rick2's review against another edition
4.0
An examination of Supreme Court Justice Bret Kavanaugh’s prep school and Yale experiences as pieced together by two investigative journalists. I was amazed at how awfully the women who came forward were treated.
The authors closing thoughts I think summarize my thoughts on the book very well “Ford and Ramirez appear to have been mistreated by Kavanaugh as a teenager, but in the 35 since then he’s become a better person” And while the book does a great job of presenting the multiple sides of the Ford and Ramirez allegations, if there is a negative to this book, it’s that it doesn’t look or show how Kavanaugh has been since.
The authors closing thoughts I think summarize my thoughts on the book very well “Ford and Ramirez appear to have been mistreated by Kavanaugh as a teenager, but in the 35 since then he’s become a better person” And while the book does a great job of presenting the multiple sides of the Ford and Ramirez allegations, if there is a negative to this book, it’s that it doesn’t look or show how Kavanaugh has been since.
hnagle15's review against another edition
3.0
What I liked:
-the research that went into writing this books
-found it to be very informative
-great audiobook narration!
What I didn't like:
-I blame it on myself that I thought I would hear more about Dr Ford given that this book has BK's name in the title. I was disappointed with the lack of voice from his victims.
-UGHHH I have such complicated feelings about this book!! At points I felt like it was trying so hard to make you have sympathy with BK because "he only ever made this one mistake" but like that's not good enough! I am not a BK sympathizer, I believe Dr Ford. The authors state that they will not draw any conclusions for the reader, but will just provide information. Despite this statement, I felt like they leaned very heavily on the side of BK and I found that really hard to get through in parts. I felt like I was supposed to feel badly for his wife and kids, (and I do in that I really don't think anyone deserves to receive death threats or anything, that's just low and disgusting) but as a whole I really don't feel badly for BK and his family because they sided with him and refused to hold him accountable for his actions. I don't care if you're 18 when it happened or 42, if it happened, it happened and sexual assault is sexual assault .
Overall it's very informative and well written but I struggled with the fact that it seemed to lean towards his innocence, whether this was intentional or not.
-the research that went into writing this books
-found it to be very informative
-great audiobook narration!
What I didn't like:
-I blame it on myself that I thought I would hear more about Dr Ford given that this book has BK's name in the title. I was disappointed with the lack of voice from his victims.
-UGHHH I have such complicated feelings about this book!! At points I felt like it was trying so hard to make you have sympathy with BK because "he only ever made this one mistake" but like that's not good enough! I am not a BK sympathizer, I believe Dr Ford. The authors state that they will not draw any conclusions for the reader, but will just provide information. Despite this statement, I felt like they leaned very heavily on the side of BK and I found that really hard to get through in parts. I felt like I was supposed to feel badly for his wife and kids, (and I do in that I really don't think anyone deserves to receive death threats or anything, that's just low and disgusting) but as a whole I really don't feel badly for BK and his family because they sided with him and refused to hold him accountable for his actions. I don't care if you're 18 when it happened or 42, if it happened, it happened and sexual assault is sexual assault .
Overall it's very informative and well written but I struggled with the fact that it seemed to lean towards his innocence, whether this was intentional or not.
finnwittrocky's review against another edition
4.0
pretty unbiased and not politically motivated. worth reading if you'd like more information about the accusations and the process that got him confirmed, but it doesn't come down strong on much.
macykey's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
This book was very fair to all major parties and left you to make your own decision. It was quick, concise, and written in a way that made it easy to remember key players.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Violence, Rape, and Sexual content
maryreadstoomuch's review against another edition
3.0
As other reviewers have mentioned, this is a well-written book that doesn't add much new information to this topic.
stephtheartist's review against another edition
3.0
Just an FYI: my review is about the book itself and not the facts or the outcome of the hearings.
With that said, it's a solid 4-stars for me. Not necessarily because I sided with it politically, because I think the book did a decent job in being an actual reportage piece into Kavanaugh's earlier life in the context of this whole dumpster-fire situation. Neutral language was used more often than not, and the book itself doesn't bring the reader to any specific conclusion. The epilogue shares the opinion of the writers; it doesn't tell the reader what they should believe, but why Robin and Kate believe what they do. Overall, I think their writing and the structure of the book in general felt very natural.
With that said, it's a solid 4-stars for me. Not necessarily because I sided with it politically, because I think the book did a decent job in being an actual reportage piece into Kavanaugh's earlier life in the context of this whole dumpster-fire situation. Neutral language was used more often than not, and the book itself doesn't bring the reader to any specific conclusion. The epilogue shares the opinion of the writers; it doesn't tell the reader what they should believe, but why Robin and Kate believe what they do. Overall, I think their writing and the structure of the book in general felt very natural.
loribeth1961's review against another edition
4.0
I started reading "The Education of Brett Kavanaugh"a year to the day after Christine Blasey Ford gave her riveting testimony to the U.S. Senate Judicial Committee, claiming that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanagh had assaulted her when they were both teenagers in the early 1980s.
New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin & Kate Kelly broke some important stories during the confirmation process. In this book, they go over what happened, how Ford decided to come forward and how she wound up testifying in Washington. They also bring new information to light, including witness accounts that were never pursued by the FBI, and testimony from others who have not spoken publicly until now.
I thought this book was well written, and a pretty thorough and fair/even-handed account, presenting information to support and challenge both Kavanaugh's & Ford's stories. In the final chapter, the reporters weigh in with their own thoughts about what happened.
Four stars.
New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin & Kate Kelly broke some important stories during the confirmation process. In this book, they go over what happened, how Ford decided to come forward and how she wound up testifying in Washington. They also bring new information to light, including witness accounts that were never pursued by the FBI, and testimony from others who have not spoken publicly until now.
I thought this book was well written, and a pretty thorough and fair/even-handed account, presenting information to support and challenge both Kavanaugh's & Ford's stories. In the final chapter, the reporters weigh in with their own thoughts about what happened.
Four stars.
sophronisba's review against another edition
4.0
Thoughtful tick-tock of the Kavanaugh nomination battle. Perhaps a bit too kind to Kavanaugh but in general I thought this was really valuable. I admit that -- although I would never have voted to confirm Kavanaugh for a whole host of reasons, and although I admire Christine Blasey Ford's courage a great deal -- I struggle with how accountable someone should be held for an act he committed at seventeen. (I personally oppose juveniles being sentenced as adults in any circumstance.) The problem with Kavanaugh is that because he has never been held accountable for anything, in any significant way, he has spent his life lying his way out of things, culminating in an astonishing, absurd set of lies to Congress that no parent would put up with from their own seventeen-year-olds. (Come on, we all know what a Devil's Triangle is. It's not a drinking game.)
So I will bring this back to book -- I got off track there for a minute -- by arguing that although the authors are right to attempt to view the whole debacle with clear and unbiased eyes, I felt that they did not weight heavily enough the issues of judicial temperament that arise when a man being confirmed to the Supreme Court weeps over decades-old calendars and tries to convince the Senate that boofing is a term for flatulence.
Still, I recommend the book, although I probably would have appreciated it more if I had given myself more time to calm down, as evidenced by this "review."
So I will bring this back to book -- I got off track there for a minute -- by arguing that although the authors are right to attempt to view the whole debacle with clear and unbiased eyes, I felt that they did not weight heavily enough the issues of judicial temperament that arise when a man being confirmed to the Supreme Court weeps over decades-old calendars and tries to convince the Senate that boofing is a term for flatulence.
Still, I recommend the book, although I probably would have appreciated it more if I had given myself more time to calm down, as evidenced by this "review."
emmajaneb's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars - this book gave good context to the Kavanaugh hearings but I didn't find it quite as compelling as SHE SAID, which I read directly before this.