Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents

An interesting book, although I found it a little more interesting from FDR on because they're presidents who I am familiar with ---

I really enjoyed this book. it was slow at first but got better in time

Overall... It was enjoyable! He does give Obama, Clinton, and Carter more praise than deserved. He Raped the Bushes... And was even overly negative regarding the Reagan success saying he was abhorred by many?!?!

Enjoyed the read ,found to be humorous. Would like to read more on President Harding and his scandals in Ohio , with Harding 's cabin.aa

This is an incredible book. The content is very funny and engaging. Also, Robin Bloodworth has the perfect voice for narrating this book. If you have any interest in the U.S. Presidents and are not a prude, then you need to buy this book!

I love hearing about the good and the bad of significant characters in history. This book was right up my alley! I'd say more, but just do yourself a favor and read it...

Definitely amusing. Hopefully folks will catch on that several “stories” are embellished and pure fiction.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Save your time and go to Wikipedia

Has Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents turned you off from other books in this genre?

No I love history

Would you listen to another book narrated by Robin Bloodworth?

Never again

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents?

All this is common knowledge

Any additional comments?

No

Very little of the book was information I haven't read before. Google was definitely this author's friend. I'd have given it one more star for effort, but the tone was so over the top snarky for every Republican President. Not an objective study at all.

The author, O'Brien, did not make himself master of his material. Every piece of trivia recounted could be found in a quick web search, and many even more interesting things were left out.

O'Brien made the novice historian's error of presuming to speak for what his subjects wanted or thought without showing evidence that this was the motive behind the policy in question (and obviously ignoring direct evidence from the Presidents' own speeches writings and diaries that contradicts his psychoanalysis. This is compounded by an easy partisanship; partisanship is easier to forgive in a historian who recognizes her/his own biases, but O'Brien has no such sense of self, writing over and over things like "everybody agrees that . . ." or "we can all be thankful that . . ." about issues faced in the past over which reasonable people still differ today.

A good prose style can make up for sloppy history, as in Chesterton's thoroughly enjoyable if unreliable history of England. Sadly O'Brien's prose is lackluster; neither engaging, enraging, or melodious, but in the form of simple un-lyrical statements and lists.

I wanted to like the book, but I simply could not find a purchase from which I could hang any praise for it.