made it about 35% before i decided i don't have the energy for this

Despite the sources for some of the quotes/events feeling like they’d be almost impossible to obtain, based on what we’ve seen in public, I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t accurate.

What a slog to get through this. For as much special access as the author clearly had I would have expected a better book. Did he not have an editor?

As for the subject matter, it just makes me depressed. No need to say more there.

2.5/5

It gets obvious knocks for Michael Wolff’s sources being questionable, which I didn’t know until I started the book. While you have to take everything with heaping tablespoons of salt, I didn’t realize how prevalent the Bannon-Kushner feud was in the White House. It’s only worth reading if it’s lying around the house the way it was for me.

It's not bad, but I prefer Bob Woodward's books "Fear" and "Rage", or "A Very Stable Genius".

This profanity-filled book makes no pretense at being unbiased. It hammers into Trump with a gratifying passion. However, it's hard to tell if the author adopts a Trumpian anti-liberal perspective for effect, or if he really does despise liberals and the mainstream media that much.

The book can be summarized with Sally Yates observation: "It certainly is an odd circumstance if you live your life without regard to being elected and then get elected-and quite an opportunity for your enemies."

It's astounding that often the voice of reason in many of the scenarios appeared to be the delusional Jared & Ivanka - and that says a lot in itself.

"There were many equivocal answers: general sense of innocence and naivete about the Russian charges. But now there seemed to be a new understanding: Donald trump believed he had vastly more power, authority, and control than in fact he had, and he believed his talent for manipulating people and bending and dominating them was vastly greater than it was. Pushing the line of reasoning just a little further: senior staff believed the president had a problem with reality, and reality was now overwhelming him."

"And yet, contravening all cultural and media logic, Donald Trump produced on a daily basis an astonishing, can't-stop-following-it narrative. And this was not even because he was changing or upsetting the fundamentals of American life. In six months as president, failing to master almost any aspect of the bureaucratic process, he had, beyond placing his nominee on the Supreme Court, accomplished, practically speaking, nothing. And yet, OMG!! There was almost no other story in America-and in much of the world. That was the radical and transformational nature of the Trump presidency: it held everybody's attention.

Inside the the White House, the daily brouhaha and the world's fascination was no cause for joy. It was in the White House staff's bitter view, the media that turned every day into a climatic, dastardly moment... At the same time, few in the White House did not assign blame to Trump for this as well. He seemed to lack the most basic understanding that a president's words and actions would, necessarily, be magnified to the nth power. In some convenient sense, he failed to understand this because he wanted the attention, no matter how often it disappointed him. But he also wanted it because again and again the response surprised him-and, as though every time was the first time, he could not modify his behavior."

Well, this could have been the trashiest thing in the world and I still would have enjoyed reading it. I’ve said for years that there is a small group of people in history that wholly deserve to have salacious, gossipy, in-fact checked books written about them (Newt Gingrich, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, Andrew Jackson...) and of course the trump is in this category.

Of course the best part was how he just couldn’t keep his f-Ingrid mouth shut about the book — thereby exponentially increasing sales and demand for the book and lining the author’s pocket. Perhaps this is the best example there is of Jon Meacham’s statement that trump hasn’t been that bad because he’s too stupid to be truly effective.

Wtihout doubt a pleasure to read, with some doubt a factual account.

I don’t doubt the content necessarily, but the book is poorly written.

Hearing the narrator say, “my asshole just got tight” was the highlight of my day. Honestly, it just reminded me how insane it is that this is actually something we’re living through right now. The book was entertaining and accurate, everything I hoped for.

There are a number of things you could say about this book, and given the coverage it's received, no doubt most people who pick it up will already have their conclusions drawn. I went in with very low expectations and held it at arms length, but I was surprised as just how well it was plotted and written. It's a fascinating read that drew me in quickly, and despite the fact that I genuinely dislike most of the people involved, Wolff managed to make me care about the story and the people involved with it. How factual this book is still remains to be seen, but it is certainly an enjoyable one.