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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
dark
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
informative
funny
informative
fast-paced
A comical (yet still infuriating) look at the modern Republican Party and how we treat intelligence or the lack thereof. Interesting and almost too quick.
I think the end of this book turned it around for me a lot. I thought bits of it funny but found myself getting a tad annoyed with the excessive jokes around politicians’ gaffes. The most interesting ones ended up being Bush and Trump as they were better analysis of deeply problematic policy and not just Quayle’s inability to spell potato. That said, it is a comedy book and I think Borowitz does share a motivating sentiment in the last chapter.
informative
slow-paced
funny
reflective
slow-paced
This read like a sarcastic Facebook diatribe. I was hoping for a calmer, more reasoned approach to a very real and very serious issue, but the valid criticisms and documented gaffes were mixed with jabs on personal appearance and confused attempts at "gotcha" questioning.
The excellent premise of the three stages of ignorance: Ridicule, Acceptance, and Celebration, was well supported and thought provoking. I appreciated the start with Ronald Reagan, and all the behind the scenes quotes from staffers and PR personnel for the major players here. I am personally impacted by the types of people who can't read or reason their way through a simple email, so I'm perfectly posed to judge these politicians who are supposed to be leading the country and can't even read a cue card.
I think the author is used to a sort of shock value of being sarcastic and mocking, and uses the technique to be relatable and help the book to be not as dry as it could have been. I, however, would have appreciated a more standard historical approach.
The excellent premise of the three stages of ignorance: Ridicule, Acceptance, and Celebration, was well supported and thought provoking. I appreciated the start with Ronald Reagan, and all the behind the scenes quotes from staffers and PR personnel for the major players here. I am personally impacted by the types of people who can't read or reason their way through a simple email, so I'm perfectly posed to judge these politicians who are supposed to be leading the country and can't even read a cue card.
I think the author is used to a sort of shock value of being sarcastic and mocking, and uses the technique to be relatable and help the book to be not as dry as it could have been. I, however, would have appreciated a more standard historical approach.
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
When I first started this book, I was a bit skeptical because it really focused mainly on one politically party. Too much in contemporary media, focusing on one party is typically filled with biases that take away from the true messages trying to be conveyed. Although the author doesn’t hide his political leanings, I don’t think this takes away from the book. The points he makes are made from cited publications and I think he does an exceptional job using these as evidence for the points he argues, while refraining from introducing personal/political biases. Reading this book was refreshing as it was a source of information that acknowledges what we see day in and day out without the inflammatory rhetoric that often makes topics so polarizing. After reading it, I definitely want to dive more into some of the work he references regarding how to repair some of the damage caused politically over that last half century.