Easily readable light history and tales of a wide variety of things about the White House, from its history, building and rebuilding, to takes of housekeepers, pets, Secret Service and so on. Written by a woman who lived in the White House as a young adult, she brings a unique point of view to the subject.

Truman does a great job retelling the wonderful personal stories of the people who have lived in the President's House.

Iam fascinated by the lives of the presidents, their families and where they lived. It was a wonderful read.

A superficial collection of observations and stories about life in the white house. If this is your first such book, it's fine. Otherwise, nothing new here, move along.

Very informative and enlightenig.

A mercilessly chatty story of many of the people who were part of the history of the White House. It doesn't run deep, but is often interesting. And despite the title, Truman does very little heavy lifting in research much before the Lincolns in the 1860s, and spreads it thickly where her family, the Kennedys, the Johnsons and the Clintons are concerned.

This is a great book about the history and experiences of the White House. I used the North Carolina Digital Library (NCDL) to check out this book on my Kindle app on my iPad. Ms. Truman not only includes her memories from the White House as a First Daughter, but she includes remembrances from many presidential families, White House staff, and other Americans who have lived in or around the People's House.

I realize that her father was the president and that Truman herself was a life-long Democrat (both big and small d, according to her), but this book couldn't be much more partisan if it tried. She has a hard time hiding her contempt for a lot of various historical characters (why does she hate the Tafts so much?) and is hopelessly in love with other ones.

Years ago, I read her book about the first ladies and this book seems to echo the sentiments expressed there, that certain presidents were basically puppets controlled by their wives or their chiefs of staffs and other presidents were married to insane harpies who did nothing but try and undermine their husbands' terms. However, as before, all of her anecdotes come from the ether, because this book contains no bibliography. Naturally, her own parents seem to receive the best treatment of all the first families covered in the book.

There's very little about the architecture and arrangement of the White House, and sadly no diagrams or maps (at least not in the e-book version). It's mainly a wide assortment of anecdotes about the people (and animals) who lived and worked in the White House.

This was an entertaining, almost chatty read. It wasn't meant to be a full-on course on the White House, mainly interesting anecdotes. The main failing is that the book could have used a clear diagram or two of the White House so that those of us who have not been able to tour it can visualize it. She does walk us through a tour at the very end but it was not ideal.

Interesting but so detailed. Slow reading. Back to it later.

I give 3 stars for content, but the anecdotes are choppy and there is no consistent timeline. So it can be a bit confusing. Ms. Truman obviously has her favorite residents of the White House (like her father), and those who are not favored(like the Clintons) may be insulted in a most personal manner, which I find boorish and unnecessary. Instead of just presenting facts and stories, she injects personal prejudices.

The President's House: 1800 to the Present

Truman has written an interesting historical story that shares a variety of facts that I was not aware of. It Is good to know that the First Families are only human and face all the same problems that regular families do.