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Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned the Political Establishment Upside Down

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Manufacturer: Tyndale House Publishers
List Price: $15.95
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In Sarah, the first biography released of Governor Palin, author Kaylene Johnson draws upon personal interviews with Palin, her family, and other highly placed sources to explore Palin's family life, her upbringing in a devout Christian home, her political rise, and how she went from being a long-shot candidate to--potentially--one of the world's most powerful women and political figures. The book features dozens of family and political photos and contains source notes. An Epicenter Press book, distributed by Tyndale House. Tyndale will also provide a free online discussion guide designed to engage readers on the subject of faith and politics: www.FaithandPoliticsDiscussionGuide.com.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 979.8052092
EAN: 9781414330501
ISBN: 1414330502
Label: Tyndale House Publishers
Manufacturer: Tyndale House Publishers
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 168
Publication Date: 2008-09-12
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Studio: Tyndale House Publishers


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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Upside Down?
Comment: Sarah Palin turned the political establishment upside down? This unprepared small-time politician was derided for her lack of qualification, intelligence and poise during her vice presidential run and ultimately lost her campaign in a convincing and incontroverted manner. Where's the turning upside down? It seems to me that she did not even budge the political establishment, much less turn it upside down.

What we need less is another sanitized bio of politicians written as platform to launch their campaigns. This is one of those books. Biased, sanitized, utterly uninformative and empty. Avoid.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Strictly fluff for Palinistas--not the biography we need...
Comment: Before John McCain's surprise anointment of Sarah Palin as his running mate in August 2008, non-Alaskans who knew about Sarah Palin at all were likely (like me) to be policy wonks following the Troopergate controversy. After buying this book last summer, I read it twice, and wouldn't have reviewed it at all if Palin appeared to be returning gracefully to occupy herself with the business of her home state. She has not. Those "Where's Sarah?" buttons worn in Juneau, while she was charging the state per diem to live in her Wasilla home, reportedly have reappeared after the elections. As the instant celebrity that our nation excels--for better or worse--in creating, Palin doesn't seem to want to surrender the spotlight in which she basks any more than she wanted to relinquish the six-figure wardrobe purchased by the RNC. Consequently, readers need a substantive, thoughtful biography, written by someone who knows Alaska politics and isn't blinded by Sarah Palin's marquee power. (And whoever "indexed" this booklet should be flogged.)

This book, unfortunately, reads like a fanzine. In its small format, there are 32 full pages of photos and just 90 pages of text, with generous, generous white space. Five of the 90 pages are devoted to Palin's JV and varsity high-school basketball experiences. The index is both incomplete and inaccurate. Senator Ted Stevens, arguably the most prominent politician in Alaska history, allegedly appears on just two pages. One is an error, and Palin's long, intertwined history with Stevens is conveniently absent. Johnston even misspells her subject's name, at least twice.

"Sarah" is studded with the memes Palin made famous. Johnston calls Palin from the title onward a "hockey mom," but offers no details at all of that experience. Palin considered a Senate run in 2004, says Johnston, but one reason she didn't was because her eldest child, Track, then "planned to attend a high school out of state to play hockey." That year, Track was 15; he later left Alaska for his senior year in Michigan after an appearance in juvenile court that I won't go into. Among the many, many errors or omissions in this book are that Palin sold the governor's private jet on eBay (it was briefly listed there, but later sold, at a loss, through a broker, not eBay); that Palin was named Miss Congeniality in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant (she wasn't), that she "attended" the University of Hawaii at Hilo, from which she "transferred" to Hawaii Pacific U. for a year, where Palin earned "straight A's" (Palin never registered at Hilo, and the only source of her alleged grades is the woman herself); that she went straight from North Idaho College to the state university (no mention of her attendances at Mat-Su's community college); that "when the [Heath] family wasn't running or hiking, it was hunting or fishing," yet Palin is a "bookworm" and "compulsive reader" (not a single author, book, or periodical is named anywhere); that she couldn't have ignored the concerns of Alaskan indigenous people because husband Todd Palin is a "Native" (he is one-eighth Yup'ik), and that her campaigns have been "focused on openness and transparency" (even as mayor of Wasilla, Palin got into hot water for sending official correspondence on her personal e-mail account, as she did--and for all we know, still does--as governor); and that she "learned to never tell a lie" (is her daughter Bristol named after the Alaska town or the Connecticut city, home of ESPN? Palin has said both, repeatedly. And if she'll lie about that, what else?).

This book was published in 2008, late enough for the references in the back to include a Palin interview in Vogue. However, Johnston inexplicably ends her narrative after Palin's election as governor in 2006, with a brief, three-page "epilogue" about selected actions as governor (not a mention of Walt Monegan, the public official Palin sacked for failing to fire her former brother-in-law), and only a fleeting reference to the multimillion-dollar hockey rink built in Wasilla. Johnston doesn't mention that construction began before the land it occupies was formally purchased, or that its cost left the small town deeply in debt. There's a six-page appendix comprising her unmemorable inaugural address as governor.

The author's internal editor didn't even keep her from including a grossly unflattering detail from Palin's campaign against former Governor Tony Knowles, who "rolled out a four-year plan for education. When it was Sarah's turn to speak, she paid tribute to her father as a beloved school teacher and promised--without specifics--to make education a top priority. 'The Knowles camp was apoplectic,'" noted Bill McAllister from KTUU in Anchorage, adding, "'They couldn't figure out why the media wasn't all over what a twit she was.'" This isn't an Amazon reviewer speaking here: Johnston is quoting a television broadcaster from a station that covers Sarah Palin regularly, even blocking access to its Palin archives to journalists and the public.

No, I'm not a Palin-hater, though I find her fascinating (probably for all the wrong reasons). She's a force of nature as well as a figure that will be reckoned with in national politics for the foreseeable future. We need substantial reporting on Sarah Palin, not Hostess Sno-Balls between covers.







Customer Rating:
Summary: Sarah, How a hockey mom turned the political establishment upside down
Comment: Very well written and describes Sarah Palin's childhood years in a way that lets the reader get a glimps of growing up in small town Alaska. Her
summer time trips to Denali and other closer hikes with family helped to
develop a love for the outdoors and the envirnment. I was very impressed
with the way she took on established politicians and brought honesty back
into play at a young age. Her brand of what a politician should be is very
refreshing and was sorely needed in Alaska as well as what is sorely needed in Washington DC today.

Customer Rating:
Summary: great work you betcha! wink wink
Comment: This flattering portrait of the accidental VP candidate may go along way in promoting her 2012 candidacy among the far right base f the republican party. However, it may not be enough for her to appeal to the more sensible mainstream who actually vote in elections. The first family of alaska variously described by McCain campaign staffer as "alaska hillbillies" and "free loaders" and the governer herself who's memorable interviews with Katie Couric which derailed McCains campaign has already left her mark on america. The sensible majority may not get its wish that Palin might just "Go away" she will be in the news promoting herself to the masses who are sick of her already. This book is desperate futile attempt at presenting the governer, whose achievements are as forgettable as her intellect as an average "hockey mom." Good luck with that.

Customer Rating:
Summary: She'd make a good president, but George W Bush is better.
Comment: Sarah Palin would make a great presidential candidate, except for the fact that Bush has done a great job the past 8 years. Sarah Palin knows politics like Michael Jordan knew how to play baseball, like a champion! Plus, Sarah Palin is a down to earth person, which makes me like her even more. I feel so bad for her that her Yahoo! mail got hacked, with a hard password like 'popcorn', you'd expect her to be safe on the internet, lols!

George W. Bush/Sarah Palin for 2008 election!

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