Laura Bush "Spoken From the Heart" vs "American Wife"

OK, so I read a review of "American Wife" saying it was the novelized version of Laura Bush's autobiography, and even had excerpts from both books showing how similar they were.  I was fascinated by that for some reason, and decided to read both books, hopefully to get an insight into a very private public figure.  I have to say this review was the only thing similar about the 2 books, other than the protagonist was a woman, who married later in life, was an only child and became a teacher/librarian before she married, had a bad accident when she was in high school that killed a fellow high school student, married a man from a prominent wealthy family who eventually became President.  In "American Wife" the protagonist was very close to her grandmother who was an avid reader, and also a closet lesbian.  After she killed the love of her life (who she loved from afar) in the bad car accident that was her fault, she had an affair with the dead boy's older brother, by which she became pregnant, and then got an illegal abortion from her grandmother's lover who was a ob-gyn in Chicago.  This all happens before she falls in love with her future husband, who she has a wonderful sexual attraction to, but tolerates him in all other areas.  She does not share his religious beliefs, is a liberal in her politics, and lives a pretty separate life from him.

Now to the real Laura Bush and what she chooses to share in her memoir.  She is a very descriptive writer, and you get a real sense of her feeling for areas or people or events by how she describes them.  She does talk about the event that did most to change her life, and that was the auto accident, that did kill a dear high school friend.  Having lost a child suddenly and unexpectedly I could understand how this affected her the rest of her life, but does not define who she is.  She talks about the instant attraction to W and their whirlwind romance, but you get a sense through out the book how much she loves him, is bound to him, admires him and is comforted by him, and their bond is closer now than when they first married.  She also talks about their children, and how they were raised, what a hands on parent George was, and how they were able to raise their girls relatively normally in the glare of public light.  Her book kind of skipped around from topic to topic once they got in the White House.  Sometime she would just insert something random.  Kind of like a passing memory that she thought she needed to throw in before she forgot it.  She talks some about what George did, but mostly about what she was busy doing.  She gave a very good description of their isolation after 9/11.  I was impressed by how much she seemed to accomplish behind the scenes, good work for women's health and education initiatives throughout the world, and work for children, especially boys, here in the US.  Of course she did a lot for libraries, school libraries in particular, which is still one of her first loves.  George Bush is lucky to have her in his life, and we were lucky to have her as our First Lady for 8 years.