“For a longtime spook, Hayden is a breezy and direct writer. He reduces complex issues of cyber and information warfare to essentials, and his polemic is leavened with humor and sympathy. He is at his best, though, when he shifts to a purely analytical tone. He coolly forecasts the direction of America under Trump, explains the intelligence that foreign governments are likely to collect from the president’s Twitter feed and describes the benefits Russia drew from the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Kremlin-connected Russian attorneys and senior Trump campaign officials.”
Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling by Amy Chozick
“Chozick’s own funny, wicked and wacky side is on full display, with well-drawn sketches of everyone from fresh-faced campaign interns to the candidates themselves. With her lively voice and eye for detail, Chasing Hillary is an enjoyable read, like The Devil Wears Prada meets The Boys on the Bus.”
The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations by John McCain and Mark Salter
“Senator Lindsey Graham once described his friend John McCain as someone who would ‘run across the street to get in a good fight.’ McCain’s final battle came straight to him. I’m not talking about the one against brain cancer…I’m talking about the one against Donald Trump. He wages it in a forthcoming book, The Restless Wave...McCain has always believed, to his core, in sacrifice, honor and allegiance to something larger than oneself…Such grace is unimaginable from Trump. That’s why it’s so vital that McCain is using his waning time to model it.”
“Appalled by the ascendancy of Donald J. Trump, and shaken by the deadly white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville in 2017, Meacham returns to other moments in our history when fear and division seemed rampant. He wants to remind us that the current political turmoil is not unprecedented, that as a nation we have survived times worse than this. . . . Meacham tries to summon the better angels by looking back at when America truly has been great. He is effective as ever at writing history for a broad readership. . . . [Meacham] is an adroit and appealing storyteller.”
“Forceful. … It is curious how many Reaganesque themes find a contemporary echo… [and] it is worth recalling both Reagan’s celebration of freedom and his understanding of democracy.”
War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow
“Farrow draws on both government experience and fresh reporting to offer a lament for the plight of America’s diplomats―and an argument for why it matters. ‘Classic, old-school diplomacy,’ he observes, is ‘frustrating’ and involves ‘a lot of jet lag.’ Yet his wry voice and storytelling take work that is often grueling and dull and make it seem…vividly human.”
The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House by Ben Rhodes
“Ben Rhodes, who served Barack Obama as a foreign policy adviser and speechwriter from beginning to end, has written a book that reflects the president he served—intelligent, amiable, compelling and principled. And there is something more: The World as It Is is a classic coming-of-age story, about the journey from idealism to realism, told with candor and immediacy. It is not a heavy policy book. There are anecdotes galore, but they illuminate rather than scandalize. Even Donald Trump—a politician who seems the omega to Obama’s alpha—is treated with horrified amazement rather than vitriol. . . . Ben Rhodes is a charming and humble guide through an unprecedented presidency. . . . He never quite loses his idealism; in a crass political era, he impressively avoids becoming a cynic. . . . His achievement is rare for a political memoir: He has written a humane and honorable book.”
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