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A Very Stable Genius cover art

A Very Stable Genius

Written by: Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig
Narrated by: Hillary Huber, Carol Leonnig, Philip Rucker
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Publisher's Summary

The instant number-one best seller.

“This taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s shambolic tenure in office to date." (Dwight Garner, The New York Times)

Washington Post national investigative reporter Carol Leonnig and White House bureau chief Philip Rucker, both Pulitzer Prize winners, provide the definitive insider narrative of Donald Trump’s presidency

“I alone can fix it.” So proclaimed Donald J. Trump on July 21, 2016, accepting the Republican presidential nomination and promising to restore what he described as a fallen nation. Yet as he undertook the actual work of the commander in chief, it became nearly impossible to see beyond the daily chaos of scandal, investigation, and constant bluster. In fact, there were patterns to his behavior and that of his associates. The universal value of the Trump administration was loyalty - not to the country but to the president himself - and Trump’s north star was always the perpetuation of his own power.

With deep and unmatched sources throughout Washington, DC, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker reveal the 45th president up close. Here, for the first time, certain officials who felt honor-bound not to divulge what they witnessed in positions of trust tell the truth for the benefit of history.

A peerless and gripping narrative, A Very Stable Genius not only reveals President Trump at his most unvarnished but shows how he tested the strength of America’s democracy and its common heart as a nation.

©2020 Philip Rucker, Carol Leonnig (P)2020 Penguin Audio

What the critics say

"[Rucker and Leonnig] are meticulous journalists, and this taut and terrifying book is among the most closely observed accounts of Donald J. Trump’s shambolic tenure in office to date.... Their newspaper’s ominous, love-it-or-hate-it motto is ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness.’ A Very Stable Genius flicks the lights on from its first pages." (Dwight Garner, New York Times)

"Richly sourced and highly readable... It is not just another Trump tell-all or third-party confessional. It is unsettling, not salacious." (Lloyd Green, The Guardian)

"Imagine, for a moment, a high-octane courtroom prosecutor summing up for the jury a case built on the vivid testimony of multiple eye-witnesses.... You could scarcely ask for more capable advocates. Leonnig won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the U.S. Secret Service in 2015, then joined Rucker and others on a team awarded the Pulitzer for stories on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Their new, collaborative account...walks readers step by step through the first 30 months or so of a presidency like no other. They leave little doubt that they and many of their sources regard that presidency as an unmitigated and deepening disaster - a threat to American government as we have known it. Whatever may happen to that impeachment effort in the weeks and months ahead, it creates a moment of intermission in the Trump saga and a chance to consider how the landscape has already been altered by this president. A Very Stable Genius offers a harrowing companion narrative to be read during intermission." (Ron Elving, NPR)

What listeners say about A Very Stable Genius

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    4 out of 5 stars

Good reporting. Too bad about the narrator.

I was looking forward to Rucker and Leonnig's take on the Trump gong show, but whatever flow their writing might have on paper is lost in this stilted, robotic narration by Hillary Huber. Her delivery is choppy and abrupt, and rather than enhancing the authors' work, it creates a frustrating barrier to it. I haven't finished listening yet, but I may just bail on it and pick up the paper copy. Too bad.

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9 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Computer-generated voice narrator

Well researched and well written. There are details included in this work that are not present in other similar books. The narration is horrible. The voice is stilted and the tone artificial. I’m not sure I can get through it because of this and may have to return it.

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7 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Wish I would have not bought this book!

The narrator is so bad it’s painful to listen to at times ! It can be the best book in the world but if the narrator is bad It runes the audible book! Think I will send this one back and get the WWII Book, narrated by the best narrator in the business Mr. Grover Gardner!

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

An arch around Trumps whittling down of America’s public institutions

It is concerning to see how easy it is for one person with little insight being able to wreak havoc on democracy with help from outside interests and the sheer cowardice of elected officials to hold him to account. The reader was not a good choice. Suggest having it redone with a more natural speaker. She sound like SIRI at times.

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6 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Just awful narration by Hillary Huber

Fairly good but nothing new, heard it all before. The narration actually made me want to stop listening. This has only happened a couple of times before with Audible but this was the worst yet. Thought at first it was a machine. Dreadful.

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5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The narrator sounds like a computer generated voice...

How weird is that?

The book itself is great (I’m very fond of these journalists’s writing). I got it to have company in the car. But I have to say that I’m thinking of tossing it for the printed version. It’s hard to tell but I think that Hillary Huber is the reader. OMG, at first I thought that the narration was computer generated. Now, I fully realise that they didn’t want someone who would read it in an over-the-top way but this has gone way to far in the other direction. Carol and Philip’s bit was fine; I can only wish that they had done the whole thing.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great Review/Fact Checked

Shows us what we already knew but in a detailed version. The man is evil.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Hard to take

Had to put it aside for long stretches because it just left me feeling angry, hopeless and seriously shook up any belief in a ‘just world’.

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1 person found this helpful

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A must read!

A great chronology of the Trump Presidentcy. Puts the events of the last four years into order. Excellent work!

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Clearly Biased

For the love of God, you can hear their disdain for Donald Trump in their voices. I don't see how anyone can see this as unbiased. Are you sure you don't work for Chicken Noodle News?

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