RaveThe Los Angeles TimesTeddy lived long enough for his flaws to be fully exposed. All are laid bare in this book — the drinking, the infidelity, the selfishness, the casual cruelty, the emotional isolation ... More than just a personal profile, Farrell’s book revisits the origins of policy debates that still divide the country ... Farrell mined historical archives from North Carolina to Kansas to California and many points in between. The result of his research is nearly 600 pages — not counting an extensive index and collection of source notes — that burst with detail ... Farrell manages to unearth new tidbits about one of the most scrutinized lives in American politics.
Andrew Kirtzman
RaveLos Angeles TimesThe book cuts through the myth and caricature that has too often defined Giuliani ... Kirtzman’s book...connect[s] the dots.
Bob Woodward and Robert Costa
PanThe Los Angeles Times... tedious, spending more time stacking up anecdotes like bricks than generating new insights into a presidency that has already received exhaustive coverage. Reading Peril is as much of an endurance test as the reporting behind it must have been ... It’s a lot of ground to cover. Reading Peril creates the sensation of riding a speeding train as scenes flash by outside the windows. Robert S. Mueller III finishes the Russia investigation. Whoosh. Biden wins the South Carolina primary. Whoosh. Trump gets COVID. Whoosh ... The effect is less propulsive than disorientating. In a single paragraph, the authors cover Biden offering the chief of staff job to Ron Klain and his first presidential debate with Trump. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh ... Things slow down after the election, when the authors hit their stride as they describe Trump’s attempts to hold onto power ... The explosion of violence on Jan. 6 feels inevitable, and the events remain as shocking on the page as they were when they occurred ... This genre of political book aspires to cinematic storytelling, but piecing together these scenes is challenging under the best of circumstances. Often there are only a handful of people in the room where it happens — people who care deeply about how they will be perceived by voters, contemporaries, historians or potential employers...The result feels like an oral history told by people jockeying to burnish their reputations after years of scandal ... The final quarter of the book feels like the beginning of another, as Biden adjusts to life in the White House ... So who is this book for? It’s unlikely to appeal to the casual voter, who’s probably burned out on presidential drama, or to satisfy the political junkie, who knows most of the key stories already. No, this book is for the completist who won’t be satisfied until they know what Trump’s campaign staff was eating in which room of the White House when the election results started rolling in.
John Boehner
MixedThe Los Angeles TimesReading John Boehner‘s political memoir is probably a lot like sitting down next to an old timer at the bar where he worked growing up in Ohio. There’s a lot of talk about the way things used to be and, before you know it, you’ve had one too many and you’re not sure how you’ll get home...That is to say, the former Republican House speaker is good company throughout On the House, out this week. You can practically hear him uncorking another bottle of merlot as he literally curses the colleagues who made his job unbearable ... As with barstool tales, however, you might be left wondering what it all adds up to. Boehner indulges in lengthy digressions about high school football with Gerry Faust and golf with Jerry Ford. Even the juiciest stories from Congress aren’t particularly surprising, given Boehner’s well-known contempt for Republicans who were more interested in making headlines than making laws ... Trump isn’t a major figure in the book, since Boehner watched his administration from the sidelines after retiring from Congress in 2015. Depending on your appetite for all things Trump, this leaves the book feeling pleasantly retro or frustratingly archaic.
