Sets a standard for political storytelling with impeccable research and lively writing.
The work of more than 50 Washington Post journalists quilted together to create a meticulously thorough record of Donald Trump’s impeachment.
Sullivan, Jordan, and Luxenberg team up to produce the latest entry in a series of books based on the esteemed newspaper’s unparalleled coverage of Trump and his many misdeeds. In 56 chapters, beginning with “Watch Your Back” in March 2019 and moving through “Never Over” in the first months of 2020, the text includes extensive original reporting and fleshing-out of a foundation of published work and previous interviews, including that of John Bolton. The giant cast of characters is laid out in a four-page “List of Principal Figures,” and the following pieces create 3-dimensional portraits of the major ones. Nancy Pelosi is one of the strongest: We see her struggling with the pros and cons of impeachment, mourning at her friend Cokie Roberts’ funeral, and ripping up Trump’s speech about Rush Limbaugh on national TV. All through the long haul to the unhappy finish, readers can relive the many shocking moments that seem to occur every day—e.g., Donald Trump Jr.’s dismissing career Foreign Service officers as “jokers” or the manipulated video that made it look like Pelosi gave a speech while intoxicated. Regarding “Fat Jerry,” Trump’s sobriquet for Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee: “The two men shared New York accents but not much else. Trump…was born into wealth. Nadler was the son of a New Jersey chicken farmer who had moved the family to New York City after the farm had gone out of business. In politics, Nadler built a career defending the working class with a style that was more scholarly than flashy. Fighting the loud and showy developer from Queens burnished that reputation.” Including 45 pages of footnotes and an exhaustive index, the granular detail of this history makes it a gift to posterity—and to news junkies—but any reader who does not support Trump will find plenty of useful material.</p> Sets a standard for political storytelling with impeccable research and lively writing.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982152-99-4
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A smart, rewarding consideration of football’s popularity—and eventual downfall.
A wide-ranging writer on his football fixation.
Is our biggest spectator sport “a practical means for understanding American life”? Klosterman thinks so, backing it up with funny, thought-provoking essays about TV coverage, ethical quandaries, and the rules themselves. Yet those who believe it’s a brutal relic of a less enlightened era need only wait, “because football is doomed.” Marshalling his customary blend of learned and low-culture references—Noam Chomsky, meet AC/DC—Klosterman offers an “expository obituary” of a game whose current “monocultural grip” will baffle future generations. He forecasts that economic and social forces—the NFL’s “cultivation of revenue,” changes in advertising, et al.—will end its cultural centrality. It’s hard to imagine a time when “football stops and no one cares,” but Klosterman cites an instructive precedent. Horse racing was broadly popular a century ago, when horses were more common in daily life. But that’s no longer true, and fandom has plummeted. With youth participation on a similar trajectory, Klosterman foresees a time when fewer people have a personal connection to football, rendering it a “niche” pursuit. Until then, the sport gives us much to consider, with Klosterman as our well-informed guide. Basketball is more “elegant,” but “football is the best television product ever,” its breaks between plays—“the intensity and the nothingness,” à la Sartre—provide thrills and space for reflection or conversation. For its part, the increasing “intellectual density” of the game, particularly for quarterbacks, mirrors a broader culture marked by an “ongoing escalation of corporate and technological control.” Klosterman also has compelling, counterintuitive takes on football gambling, GOAT debates, and how one major college football coach reminds him of “Laura Ingalls Wilder’s much‑loved Little House novels.” A beloved sport’s eventual death spiral has seldom been so entertaining.
A smart, rewarding consideration of football’s popularity—and eventual downfall.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9780593490648
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
