Fear

Fear is veteran journalist Bob Woodward's 19th book.  It covers the final 4 months of the Trump campaign for the Presidency and the first 14 months of his administration.

Fear opens with a quote from Donald Trump that he made to the author and Robert Costa during an interview on March 31, 2016:

"Real power is - I don't even want to use the word - fear."

The book ends with the resignation of his attorney John Dowd who had been representing him in the Mueller investigation. Dowd had made the conclusion that his client could not testify before Mueller's team because as Dowd said to himself "You're a fucking liar."  Trump was unable to give the same answers to questions Dowd posed to him.  When Trump decided that he would testify in front of Mueller's team, Dowd withdrew as his attorney.

The book goes into great detail describing the events of each month of Trump's Presidency showing the chaos and efforts made by every aide of his to prevent him from harming the nation. Even though there were 2 warring factions in his employ, they seemed to agree basically on those things that were bad for the country. It seemed amazing to me that aides who I have listened to on TV supporting him from the time of his campaign knew that implementing the policies he advocated during the campaign were bad for the country and they tried to dissuade him from implementing them.

Another unusual thing that I noticed was the absence of the Vice President at all of these meetings at the White House.  Pence claims to spend 6 hours a day with Trump but the author's research does not place him near the action in the White House. He is only mentioned at 2 meetings where nothing particularly weird happened.  So, what does Pence do all day?

Fear is an eye opening view of the Trump Administration as well as Trump himself. While most of the juicy parts of the book were already discussed in the media before I could get it at my library, it was still an interesting read.  This obviously was a highly anticipated book as I waited two months on a waiting list at the Chicago Public Library to get it. When I put the book on hold I was number 597 in line!  I have never seen any book hold like this before. This is a new record.

Definately 5 out of 5 stars!  I think Fear will be read for generations to come as an insight to this most unusual period of American history.

Commenting Problems

I just found out that Blogger was not notifying me when a reader posted a comment for review. I had a long list of comments to approve this morning. Hopefully, the changes I made to my settings have remedied the problem. My apologies to all.  

Making a List and Checking it Twice

I am busy this week writing in a notebook all of the books that I might want to read for the challenges that I signed up for.  I have a separate page for each challenge noting how many books I agreed to read but also how many I really expected to read when I signed up for each challenge. I lowballed my sign-ups since I didn't meet my required number of books in 2018. Hopefully, being more organized about my reading plans will help me get more reading done next year.

2019 Christian Reading Challenge

My Top 10 Books From 2018

Below is a list of the best books that I read in 2018.  Note that they may not have been published in 2018 but I read them in 2018.

10.  The Romanov Empress by C. W. Gortner

9.  The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis

8.  Deadly Cure by Lawrence Goldstone

7.  The Painter's Apprentice by Laura Morelli

6.  Story of a Sociopath by Julia Navarro

5.  The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey

4.  Sabrina by Nick Drnaso

3.  Brazen, Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Penelope Bagieu

2.  Berlin by Jason Lutes

1. White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht

2018 Reading Statistics

I read 52 books this year, down from the 81 books that I read last year. I struggled hard with my reading this year and I don't know why.  Perhaps it is due to that unknown reason why I stopped reading entirely from my usual 120 books a year 5+ years ago. I never did figure that one out either.

2019 may be the last year of this blog before I change it to a genre specific blog. Historical fiction seems to be my primary interest so I may go that route.

While I still love graphic novels, I have caught up on the older books. I am now only reading certain authors that I like and they do not produce annual novels like traditional authors do. Mysteries, which had been my favorite genre ever since I began reading, just aren't catching my attention anymore. Part of the reason was that I read political and spy thriller subgenres. These novels are just too much like being on the job for me and I can't bear to read them. My 29 years in a government job has killed my love of these subgenres. I have lived through more on this job than has ever been written in a thriller and, no, I won't be writing about it.  I don't want to die.

On to 2019!

2019 Series Challenge

I have a couple of lengthy series that I need to work on. I am not sure that I will have time for more than one of them. Laura Joh Rowland's series on feudal Japan is a favorite and probably will be the one that I will read next year.  I believe there are 18 books in the series and I have only read 2 of them.  Ms. Rowland is no longer writing this series. She has begun another one set in the Victorian era.

The Sharon Kay Penman medieval fiction series is another option. Again, I have only read 2 of her books but there are many more for me to catch up on.

I have a 3rd option and it is a 6 book graphic novel series called Beardo. I have read the first 2 in the series but since there is only a 3 book minimum for the challenge of any genre this option will work.