Matt K. Lewis

This is basically a collection of quotations from Sarah Palin, with the stated purpose of letting readers judge her ideas and coherence for themselves, without the misquoting, the paraphrasing, and even the SNL gibes with which she's been associated.

I guess I get that. If you are someone who thinks Sarah Palin has been consistently underestimated or not given a fair shake by the mainstream media, this book makes sense. However, it's really hard for me to feel justified in giving this book more than a couple of stars, because -- well, it IS just a book of quotations, culled from public sources. And yes, they're loosely grouped by subject matter; I guess maybe that took some effort, but in the end, I think a little more substance was in order. Some of the quotations are just a phrase or a sentence -- hardly something that solves the problem of decontextualized statements. I just don't know that the reprinting of some sound bites can give us much insight into who Sarah Palin really is, or what her positions really are.

All that being said, the book wasn't entirely unenlightening. I had expected, frankly, to find many more things to make fun of than I did -- though that may well be attributable to the stated purpose of the book. After all, if he's trying to redeem her credibility, doesn't he have a reason to skip over any hints of ignorance, and focus on the most coherent of her speeches? I was amused, however, that he quotes her on two separate occasions as saying something like, "I'm not one to attribute every action of man to climate change." She clearly means the reverse -- that she doesn't believe all climate change can be attributed to man-made causes -- but to mix that up on multiple occasions suggests to me that maybe she doesn't have a clear idea of what the word "attribute" means. On the whole, though, she comes across in this book as fairly reasonable, not the backwards airhead she sometimes seemed to be. So to some small extent, the book is successful at what it wants to do -- but doesn't it say something that we need a whole book of carefully selected quotations to accomplish the fairly mild goal of making Sarah Palin sound not entirely absurd?

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising… (mais)

The Quotable Rogue, The Ideals of Sarah Palin in Her Own Words has quotes by Sarah Palin beginning in 2005 and ending in 2010. The book was published in 2011. It is edited by Matt Lewis.
A foreword by Matt Lewis and praises about the book from people such as Tucker Carlson, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Caller; Ken Blackwell, Former Ohio Secretary of State, Senior Fellow at the Family Research Council and Governor Rick Perry, 47 th governor of Texas and 4 other people.
The quotes come from a number of interviews Sarah Palin had with FOX, CNN, Peoria Journal, Associated Press, Larry King Live, Newsmax.com, The Tonight Show, On The Record With Greta Van Susteren and many, many more.
Some topics are: On living in Alaska, On Barack Obama, On Being Sarah, On Faith, On Family, On Gun Control, On The Media, On Tina Fey and On Taxes to name a few. There are 32 chapters and the quotes are dated and most short.
Some short quotes taken by random: "I was raised in a family where gender was not going to be an issue. The girls did what the boys did. Apparently in Alaska that's quite commonplace" from chapter on Living in Alaska and from Times (U.K.), August 31, 20008; "In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change" from Republication National Convention in Minneapolis, September 3, 2008 from chapter On John McCain and also "Americans get it. In Washington, they don't get it" from Orlando Sentinel, March 12,2010 On Washington chapter.
The last chapter is " What Others Say About Sarah Palin" with remarks from Carly Fiorina, Nikki Haley, James Carville, Sean Parnell and many others.
A good read and a good insight into Sarah Palin. I hope liberals will give it a change with an open mind to read what she has to say. No one agrees totally with what someone has to say, but is helps to know the person and how they feel about many topics such as America, Family and Home.
You can reach Matt Lewis at www.mattlewis.org. He is a blogger, writer and commentator based in Alexandria, Virginia and is the Senior Contributor to the Daily Caller.
I received a complimentary copy of The Quotable Rogue, The Ideals of Sarah Palin in Her Own Words from booksneeze to read and review. The opinions are my own. I wish to thank Matt Lewis for the opportunity to read and review this book; I personally liked it very much.
Leona Olson… (mais)