I AM MARIA My Reflections and Poems on Heartbreak, Healing, and Finding Your Way Home

Author, broadcast journalist, and JFK's niece, Maria Shriver also served as California's first lady. Here she offers a heartfelt "sort of memoir,'' which is supplemented by her personal, occasionally cryptic, poetry. Shriver's performance is polished, varied in pace and tone, easy on the ears, and moving. Poems reflect a life of major accomplishments and wealth advantages but riddled by trauma. The overall theme of her life has been the Kennedy/Shriver mantra: "To whom much is given, much is expected." Shriver asks the listener, as well as herself, to make peace with the highs and lows of life, to be just exactly who you are, and to do so using poetry--not necessarily with couplet, rhyme, or haiku--simply words that give emotion to the feelings. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2025]