I'm not sure, really, why I picked up this book. Could it be its slightly irritating title? Maybe it was because I felt we had so much in common; I knew that she was once a librarian and teacher. Perhaps I was prompted by the fact that she is soul mates with a man who most find either soul-saving or soulless. Or, possibly, I just thought I'd interrupt my fiction streak with something more down-to-earth. It could even be that I saw the cover and figured I'd explore this woman, especially after reading Hillary Rodham Clinton's Living History a few years back. There's a chance that I wanted to be fair.

Whatever my reason for picking up Laura Bush's biography...I'm just glad I did.

Washington Post journalist and author, Ann Gerhart, explains in The Perfect Wife that Laura Bush is a sophisticated chameleon. This intriguing public figure manages to be at-once an intellectual yet a homemaker. An avid bibliophile, Laura Bush devours books of virtually any design and scope. And she maintains brainy hobbies as well: interior designing, bird watching, organizing book readings and literary festivals. Conversely, she's uberly-feminine and hosts tea gatherings, galas or auctions. She is known for her modesty (in dress, in speech and in social life) in a world of egomania.

Laura hardly ever delves into her personal life, and "rarely shares her reflections" (p. 67) yet she wears a ready smile and is known for her tantalizing, turquoise eyes. She's maintained the same friends since grade school, for few are allowed into her private inner sanctuary. Laura managed to do what few other wives (not even her larger-than-life mother-in-law, Barb) could muster: remain calm and even-keeled while her husband's popularity plummeted in the polls and while the entire Bush dynasty faced dogged scrutiny. She's no public speaker, Harvard law graduate, political mogul...yet she makes no apologies for being...well... herself.

The book paints a picture of a woman so secure in her own skin that she is not at all intimidated by preceding First Lady giants like the out-spoken Barbara Bush and the trail-blazing Hillary Rodham Clinton. While in Texas's governor's mansion and the White House, Laura was just fine conversing over lunch with contemporary authors (some of them flaming liberals who didn't care much for her husband) or wearing jeans and a button-down as she oversaw the construction of her modest dream ranch. She was also regal enough to sup with France's dignitaries and privately tour the Louvre. Laura Bush is "polished but not slick, accessible but not intimate, smart but not ambitious, beautiful but uncaring about her appearance...Laura resolves this conundrum by filling all these contradictory expectations simultaneously" (p. 125). 

Laura may be an extraordinary wife-for Bush's staffers knew to get her on board Air Force One whenever the president started to unravel, become short-tempered or fumble his speeches-yet, she hates the dubious misnomer, First Lady. Upon arriving in the White House she instructed her crew to answer the phone, "Mrs. Bush's Office" and sign her letters "Laura Bush." When probed by Katie Couric about being the traditional trophy wife, she answered:

I don't think that that's really exactly fair...I've had traditional-jobs that were traditionally women's jobs. I've been a teacher, I've been a librarian. I had the luxury of staying home and raising my children when I had children. That was really what I wanted to do, was to be at home with them. But I also think that I've been a very contemporary woman in a lot of ways. I had a career for a number of years. I didn't marry George until I was in my thirties. I worked on issues always that are very, very important to me...And so I think I'm both ways.

She's no Stepford Wife. Laura famously quipped on Larry King Live how she's "not crazy about the term role." At the same time, she's W's best friend, who once told a reporter, "If I disagreed with my husband, you'd never know it."

As the adage goes, "one ought not to judge a book by its cover" yet, it appears that time and time again, Laura Bush is judged by her "covering," if you will: her husband. Whatever your political colors, I believe at this point we can concur that W made some critical mistakes while in the Oval Office. I won't name them here, for venting isn't the nature of this column. All presidents blunder. Retrospectively, though, W seemed to do more to polarize, not unify our country. I can't help but wonder how much worse things would have been if Laura weren't W's helpmate. The Perfect Wife records that:

As first lady, Laura Bush is often portrayed as the more compassionate and emotionally nuanced partner in the White House. Her quieter, more reflective mien is served up to soften George Bush's sharper retorts, his quick judgments, his black-and-white morality. His critics portray his as overly arrogant, even swaggering, in the surety with which he declares his mission, especially in the area of foreign policy. Laura is seen as reining him in (21).

Laura Bush is a modern-day Abigail whose wisdom and equilibrium balances her husband. Her consistent coolness ministers to him, I believe. No doubt, her authenticity and sense-of-self carried her scandal-free and out of the limelight throughout all the years that her husband was in public service. This woman's authority is vague; notwithstanding, her influence is magnanimous. I'm not sure whether Laura is a practicing Christian, but her example mirrors what scripture teaches in Ephesians 5:21-33 as well as Titus 2:4. Certainly, Laura has been under the radar for decades. I'm thrilled to know her better...and that she's finally getting props. If nothing else, I'm inspired by how, in a world of makeovers and plasticity, Laura is content with herself as a mother, wife, symbol and woman.

As my teen-aged nieces would quip: people should "stop sleeping on Laura. Real talk. Laura's gangsta."