What Happened

[bex]

I know a few of us were reading this - ufcasey , MrsAxilla, anyone else?

I finished it last week and wanted to discuss. I keep trying to discuss with people IRL but not that many people I know have actually read it.

[snshne322]

I keep putting it off. It's sitting on my bookshelf, but I keep finding something else to read. I think I'm still too angry.

[ufcasey]

Yes! I've been meaning to make a post for this, so I'm glad you beat me to it.

Random thoughts:

• So, um, how much do you hate James Comey now? Because I hate his stupid face LOL
• I think her commentary about Bernie Sanders was especially right on. The free ponies thing made me laugh and get angry:

[/i]
[li]She mentioned one my favorite speeches I have ever read, This is Water by David Foster Wallace - I highly encourage people to go read that, it's short but VERY poignant (you can find it online). This is the part she mentioned in case you missed it: "There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says 'Morning, boys. How's the water?' And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes 'What the hell is water?' " [/li][li]Her commentary about misogyny and sexism - *sigh* not much more I can add to that. Preach on sister
[/li][li]She breaks down the whole email thing, again, and I'm pretty sure she and I both never want to hear her name and the word 'email' in the same sentence ever again. After the revelations lately about Trump's team using personal email I just want to hurt people.
[/li][li]She talks about what she did/how she was feeling the night of the election and the day of the inauguration, which is the kind of personal insight people want to read from her.
[/li][/ul]

[bex]

ufcasey, part of what enraged me about the book was how much more we are learning every day about the Trumps. Like, even this week we know more about their emails and mishandling of their emails than we knew a month ago. So I would read it and think "omg if she had written this a few months later...."

I said this in my GR review - if you loved Hillary and were an ardent supporter of her, this book will probably break your heart. If you were meh on her but voted for her anyway, this book will probably make you actually like her. And if you loathed her and voted for trump - you probably aren't going to read this book, lol.

I did like her stuff about Comey, especially since his firing has kind of redeemed him to many democrats (and honestly, I will forgive a lot more if his firing leads to Trumps impeachment) but were it not for him, we probably wouldn't have Trump as president.

I thought her breakdown of the Russia stuff was REALLY good. It helped me understand the whole mess more than almost anything else. I kind of think that chapter should be required reading before anyone votes in 2020.

The pony analogy was so dead on. And I liked how she admitted her faults there - "I try to look at the details, and be realistic, etc" and in 2016 no one wanted a realistic candidate.

I also liked how she pointed out that yes, she said stupid things, and she made dumb off the cuff comments that hurt her and haunted her, but why weren't trump's stupid comments so damaging??

Overall I found it a lot more cathartic than I thought I would. It was hard to read and made me feel like I was reliving the campaign, but I also got a lot of insight into what went wrong and why. So, I found it a valuable read.

[aurora]

I just finished it this week. I was surprised at how up-to-date it was on the election meddling topic; she must have been editing that chapter until the last minute.

The most interesting part to me was the human element. I mean, knowing that it would hurt to lose an election to our current dumpster fire was one thing; reading her say it was another. I looked the stories about her and Bill, and also about her and her campaign staff.

Mostly I just felt sad that we could have had such a thoughtful leader and we threw away the chance. That, and scared for the future.

[aurora]

Oct 4, 2017 12:29:03 GMT -5 snshne322 said:

I keep putting it off. It's sitting on my bookshelf, but I keep finding something else to read. I think I'm still too angry.

I definitely thought about putting it away several times. It was hard to read.

[aurora]

ufcasey, the pony part was amazing.

[ufcasey]

Oct 5, 2017 8:09:57 GMT -5 aurora said:

I just finished it this week. I was surprised at how up-to-date it was on the election meddling topic; she must have been editing that chapter until the last minute.

Yeah and even now she is probably like "SEE!!! THIS IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!"

*sigh*