the buzz log

First Lady Laura Bush gets $1.6 million advance to write her memoirs, but what about No. 43?

Given publisher interests, AP recommends to George W. Bush about penning his recollections, "Take your time." Youch.

If it makes Dubya feel any better, the New Yorker explains that, typically, First Lady reminiscing is "often more hotly anticipated than those by their husbands." After all, they've had to stand by their man, but stepping down from the political perch presumably frees them in a way that the Oval Office tenant can't.

Also, as in back in the 2004 campaign, Laura has been the better half as far as approval ratings go. The end of her husband's presidency and that Oliver Stone film have renewed Search questions about her, including "laura bush car accident" (a fatal incident that occurred when she was 17) and "laura bush smoking" (a habit she quit in the mid '90s. She reportedly still puffs under stress.)

One who hasn't sought the spotlight, Mrs. Bush won't be delivering a "tell-all." One publisher who listened to her book pitch called the encounter "the most frustrating meeting of its sort I've ever had," although she "really couldn't have been nicer."

Her advance reveals expectations may be less than Hillary Clinton's $8 million payoff (which broke first-day sales records) but not so far from what her mother-in-law and Nancy Reagan received. Of course, sales will depend on how much she'll spill, or at least if readers get a peek of the attitude revealed in a National Journal article: When Laura Bush first visited her husband's family in Kennebunkport, Mama Bush asked her, "And what do you do?" Her daughter-in-law famously replied, "I read, I smoke, and I admire."

For links to other First Lady books about their White House years:
"Living History" (2003) Hillary Clinton
"Barbara Bush: A Memoir" (1994) Barbara Bush
"My Turn" (1989) Nancy Reagan
"First Lady From Plains" (1984) Rosalynn Carter
"The Times of My Life" (1978) Betty Ford
"A White House Diary" (1970) Claudia Alta Lady Bird Johnson
"The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt" (1961) Eleanor Roosevelt (she published 7 books during her husband's tenure)
"Recollections of a Full Life" (1914), Louise Taft
"The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Graft" (written 1895, first published posthumously 1975) Julia Dent Grant

Links to books by First Husbands, AKA the Presidents
"My Life" (2004) Bill Clinton
"Ronald Reagan: An American Life" (1999)
"A Time to Heal: An Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford" (1979)
"RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon" (1978)
"Vantage Point" (1971) Lyndon B. Johnson
"The White House Years" (two volumes, 1963 and 1965) Dwight D. Eisenhower
"The Memoirs by Harry S. Truman" (two volumes, 1955-56)
"The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover" (three volumes, 1951-52)
"The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge" (1929)