Reviews

Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency, and Trust by James Comey

kathy10705's review against another edition

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informative

4.0

chereadsbooks's review

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3.0

Comey offers contradictory explanations for his actions throughout his career that can, at best, be described as cognitive dissonance in his self-proclaimed desire to uphold (or ‘save’) Justice at every chance. He dismisses working for and defending asbestos manufacturers and railroad companies against workers who became violently ill, but focuses inordinate time on explaining the moral imperative to disclose the exact contents bequeathed by the state to a cooperating convict in a mafia trial, and the moral weight and imperative he felt to disclose in order to ensure full transparency.
He seemingly is able to swallow his qualms after essentially being asked, and agreeing to, demonstrate loyalty to a president he alleges not to respect.
He betrays his evident desire to advance professionally despite claiming to eschew the political considerations required to progress in the hyper-politicized state and federal landscape. Despite claims to the contrary, he demonstrated time and again willfully choosing to take actions beyond the scope and limits of the offices he represented.
As one political staffer so succinctly put it, ‘There is no telling the damage one can do in a republic when you mistake your will to do good with an authority to do what you judge to be right.’

hwimmer's review

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5.0

James Comey is a North Star of truth amongst a political universe of liars and misleaders.

library_dreamer's review against another edition

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fast-paced

2.5

angelam28's review

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2.0

Meh. I get Comey’s ideals but I feel like this book is so out of touch with our new reality. I write this after Trumpist Insurrectionists breached the Capitol forcing a militarized Presidential Inauguration. I don’t think the preachy tone fits the reality of the times. I don’t disagree with his points but I highly doubt this book would change one’s perspective if you didn’t already agree with him. So it gets a meh from me.

nickikendall's review

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informative

3.0

An interesting behind the scenes look into the issues of the US justice system and the fairness/unfairness of it. Told in anecdotes from the author's time as an Assistant US Attorney when he was prosecuting mobsters to his time as an FBI director. ⭐⭐⭐ #jamescomey #savingjustice #truecrime #tea_sipping_bookworm #litsy #goodreads #amazonkindle #storygraph #bookqueen #bookstagram 

bro9ando's review

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3.0

Solid book, but for someone who follows policy closely it may not be all that stimulating. Nothing particularly 'wrong' with it, but it did fall a bit flat for me. I feel like it could easily be compressed into an hour long podcast, or something like that... There just didn't seem to be much meat there. Not much was added to the conversation.

The first 3/4s or so was dedicated largely to his earlier career, and while it was relatively interesting, (prosecuting mafia members, in particular), and somewhat paved the way for the latter stages of the book, it certainly wasn't spell binding; and again, it wasn't exactly ADDING to the conversation in a relevant or meaningful way. The last quarter or so of the book, though, was definitely more interesting. I enjoyed hearing his perspective on the Trump presidency, as well as his thoughts on where the DOJ could/should head from here.

I almost wish he'd waited a bit longer to release this book and spent a little more time on the current state of affairs, but I digress.

regina_confettibookshelf's review

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3.0

I wolfed down James Comey’s A Higher Loyalty like it was a bag of potato chips after two weeks on a juice cleanse. Couldn’t get enough of it and immediately wanted more once I’d finished.

So Comey’s like, here, have another bag! Shoves Saving Justice into my hands.

And I say, heck yes gimme it!

But you know what happens when you get too much of a good thing.

Sad to say I think that’s what Saving Justice is. Even though I thought I wanted it, I didn’t need it. The two books are so similar that I had trouble discerning the differences. Sure, in SL he spends more time going into his years investigating and prosecuting the mafia, and those chapters are very interesting. But he also bookends SL with the same Donald Trump stories he covered in AHL. Spoiler alert - he really, really, really dislikes that guy. Oh, and William Barr too.

Ultimately I think the January 12, 2021 publication date of Saving Justice is its downfall. If he had just written his follow up a few months later, he would have been able to include his perspective on Trump’s final days in office - including the pardons of Trump allies and the January 6th storming of the US Capitol. Maybe he’ll write a third book to cover all that. I’m sure I’ll read it if he does, although at this point I’ve already been over served.

dan_om's review

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informative slow-paced

3.0

hillary729's review

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3.0

When A Higher Loyalty came out I was so excited to read it and when I did I really enjoyed that book. I thought it came out at the perfect time. This book on the other hand was kind of similar to the first one but not as good. I just found the stories that he talked about in A Higher Loyalty more interesting. As another reviewer mentioned, if this book came out closer to when AHL was published I think I would have liked it more. The stories that he talks about in this book were interesting but I did find myself dozing off as I listened to the audiobook at some points. I did find this book to be a little disappointing compared to A Higher Loyalty. The stories were a little fragmented and I thought that they didn’t flow together as smoothly as they could have. Overall, this book wasn’t bad but it just didn’t hit the mark.