot
- By: J. Randy Taraborrelli
- Narrated by: Beth Fowler
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Abridged
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What does it mean to be a Kennedy? If ever three women would be challenged and changed by marriage into a family, it would be Jacqueline Bouvier, Ethel Skakel, and Joan Bennett. None of these radiant brides could have ever been prepared for the fame, the family, and tragedies that would spring from their lives. As they struggled to cope with their husbands' infidelities, the harsh glare of the media, and the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, these women would learn what it meant to be sisters, reaching out to one another with comfort and consolation.
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my first Kennedy book
- By colleen on 06-15-12
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Wait for Me!
- Memoirs
- By: Deborah Mitford Duchess of Devonshire
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood that includes the writers Jessica and Nancy, who wrote when Deborah was born, "How disgusting of the poor darling to go and be a girl." Deborah's effervescent memoir chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood in the Oxfordshire countryside, to tea with Adolf Hitler and her controversially political sister Unity in 1937, to her marriage to the second son of the Duke of Devonshire.
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The last of the Mitford Sisters
- By Irene on 01-11-11
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Diana
- Her True Story - in Her Own Words
- By: Andrew Morton
- Narrated by: Michael Maloney, Caroline Langrishe
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The sensational biography of Princess Diana, now revised to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death. When Diana: Her True Story - in Her Own Words was first published in 1992, it forever changed the way the public viewed the British monarchy.
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Wonderful overall with one issue...
- By globewest on 07-02-17
By: Andrew Morton
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50 Children
- One Ordinary American Couple's Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany
- By: Steven Pressman
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In early 1939, few Americans were thinking about the darkening storm clouds over Europe. Nor did they have much sympathy for the growing number of Jewish families that were increasingly threatened and brutalized by Adolf Hitler's policies in Germany and Austria. But one ordinary American couple decided that something had to be done. Despite overwhelming obstacles - both in Europe and in the United States - Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus made a bold and unprecedented decision to travel into Nazi Germany in an effort to save a group of Jewish children.
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I didn't want it to end
- By David Shear on 05-07-14
By: Steven Pressman
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Marina and Lee
- The Tormented Love and Fatal Obsession Behind Lee Harvey Oswald's Assassination of John F. Kennedy
- By: Priscilla Johnson McMillan
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray, Joseph Finder
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Marina and Lee is one of the best and truest audiobooks about the Kennedy assassination. Priscilla Johnson McMillan came to the story with a unique knowledge of the two main characters. In the 1950s she knew Kennedy well for a time when he was hospitalized with Addison's disease. She talked to him frequently, brought him books, knew his wife, and formed a strong opinion of the sort of man he was. What is astonishing is that she also knew Lee Harvey Oswald.
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Now I know why he did it
- By Rodd on 06-09-14
What listeners say about Too Close to the Sun
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Debra B
- 04-23-12
Recommended
Any additional comments?
This book comes across as a sincere expression of what it was like to live in the White House as a little boy, and what it was like to be a Roosevelt. It is honest without being complaining and it doesn't gloss over flaws that you might like to know about.
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 02-04-10
Absolutely Charming Audiobook
Really enjoyable look into the lives of FDR, Eleanor and the White House, all from the perspective of a very little boy!
The reader Jeremy Gage is crisp, easy on the ears and makes this audiobook a joy to listen to!
Five stars all the way!
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3 people found this helpful