BOOK REVIEW: A terrible book …

I’ve always had an interest in politics, so when I had the opportunity to review the new book, “The First Family Detail,” by Ronald Kessler (published by Crown Forum), I took it.

And I’m regretting it.

This book is a terrible waste of time!

In fact, I thought the book was so bad that I stopped reading it halfway through, something I never do when reviewing a book. Usually, no matter how “bad” a book may be, if I’m reviewing it, then I read it cover-to-cover.

I just couldn’t do that with this book.

Let me give you just two reasons why I think this book is so bad.

First, it’s a very poorly done, cheap “gotcha” book. This book is about the Secret Service detail that is assigned to protect the President of the United States, the Vice President, their families, and other select persons. It is clear the writer was straining to find something salacious, inflammatory, and unflattering about as many of the presidents or others protected by the Secret Service that he possibly could. He did occasionally point out people, like Ronald Reagan, who treated the agents with respect and kindness, but that isn’t the obvious primary purpose of this writer.

This book reads like a cheap, sleazy tabloid, lobbing unflattering quotes from disgruntled agents about their protectees. That leads to the second reason why this book is so bad, which is the quality of writing itself is poor. The writing is often choppy and I found it to be needlessly repetitious and poorly edited. The back cover of the book claims Kessler has won 18 “journalism awards” — I can’t imagine a single one of them was for quality of writing or integrity of purpose.

I found no redeeming value in a poorly written book focused on publicly slandering people for their sometimes terrible behavior, and attempting to accomplish nothing more than that. This book wasn’t worth finishing reading, and I’m glad I didn’t pay for the book, it’s not worth my money, and it isn’t worth any of you, my readers, wasting your money on it, either.

Scotty

I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”