The previous two books I read were decent enough, but Angler is one that I can recommend heartily. All about the Cheney Vice-Presidency, it paints a picture of Dick Cheney as the evil genius: smart enough after decades in Washington to know how to use the levers of power to get what he wants, and then getting all sorts of things that ended up being not so great for the country. What was most interesting about the book was hearing about all the people who tried to stand up to Cheney and got steamrolled. There were apparently people in the Bush administration who stood up to Cheney on principles they didn’t think should be violated, something that was definitely not reported on at the time (mainly because these people unsurprisingly wanted to be team players: tell-all books can come after the election is over with). In the end, nobody comes out looking terribly great, but at the same time, the picture of Cheney as “puppet master” is also found to be untrue.
I’m the kind of person who read books in college about presidential campaigns for fun, so perhaps not everybody will share my interest in the book. But if you are fascinated by Cheney (and it’s hard not to be, given his career and how he became the most powerful Vice President in U.S. history), this book is going to tell you in inside story, and it’s going to hold your attention for all 400 pages. It’s no Harry Potter, but for a book about politics, there’s enough intrigue to make you want to keep on reading.