Here are 100 books that Grandmère fans have personally recommended if you like
Grandmère.
Book DNA is a community of 13,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
My mother turned me into a passionate fan of presidents and First Ladies at the age of four, when she took me to see Senator John F. Kennedy as he campaigned for the presidency in 1960. During my first visit to Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park, NY, I discovered a photo of Mrs. Roosevelt and JFK, smiling broadly as they exited her cottage. It’s now the cover of my book, which follows the intriguing relationship between two of America’s most powerful political dynasties, sometimes allied and sometimes clashing, and how the future president and former First Lady found common ground to launch a women’s rights movement once Eleanor helped Jack win the White House.
I love this book because sometimes Eleanor Roosevelt seems like an unreachable icon, but this story by her friend Edna made me feel that “the First Lady of the World,” as Harry Truman labeled ER, was a real person with real feelings that I could relate to.
After FDR’s death, she needed someone to care for and who cared for her. Now I understand why she chose her young physician, David Gurewitsch, to be her companion.
The poignant and unforgettable true account of the deep, loving friendship between a handsome physician and the former First Lady, as seen on PBS’s The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
“I love you as I love and have never loved anyone else.” —Eleanor Roosevelt in a letter to Dr. David Gurewitsch, 1955
She was the most famous and admired woman in America. He was a strikingly handsome doctor, eighteen years her junior. Eleanor Roosevelt first met David Gurewitsch in 1944. He was making a house call to a patient when the door opened to reveal the wife of the…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
My mother turned me into a passionate fan of presidents and First Ladies at the age of four, when she took me to see Senator John F. Kennedy as he campaigned for the presidency in 1960. During my first visit to Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park, NY, I discovered a photo of Mrs. Roosevelt and JFK, smiling broadly as they exited her cottage. It’s now the cover of my book, which follows the intriguing relationship between two of America’s most powerful political dynasties, sometimes allied and sometimes clashing, and how the future president and former First Lady found common ground to launch a women’s rights movement once Eleanor helped Jack win the White House.
I love this recent book because it took me to the Roosevelts’ Hyde Park/Val-Kill estate in New York’s Hudson River Valley, which is a magical place for those of us who love historic homes.
I never met Eleanor Roosevelt, but Nina, who lived near her grandmother in the later years of ER’s life, made me feel like I was having a meal with them at Val-Kill and traveling around the world with them to Iran, France, and Israel, where “Grandmère” was much admired.
A granddaughter's intimate portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt at her longtime home of Val-Kill as well as on a diplomatic trip to Europe and the Middle East.
When Nina Roosevelt was just seven years old, her family moved from California to live with her grandmother at the small cottage, Val-Kill, in Hyde Park, New York. It was at Val-Kill Farm that Nina shared her childhood years with her remarkable grandmother, the woman who would change her life. To Nina, she was Grandmere, but, to most everyone else, she was Eleanor Roosevelt. Few people realize how important Val-Kill was for Eleanor Roosevelt.…
My mother turned me into a passionate fan of presidents and First Ladies at the age of four, when she took me to see Senator John F. Kennedy as he campaigned for the presidency in 1960. During my first visit to Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park, NY, I discovered a photo of Mrs. Roosevelt and JFK, smiling broadly as they exited her cottage. It’s now the cover of my book, which follows the intriguing relationship between two of America’s most powerful political dynasties, sometimes allied and sometimes clashing, and how the future president and former First Lady found common ground to launch a women’s rights movement once Eleanor helped Jack win the White House.
I love historical fiction, so this compelling novel gave me one of those “what if,” alternative history feelings.
It had me wonder if Eleanor Roosevelt should have run for president and if she could have defeated Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. The book made me want to flash back to that era and join the “ER for President” campaign! As a woman, I still am left to ponder when the U.S. will finally elect a female president.
It is a time of turmoil, with the nation mired in an unpopular war in Korea and with Senator Joseph McCarthy stirring up fear of a lurking Communist "menace." Racial discrimination is rampant. A woman's place is in the home. And when a shocking act of God eliminates the Democratic presidential nominee, the party throws its support to an unlikely standard bearer: former First Lady and goodwill ambassador to the world Eleanor Roosevelt.
Captivating and fast-paced, Eleanor vs. Ike pits the unforgettable Eleanor against the enormously popular war hero Gen. Dwight David ("Ike") Eisenhower. But while the opponents promise "an…
Unsettled weather has caused life-threatening rip currents to sprout up seemingly at random in the usually tranquil sea around Grand Cayman. Despite posted warnings to stay out of the surf, several women lose their life when caught in the turbulent waters. Fin attempts some dangerous rescues, and nearly loses her…
My mother turned me into a passionate fan of presidents and First Ladies at the age of four, when she took me to see Senator John F. Kennedy as he campaigned for the presidency in 1960. During my first visit to Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park, NY, I discovered a photo of Mrs. Roosevelt and JFK, smiling broadly as they exited her cottage. It’s now the cover of my book, which follows the intriguing relationship between two of America’s most powerful political dynasties, sometimes allied and sometimes clashing, and how the future president and former First Lady found common ground to launch a women’s rights movement once Eleanor helped Jack win the White House.
I love this book because it made me feel completely connected to JFK’s life.
The story brought me into the Kennedy family, as if I were witnessing first-hand its rise to fame, sibling rivalries, and crushing tragedies. It also resonates with me because I first read it and got to know the author online during the COVID pandemic. Those types of links in that time of isolation made me feel more connected to the world.
Whenever I need to understand Jack Kennedy’s life, I pull this book from my shelf. I can’t wait to see Netflix’s series on this biography!
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian takes us as close as we have ever been to the real John F. Kennedy in this revelatory biography of the iconic, yet still elusive, thirty-fifth president.
“An utterly incandescent study of one of the most consequential figures of the twentieth century.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States
WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE • NAMED BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR BY The Times (London) • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Sunday Times (London) • New…
I have been intrigued by Eleanor Roosevelt since I was a little girl in Sedalia, Missouri, and my mother read me Eleanor's "My Day" columns in the Kansas City Star. Mother would look up and say, "I'm sure she is better than he is," referring, of course, to Eleanor being better than Franklin. My family was rock-ribbed Republican and disapproved of Franklin's policies. I wondered then—and still do—why my mother and other women of her era had so much reverence for Eleanor. I have been looking for the answer ever since.
It presents Eleanor as a passionate woman who drew initial strength from feminist networks as she emerged from a bigoted aristocratic background marked by her unhappy orphaned upbringing and her subordinate role as a wife and mother. First (and the best) of Cook's three volumes of biography on Eleanor, it paints an absorbing picture of the way Eleanor shed Victorian prejudice to become an advocate for social justice.
The first volume in the life of America's greatest First Lady, "a woman who changed the lives of millions" (Washington Post).
Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. Three: 1938-1962, will be published in November 2016.
Eleanor Roosevelt was born into the privileges and prejudices of American aristocracy and into a family ravaged by alcoholism. She overcame debilitating roots: in her public life, fighting against racism and injustice and advancing the rights of women; and in her private life, forming lasting intimate friendships with some of the great men and women of her times. This volume covers ER's family and birth, her childhood, education,…
Eleanor Roosevelt loved to teach history and she must have been really good at it. As a historian with a specialty in U.S. women’s history, I love exploring the life and impact of Eleanor Roosevelt. It's a rewarding way to experience the early decades of the 20th century, to gain familiarity with the culture, issues, and politics of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, and, while so doing, to meet up with an astonishingly talented group of writers and scholars who have made their own inquiries into Eleanor Roosevelt’s life and works. Studies of ER now constitute a thriving subfield in scholarship and publishing; it's a privilege to be part of it.
An inspired reference book, ideal reader’s companion, and invaluable guide to further investigation of Eleanor Roosevelt’s life, time, interests, passions, friends, enemies, and relationships. And most important, a perfect gift for any Roosevelt admirer! Even the most casual reader can open the pages at random, discover some fascinating entry, and become utterly immersed in one of ER’s experiences and absorbed in the contents of the book. Diversions abound! I cannot praise this unique and impressive volume too highly.
Perhaps the most important woman in 20th century America, Eleanor Roosevelt fascinates scholar and layperson alike. This exciting encyclopedia brings together basic information illuminating her complex career and making the interaction between her private and public lives accessible to scholars, students, and the general public. Written by scholars-including the most eminent Eleanor Roosevelt and New Deal scholars-journalists, and those who knew her, the 200 plus entries in this book provide easy access to material showing how Eleanor Roosevelt changed the First Lady's role in politics, widened opportunities for women, became a liberal leader during the Cold War era, and served…
"New generation Holmes and Watson - if Holmes was adorable and Watson was a beautiful woman."
Set in an alternate and progressive Victorian London, anarchist Charles Shilling and noblewoman Amelia Florin inadvertently cross paths and join forces to catch a notorious serial killer. Romance, murder, and mystery abound as the…
Growing up, I often told neighborhood kids about my father’s internment, what he remembered of Camp Crystal City, Texas, where he spent three years, age seven to ten, going to school, swimming, playing in nearby orchards, and other normal experiences—except for the barbed wire, guard towers, and lack of freedom. Later, I wanted to know more and learned that what happened to my family can happen to anybody else if they are feared. More recently, families have been ripped apart, children put in cages, and countless people treated as less than human. My book reminds us of what can happen when fear leads to calling those among us enemies or worse.
Among historians, we know there are few better as academics and storytellers than Goodwin. I love her writing style, and the coverage of both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt is unmatched. Small wonder that it was a NYT bestseller! I think any reader would enjoy this magisterial work.
A chronicle of the US and its leaders during the period when modern America was created. It narrates the interrelationships between the inner workings of the Roosevelt White House and the destiny of the US, painting a portrait that fills in a historical gap in the story of America under Roosevelt.
I have been intrigued by Eleanor Roosevelt since I was a little girl in Sedalia, Missouri, and my mother read me Eleanor's "My Day" columns in the Kansas City Star. Mother would look up and say, "I'm sure she is better than he is," referring, of course, to Eleanor being better than Franklin. My family was rock-ribbed Republican and disapproved of Franklin's policies. I wondered then—and still do—why my mother and other women of her era had so much reverence for Eleanor. I have been looking for the answer ever since.
Endeavors to tell in one volume the story of an American icon, integrating her personal and public lives. This work offers an introduction to her many public roles—as a journalist, First Lady from 1933-1945, delegate to the United Nations (1945-1952), political leader, media personality—as well as her multifaceted personal life.
The New York Times bestseller from prizewinning author David Michaelis presents a “stunning” (The Wall Street Journal) breakthrough portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt, America’s longest-serving First Lady, an avatar of democracy whose ever-expanding agency as diplomat, activist, and humanitarian made her one of the world’s most widely admired and influential women.
In the first single-volume cradle-to-grave portrait in six decades, acclaimed biographer David Michaelis delivers a stunning account of Eleanor Roosevelt’s remarkable life of transformation. An orphaned niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, she converted her Gilded Age childhood of denial and secrecy into an irreconcilable marriage with her ambitious fifth cousin…
I'm a cultural historian (degrees in English and American Studies). I taught at the university level for 25 years (Emerson College, principally) and worked 20+ years as an acquisitions editor, in book publishing, at Harvard, at Cambridge University Press, and for a small company I founded, Berkshire House. I was politically sympathetic to Mrs. Roosevelt’s POV before the “My Day” book project came to me, but, coincidentally, her long run as a syndicated columnist interested me also because my first job, fresh out of college, was as a cub reporter for Associated Press. I learned, in a hurry, how to deliver a story on deadline, with all the facts double checked.
There are several biographies of Eleanor Roosevelt, but few match this 3-vol. effort for its comprehensiveness and its sensitivity to the inner life of Eleanor (who led an exceedingly public life). All of Mrs. Roosevelt’s accomplishments are covered—with excellent context—and the bonus here is coverage of her private struggles as a shy, “orphaned” child, then as a beloved wife (to a disloyal husband), her failures as a mother, and her apparently quasi-lesbian attraction to another woman, as well as an unusual attachment to her doctor. Not a simple story!
One of the New York Times's 100 Notable Books of 2016 One of NPR's 10 Best Books of 2016
"Heartachingly relevant...the Eleanor Roosevelt who inhabits these meticulously crafted pages transcends both first-lady history and the marriage around which Roosevelt scholarship has traditionally pivoted." -- The Wall Street Journal
The final volume in the definitive biography of America's greatest first lady.
"Monumental and inspirational...Cook skillfully narrates the epic history of the war years... [a] grand biography." -- The New York Times Book Review
Historians, politicians, critics, and readers everywhere have praised Blanche Wiesen Cook's biography of Eleanor Roosevelt as the essential…
This climate fiction novel follows four generations of women and their battles against a global giant that controls and manipulates Earth’s water. Told mostly through a diary and drawing on scientific observation and personal reflection, Lynna’s story unfolds incrementally, like climate change itself. Her gritty memoir describes a near-future Toronto…
It’s not my fault! My foremothers were strong, capable, compassionate women. I have been passionate about restoring the voices and contributions of women to history and culture. While a voracious reader of history, I enjoy historical fiction (when it’s done well). History tells us what happened; historical fiction tells us what it was like to live through events. I love author’s notes and/or historical notes where the author explains what is real and what is imagined; and resources to learn more about the subject of the novel.
Wow! I loved the portrayal of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and the great Mary McLeod Bethune, the ‘First Lady’ of the work for civil rights (a businesswoman and founder of an HBCU college!). I loved their distinct personalities and passions while weaving a very real and lifelong friendship based both on personal losses and a passion for meaningful work.
I appreciated how human each woman was portrayed, and the tender work to build a friendship of trust. Each woman was a powerhouse in her own right, which clearly shines through. I so loved this that I listened to it twice!
A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune—an unlikely friendship that changed the world, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian.
The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist and an educator, and as her reputation grows she becomes a celebrity, revered by titans of business and recognized by U.S. Presidents. Eleanor Roosevelt herself…
