Looks like the page might be turning on the booming fortunes of political books in the era of Donald Trump.
As you may have noticed, there’s no shortage of Washington drama. But it seems there’s a growing abundance of fatigue over books chronicling it.
Makes some sense. If you’re bombarded in the morning paper with news of DC turmoil. Then on the radio en route to work. Maybe in a lunchtime conversation with co-workers. On the way home again. And the evening talk shows that have become evening argument shows.
How much then would you want to pay $30 to curl up with an entire book of more of the same?
Maybe you remember last year ‘Fire and Fury’ was a best-seller for Michael Wolff for fully half the year. That chronicled alleged details from inside the drama of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and early days in the White House, though many questioned their veracity.
Then, there was ‘A Higher Loyalty’ by professional martyr and document-leaker James Comey, late of the FBI Director’s office, and another Bob Woodward opus called ‘Fear’ that also sold big late in 2018.
This year there’s bupkus like that selling big.
Wolff did a hurry-up, follow-up called ‘Siege’ designed to tap into that Trump loathing and fascination.
So far, Volume 2 hasn’t even crept into this year’s top 20 best-sellers.
The Trump-favorable book ‘Unfreedom of the Press’ by Fox News contributor Mark Levin has sold fairly well at No. 7, pushing more than a quarter-million copies out the bookstore doors through June.
Howard Kurtz of Fox News has ‘Media Madness: Donald Trump, the Press, and the War Over the Truth’ that came out early this year.
Canadian native David Frum, who works for The Atlantic now, has written ‘Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic.’ You can guess its contents.
Same goes for ‘It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America’ by David Cay Johnston.
One that is worth a look is the brand new ‘Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and Future of the Supreme Court’ by Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist and Fox News panel and attorney Carrie Severino.
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