| A Remarkable Mother |  | Author: Jimmy Carter
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: eBooks
In Stock
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 182,681
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: 1
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.926092
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
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Product Description
A Remarkable Mother is President Carter's loving, admiring, wry homage to Miss Lillian Carter, who championed the underdog always, even when her son was president. A registered nurse, pecan grower, university housemother, Peace Corps volunteer, public speaker, and renowned raconteur, Miss Lillian ignored the mores and prejudices of the racially segregated South of the Great Depression years. She was an avid supporter of the Brooklyn Dodgers (because she happened to attend the first major league baseball game in which Jackie Robinson, from Cairo, Georgia, played), was a favored guest on television talk shows (usually able to "steal the microphone" from hosts such as Johnny Carson and Walter Cronkite), and an important role model for the nation. Jimmy Carter's mother emerges from this portrait as redoubtable, generous, and forward-looking. He ascribes to her the inspiration for his own life's work of commitment and faith.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
 A Son's Tribute July 12, 2010
H. F. Corbin (ATLANTA, GA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
President Jimmy Carter's tribute to his phenomenal mother "Miss Lillian" can be read in one sitting. He traces her ancestory, writes of her young life in South Georgia, her training and work as a nurse, her time in the Peace Corps, and her support or his presidency as an unofficial ambassador to many countries abroad. She reminded her famous son, however, that she usually only got sent to "represent our nation at funerals of distinguished foreign leaders."
Through the eyes of President Carter, we see a woman not afraid of hard work, a loving but firm parent-- though one who cut more slack than her husband Earl and who dished out lighter punishments to her four children than their father did-- and someone light years ahead of her contemporaries when it came to matters of race. Carter remembers that "my mother was the only white adult I ever knew who had a similarly [referring to his own early childhood] equal relationship with our [black] neighbors.
Miss Lillian loved soap operas, especially "All My Children," and family members knew that she neither answered the telephone nor went to her front door in Plains during the time that soap was on. She also liked a good shot of bourbon once a day, loved professional baseball and wrestling and was an avid reader her entire life. More importantly she instilled the joy of reading in each of her four very different children. President Carter retells the famous quotation of his brother Billy when he was accused of being eccentric: "I've got one sister who spends all her time on a motorcycle, another one who is a Holy-Roly preacher, a mother who is in the Peace Corps when she is seventy years old, and my brother thinks he's going to be President of the United States. Which one of our family do you think is normal?"
President Carter reminds us that his beloved mother was famous or infamous, depending on your point of view, for both her wit and her tendency to speak her mind. When he drove from Atlanta to Plains to tell her he was going to run for President, she responded, "President of what?" Then she opined that if he were elected President of the United States, that Plains might then get a decent restaurant. After President Carter's inauguration, after admonished by Press Secretary Jody Powell to not talk to the press, she told Powell to "go to hell. I'll talk to whom I please." She was immediately asked by a reporter if she was proud of her son. "She quipped: "Which one?" Then there is the famous Miss Lillian quote heard around the world and my favorite. During an interview with a reporter from the WASHINGTON POST, the reporter quizzed her on her son's comment that he had never told a lie and would never lie to the American public. Miss Lillian responded that perhaps Jimmy had told a "little white lie" now and then. The over-zealous reporter thought she smelled blood and responded, "Aha! Aha? And what do you mean by a 'little white lie'?" Miss Lillian responded: " Well do you remember a few minutes ago when I met you at the door and said that you look very nice and that I was glad to see you?" Now that's a woman you can tip your hat to!
Perhaps the most poignant passages in this tribute are those in which Mr. Carter reflects on his mother's time in India. She was appalled at both the severe caste system and concomitant poverty. When her family sent her cheese and peanut butter and other small items, she routinely gave them all away. She wrote home of a heartbreaking experience when she was told by the doctor she worked for to ignore a woman dying of leprosy: "Miz Lilly, don't try to change us in the short time you'll be here. Whatever you do, don't feed her. The sooner she starves to death, the better off she'll be She has infectious leprosy and must not be touched." Finally on her seventieth birthday, just before returning home, Miss Lillian wrote these most moving and beautiful words: "I didn't dream that in this remote corner of the world, so far away from the people and material things that I had always considered so necessary, I would discover what Life is really all about, sharing youself with others---and accepting their love for you is the most precious gift of all." Surely a mother who spoke such words would have been proud of what President Carter said, when asked by a reporter, as I recall, on his eightieth birthday, what he would most like to be remembered for. He responded that during his presidency, that no American soldier died in a war.
Remarkable mother, remarkable son.
A heartfelt biography from a prolific President January 12, 2010
Todd Bartholomew (Atlanta, GA USA)
It's clear from the very opening of "A Remarkable Mother" how deeply Jimmy Carter loves his mother, and the book comes across as a very warm, affectionate, and loving tribute that avoids becoming a hagiography of Miss Lillian. By turns Miss Lillian is tough, outspoken, loving, and complex; quite different from the stereotype of women of her era. What emerges is how great an influence Miss Lillian was on shaping all of her children's character, and with Jimmy especially his sense of social justice and political ambition. What is most interesting is Carter's style of prose. It's so very conversational it sounds as though he's sitting in the room with you, relaying stories from the heart and he pulls in conversations with friends and family about their remembrances of Miss Lillian. Carter touches on virtually every facet of Lillian Carter's life: her courtship with her husband Jimmy Sr., her marriage, her many careers, her widowhood, and in the process Jimmy Carter's political rise, fall, and rehabilitation. And Jimmy doesn't sugarcoat anything about his mother. While it is a reverential book it is warts-and-all, touching on her outspokenness that sometimes got her and son Jimmy into some hot water or made her the butt of jokes. In the end it was Lillian's own humility and outspokenness that kept Jimmy honest and humble.
What emerges is a portrait of how extraordinary Lillian Carter was for her age. At a time when most married women were homemakers, Lillian was working as a nurse and health care provider, and she explains why without pulling any punches. And much of her work was often volunteer work, as well as long hours, sometimes as much as 20 hours a day, evidence of a selflessness of character that would be imprinted on her son Jimmy. Her strong principled stand against segregation in the time of Jim Crow marked her as being quite different from most women in South Georgia of the era; proof she was no ordinary woman. In some ways Lillian Carter is almost akin to an American version of Mother Teresa; albeit one who drank bourbon and loved to watch wrestling on television. It is her boundless intelligence, wit and humor, wisdom, and charm that emerge, along with her passion for public service and selflessness. "A Remarkable Mother" is equal parts love and devotion mixed with inspiration and a sense that you too can aspire to do more.
A heartfelt biography from a prolific President January 12, 2010
Todd Bartholomew (Atlanta, GA USA)
It's clear from the very opening of "A Remarkable Mother" how deeply Jimmy Carter loves his mother, and the book comes across as a very warm, affectionate, and loving tribute that avoids becoming a hagiography of Miss Lillian. By turns Miss Lillian is tough, outspoken, loving, and complex; quite different from the stereotype of women of her era. What emerges is how great an influence Miss Lillian was on shaping all of her children's character, and with Jimmy especially his sense of social justice and political ambition. What is most interesting is Carter's style of prose. It's so very conversational it sounds as though he's sitting in the room with you, relaying stories from the heart and he pulls in conversations with friends and family about their remembrances of Miss Lillian. Carter touches on virtually every facet of Lillian Carter's life: her courtship with her husband Jimmy Sr., her marriage, her many careers, her widowhood, and in the process Jimmy Carter's political rise, fall, and rehabilitation. And Jimmy doesn't sugarcoat anything about his mother. While it is a reverential book it is warts-and-all, touching on her outspokenness that sometimes got her and son Jimmy into some hot water or made her the butt of jokes. In the end it was Lillian's own humility and outspokenness that kept Jimmy honest and humble.
What emerges is a portrait of how extraordinary Lillian Carter was for her age. At a time when most married women were homemakers, Lillian was working as a nurse and health care provider, and she explains why without pulling any punches. And much of her work was often volunteer work, as well as long hours, sometimes as much as 20 hours a day, evidence of a selflessness of character that would be imprinted on her son Jimmy. Her strong principled stand against segregation in the time of Jim Crow marked her as being quite different from most women in South Georgia of the era; proof she was no ordinary woman. In some ways Lillian Carter is almost akin to an American version of Mother Teresa; albeit one who drank bourbon and loved to watch wrestling on television. It is her boundless intelligence, wit and humor, wisdom, and charm that emerge, along with her passion for public service and selflessness. "A Remarkable Mother" is equal parts love and devotion mixed with inspiration and a sense that you too can aspire to do more.
Fast Shipment June 10, 2008
Andrew J. Vanveen (Baltimore, MD)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Very quick service. I got this book for my mom for Mother's Day and she loved it. I recommend it to anyone and use Amazon.
What a lovely book.... June 10, 2008
S. Haben (Oklahoma)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was lovingly written by a son who adored, respected, and loved his mother very much. Lillian was such a force in the White House, and it sounds like everyone from every country who ever met her just loved being with her. She's was a woman that we could all learn from....she didn't take from anyone...even the President. The book was inspiring to me...she went into the Peace Corps at 70....enough said....very good book!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
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