The Nine of Us: Growing Up Kennedy Audiobook (Free)

In this evocative and affectionate memoir, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving child of Joe and Rose Kennedy, provides an intimate and illuminating look at a time way back when when she and her siblings, guided by their parents, laughed and learned a good deal under one roofing.

Prompted by interesting tidbits in the newspaper, Rose and Joe Kennedy would pose questions to their nine children in the dining room table. ‘Where could Amelia Earhart have eliminated?’ ‘How would you address this horrible about The Nine of Us: Growing Up Kennedy drought?’ ‘What can you do about the troop motions in Europe?’ It had been a nightly custom that helped shape the Kennedys into who they might become.

Before Joe and Rose’s children emerged as leaders within the world stage, they were a loving circle of brothers and sisters who played football, swam, browse, and pursued their interests. These were kids motivated by parents who instilled in them a strong work ethic, deep like of nation, and intense appreciation for the sacrifices their ancestors designed to come to America.’No whining with this house!’ was their father’s regular refrain. It was his way of reminding them never to complain, to be grateful for what that they had, and to surrender.

In her remarkable memoir, Kennedy Smith-the last surviving sibling-revisits this singular time in their lives. Filled with amazing anecdotes and vignettes, The Nine of Us vividly depicts this huge, close-knit family during a different amount of time in American background. Kennedy Smith offers indelible, elegantly rendered portraits of her larger-than-life siblings and her parents. ‘They knew how exactly to treat our hurts, bind our wounds, listen to our woes, and help us take it easy,’ she writes. ‘We had been lucky children indeed.’