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2.99 AVERAGE
2.99 AVERAGE
Well-written and moderately intriguing, but pretty horrifying at the same time. This certainly kept my husband and me interested on a two-day road trip from Santa Cruz, California back home to Seattle.
Emily Jane Fox narrated her own book and did a credible job.
My local library system has a "10 to Try" challenge again in 2019. The idea is to read a book in each of 10 categories during the current year. The category that this book fits into is: Read a book about family.
Emily Jane Fox narrated her own book and did a credible job.
My local library system has a "10 to Try" challenge again in 2019. The idea is to read a book in each of 10 categories during the current year. The category that this book fits into is: Read a book about family.
Interesting read. It was interesting read in that it was a pretty easy read that had a decent storyline but also that once it got to the oldest three Trump children, Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric, that one felt sorry for them in that they never had a parent that was attentive to them. It was also interesting in that you could see the sheen being taken off.
Overall a pretty decent book, with a few editing errors.
Overall a pretty decent book, with a few editing errors.
I honestly don't know why I read this - I guess because the excerpt in a recent Vanity Fair was engaging and interesting? And I think I'd have been fine sticking with that excerpt. There were some interesting anecdotes and insights but ultimately I don't think I care enough to have read the whole book - especially when it came off as a real slapdash effort. I read the Kindle version and I've never come across a published book - in print or digital - so filled with errors. It's hard to believe anyone even gave this a proofreading scan. In a story about the Trump kids having a lemonade stand, the text reads that they used powdered Country Crock - which is margarine - instead of Country Time. There are several sentences which are clearly about Ivanka but say Ivana, and dozens of paragraphs where the pronouns used are so unclear that you're not sure who the anecdote is surprising. Typos abound. The book also just ... ends, abruptly, after the profile of Tiffany, without any kind of wrap-up or perfunctory analysis. I guess technically it ends with an Author's Note wherein the writer says she didn't want to write this book but then decided she did. Meanwhile, I started out interested in the book but then decided I wasn't.
"He’d sat with them for dinner and let them know that if they grew up to be kind and appreciative and unspoiled by all of their spoils, they would be loved not because of their money but despite it”.
Well that didn’t end up happening now did it?! Haha! This book was so juicy, well-researched, but also so easy to read. I finished a lot faster than I anticipated. This book got into the nitty gritty of the Trump family and all their various mishaps throughout the many (30+) years in the spotlight. There were a lot of aspects to the Trump kids growing up that I didn’t know about. For example, I didn’t know that the three oldest kids had not just one workaholic parent in Donald, but two in their mother Ivana who operated the day to day business of the Trump Atlantic City Casino.
I also didn’t know much about Jared Kushner, other than that he came from a Jewish background and that his father was in business for a whole slew of illegal activity. I was ultimately more than a little bit creeped out by the fact that Ivanka’s was so obsessed with the Kennedy dynasty and emulating them, in particular Jackie, that she (allegedly) named her daughter Arabella after Jackie and JFK’s stillborn daughter.
The reason that I wouldn’t give this book a full 5 stars was because there were a bit of formatting issues in my opinion. The biggest and frankly, most arduous chapter to get through was “Chapter 4: Born/Married/Divorced/Married/Divorced/Married/Raised Trump. I felt that each of his marriages could have been divided evenly between each of his now 3 marriages. I know that there was obviously overlap between at least one of his marriages (the first and later second), but it felt a bit long and at times uncohesive. Also, there were more than a few times when certain facts about certain periods of time were repeated randomly in the book. Like for instance when they mentioned that Don Jr. and Eric worked with the carpenters at the Trump estates, which was then mentioned later in the book again for some weird reason. Maybe it was to prove that they did (somewhat) work for what they had.
At times I did feel at little bit bad about them growing up in the glare of the publicity machine, especially when their (the older kids at the least) parents were going through their divorce, but also when both of their live-in nannies and maternal grandfather Dedo died suddenly. How would you deal with the only stable role models in your life just suddenly not being there when you needed them the most? Other than those examples, it really does show, except for maybe Tiffany and Barton Trump, that Donald Trump and his whole ideology about life and work, really did leave a lasting if some would argue, damaging effect on his kids. A lot of examples in the book don’t make them out to look like the greatest of people, although maybe just Eric and Tiffany because they were very young when both of their parents eventually split.
Overall I would recommend this book, if you are either a Trump family supporter or a less than ardent supporter. What I will say to some up the experience of reading this book is that you will learn quite a lot from this book that you thought you already knew.
Well that didn’t end up happening now did it?! Haha! This book was so juicy, well-researched, but also so easy to read. I finished a lot faster than I anticipated. This book got into the nitty gritty of the Trump family and all their various mishaps throughout the many (30+) years in the spotlight. There were a lot of aspects to the Trump kids growing up that I didn’t know about. For example, I didn’t know that the three oldest kids had not just one workaholic parent in Donald, but two in their mother Ivana who operated the day to day business of the Trump Atlantic City Casino.
I also didn’t know much about Jared Kushner, other than that he came from a Jewish background and that his father was in business for a whole slew of illegal activity. I was ultimately more than a little bit creeped out by the fact that Ivanka’s was so obsessed with the Kennedy dynasty and emulating them, in particular Jackie, that she (allegedly) named her daughter Arabella after Jackie and JFK’s stillborn daughter.
The reason that I wouldn’t give this book a full 5 stars was because there were a bit of formatting issues in my opinion. The biggest and frankly, most arduous chapter to get through was “Chapter 4: Born/Married/Divorced/Married/Divorced/Married/Raised Trump. I felt that each of his marriages could have been divided evenly between each of his now 3 marriages. I know that there was obviously overlap between at least one of his marriages (the first and later second), but it felt a bit long and at times uncohesive. Also, there were more than a few times when certain facts about certain periods of time were repeated randomly in the book. Like for instance when they mentioned that Don Jr. and Eric worked with the carpenters at the Trump estates, which was then mentioned later in the book again for some weird reason. Maybe it was to prove that they did (somewhat) work for what they had.
At times I did feel at little bit bad about them growing up in the glare of the publicity machine, especially when their (the older kids at the least) parents were going through their divorce, but also when both of their live-in nannies and maternal grandfather Dedo died suddenly. How would you deal with the only stable role models in your life just suddenly not being there when you needed them the most? Other than those examples, it really does show, except for maybe Tiffany and Barton Trump, that Donald Trump and his whole ideology about life and work, really did leave a lasting if some would argue, damaging effect on his kids. A lot of examples in the book don’t make them out to look like the greatest of people, although maybe just Eric and Tiffany because they were very young when both of their parents eventually split.
Overall I would recommend this book, if you are either a Trump family supporter or a less than ardent supporter. What I will say to some up the experience of reading this book is that you will learn quite a lot from this book that you thought you already knew.
I was hoping this would be kind of a Fire and Fury for the younger Trump set, and in some respects it was, but it was hit and miss, and the writing was sometimes distracting, with run on sentences and oft repeated words. The early part about the campaign was such a slog that I almost gave up, but the portraits of each Trump kid were more interesting.
I do not admire the adult Trump children (well, the jury's still out on Tiffany, but she hasn't done anything to endear her to me), so I listened to this solely for the snark about how clueless and self absorbed each of these ding dongs is. There was plenty of that, but there were also humanizing stories about what their life growing up filthy rich, but with absentee parents was like. I could occasionally sympathize with them, though of course not enough to excuse them supporting their father's current behavior and agenda. (If your parent spends their days bullying people on line, it's time to take the phone away and get them to a doctor, not help them win an election and then try to undo the legacy of the first black president.)
There were some interesting tidbits here (who knew Eric was the smart one?--in any case, I prefer the SNL Weekend Update version of him) and plenty of the eye-roll inducing moments I came for, but I would have liked less breathless detail about their various weddings and more about how people raised the way they were came to happily support their father's socially conservative rhetoric. I mean sure, they are rich and out of touch, but they also grew up as cosmopolitan New Yorkers. I suppose it's just a matter of supporting whatever position is expedient in their quest for power, knowing it won't affect them. Of course, Emily Jane Fox is not likely to have access to get inside their heads like that, but those were the questions I was left with after finishing.
I do not admire the adult Trump children (well, the jury's still out on Tiffany, but she hasn't done anything to endear her to me), so I listened to this solely for the snark about how clueless and self absorbed each of these ding dongs is. There was plenty of that, but there were also humanizing stories about what their life growing up filthy rich, but with absentee parents was like. I could occasionally sympathize with them, though of course not enough to excuse them supporting their father's current behavior and agenda. (If your parent spends their days bullying people on line, it's time to take the phone away and get them to a doctor, not help them win an election and then try to undo the legacy of the first black president.)
There were some interesting tidbits here (who knew Eric was the smart one?--in any case, I prefer the SNL Weekend Update version of him) and plenty of the eye-roll inducing moments I came for, but I would have liked less breathless detail about their various weddings and more about how people raised the way they were came to happily support their father's socially conservative rhetoric. I mean sure, they are rich and out of touch, but they also grew up as cosmopolitan New Yorkers. I suppose it's just a matter of supporting whatever position is expedient in their quest for power, knowing it won't affect them. Of course, Emily Jane Fox is not likely to have access to get inside their heads like that, but those were the questions I was left with after finishing.
content was mediocre, but I can't believe that this book ever passed an editor's desk--so many typos, run-on sentences, repetition, and garbage. unimpressive content, and absolutely terrible writing.