What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love (2005) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 5 stars

“The author was married to Jackie Kennedy's sister's son and was best friends with Carolyn and John Jr. If you are expecting some juicy gossip about the Kennedy's you will be disappointed. The book is mostly about her husband's battle with cancer. It was very sad but well-written and interesting. The author has to deal with the deaths of her best friends and husband within a very short time but doesnt wallow in self-pity. It is a good medical memoir if that is your thing.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Ahh, the first book this year that I finished. Loved it. I admit, I was drawn to the inside stories about the Kennedys. But, second to that, this memoir about a small town girl who marries royalty (there isn't a better type of romance, is there?) is really about coping with cancer. I just thought the author "kept it real". A sweet book. ”

• Rated 2 stars

“I was excited to read this book by Carole Radziwill after watching the last season of the RHONY but was a little disappointed with it. I was very interested to read about Carole's life before she met her husband, who just happened to be JFK Jr's cousin, but after reading about the untimely deaths of John & his wife and then the death of Carole's husband I started to lose interest and stopped reading about halfway through the book. Maybe it was just too sad for me.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Excellent book; well written true story”

• Rated 5 stars

“Really liked the story line and the historically significant characters in the memoir. ”

• Rated 4 stars

“This book is tough to read. It is the story of a girl from Suffern NY who marries into the famous Radziwill family --through a series of fortunate meetings with Anthony, the son of Lee Radziwill, who is Jackie Kennedy's sister. Anthony and John K are close, and his wife, Carolyn and Carole become close friends. Anthony fights cancer with John supporting him and Carolyn supporting Carole. The Radziwills are at the Kennedy house on Martha's vineyard the night John's plane goes down. It is only a few short weeks later that Anthony dies.
Written beautifully with lots of life lessons, it is the story of love and friendship--all that remains.
”

• Rated 5 stars

“Whenever I read a Kennedy book it is generally a biography or a memoir. I typically stay away from any gossip books or books written by "friends", nannies, girlfriends/boyfriends. I stay away from books when people want to make money off of someone else's heartache. I stayed away from this book for a very long time because I thought it would be that. I was mistaken. Mrs. Radziwill wrote a very loving and sincere tribute to her husband and best friends. She was in a position where she had a lot of information and could have written a lot more then she did. She focused on the story of her marriage. You could tell which family members she did not care for, not by her talking nonsense but those famlily members were referred to in passing. She never focuses too long on anyone other than the subject at hand, her husband and her friends. The book ends as we all know very tragically but in my opinion she wrote it with such grace. She went into such fine detail but without being morbid. You weep when she writes about how her husband walks into the kitchen and he sees the wall of post it with John's tail number and the number to the coast guard along with her timeline then he puts his hands on his face and cries. VERY well written and so incredibly sad. We know how it ends, yet I found myself wishing they had found a cure. ”

• Rated 5 stars

“This was one of the most well written books I have read in a long time. I was so emotionally drained when I put it down. I feel like John and Carolyn Kennedy are good friends of mine that I have lost! I highly recommend this book!”

• Rated 4 stars

“Thoroughly enjoyed the honest memoir and the connection to the Kennedy family.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Interesting because of the Kennedy connection, and also because of the difficult path she had to follow with a young husband having cancer”