Too many books, too little time!

I have never before written an “interim book report” but I found necessary to do so this time.

John Bolton’s book about his time in the Trump White House came out a month and a half ago, and I bought it on the day it came out and I started reading it.

But it’s a long (LONG) book, not the kind of work you can skim fast, so when Mary Trump’s book Too Much and Never Enough came out, I paused, read that, reviewed it here, and went back to The Room Where it Happened.

But now, I picked up Melania and Me – by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (reading now) and Donald Trump v. The United States – by Michael S. Schmidt, and on Tuesday I am looking forward to Disloyal, Michael Cohen’s book. There are too many books to read and review before the election, but I need to fit them all in.

Too many books, too little time!

And that brings me back to John Bolton’s book and this is the actual start of the Interim Book Report. I am “only” 40% into the book, but I found it a much more insightful and convincing book than I would have expected it to be. I will do a final book report, with excerpts and a rating when I finally finish it, but I thought some of my readers would appreciate my thoughts on it before the election.

Trump and his enablers fought hard to stop Bolton’s book from getting published. And I can see why. But my take away is very different from what I expected it to be. I thought it would be a tell-all book, making Trump look bad, written by a disgruntled former staff member. At least that’s what the White House made it out to be. I also have to admit that I never really “knew” John Bolton. I took the word of pundits and critics who called him a hawk. I remember when Bolton first got appointed to be the National Security Advisor, my heart sank, since I thought that what could be worse than an incompetent president enabling a war hawk for the security of our world?

Bolton’s book is not sensational at all. It’s almost dry. If you are into foreign policy and world power politics at the highest level, kind of the Henry Kissinger level, then Bolton’s book should be required reading. Bolton must be keeping exact journals of what he does every day to be able to write that book. He does not disparage others. He observes, and intersperses his observations and opinions. He tells world history of the small slice where he was actively participating as part of the Trump administration, he tells it as it unfolded. Yes, it makes Trump look bad, but not because Bolton says so, but because we observe what Trump says and does in the room where it happened, over and over again. Bolton puts us into the room. We get to be flies on the wall, listening to what goes on, and what comes out of Trump’s mouth is “not pretty.” Make no mistake about it, the book makes Trump look bad, because Trump is making himself look bad, every day, over and over again.

Now a word about Bolton. I have to admit that I actually like Bolton. Knowing now how he thinks, and particularly what he knows, and how vast his experience on the world stage is, yes, the world was in safer condition while he was in the White House. Bolton understand world politics, and knows how to play the international game. He knows how to make and keep America strong, and still “do the right thing.”

I don’t agree with all of Bolton’s opinions and attitudes, but as much as one can ascertain this from reading a man’s book, I like the man. And now I am going to say the most controversial thing in a long time: Biden, once president, would do himself a favor and bring Bolton back right where he was: National Security Advisor.

It would be a brilliant move.