i can’t give this just one star since i did learn a little bit. the comparison to trump in the beginning is unnecessary, and at the end he uses anecdotal evidence as proof that everyone loved harding, rather than looking at the whole picture, which, to me, seems like bad history. he’s like “this person said this nice thing about harding, which means that he was amazing and everyone loved him!” also, i am no woodrow wilson fan, but at points this felt more like a polemic against wilson than a praise of harding. he also barely glosses over harding’s affairs, and he doesn’t mention many of harding’s flaws. he acts as though the flaws he discusses are the only reasons anyone could dislike harding, when in fact, there are other factors that can go into one’s dislike of harding. also, he doesn’t recognize that anyone could have different political perspectives. he compliments harding for small government and appointing conservative justices, not mentioning that those could be reasons that others dislike him. 

this is kind of impossible to rate, but im glad that i read it

could have used another pass thru editing, and i would have liked for it to cite some sources, but it was informative and funny and interesting 

the middle third of this was excellent, and the other two were just okay. 

informative, but i think sometimes he let hoover off the hook too much for how he acted during the depression

this had some good information, but i felt like it was too complicated at some points and too simple at other points

even though its a novella, i wanted a tad more character development 

this was fine, but i wish i hadn’t read it because it was just kind of a waste of time for me. the nickname felt unrealistic to me, and i didnt feel much of the emotional connection between the characters. i liked the chemistry in the first chapter, but i didnt really feel like there was any good banter after that. i did like the characters themselves though

lynn painter is wonderful. she brings me such joy. she always manages to write a quirky heroine without making her too annoying. for the first like quarter of this book, i was afraid i wouldnt like charlie, but he turned out to be a sweet angel baby. i wish he outwardly said that he was wrong tho

this is a real testament to how ruby dixon has grown in her craft. the fact that, after writing like 50 books, she still finds creative ways to develop characters and relationships, is very impressive.