I love reading about politics and this is a great insight into the US election from a well
Respected journalist who was there at a interesting political time

Jon Sopel has been the BBC’s North America Editor since 2014. In this partly memoir-partly reportage book, he recounts the day to day journey of reporting the 2020 United States presidential election. The story begins in mid-2019 when it was still uncertain who will be chosen as the nominee for Democratic Party up until the moment Joe Biden was announced as the president-elect on the 7th of November. You will need to appreciate the details and some witty comments that Jon Sopel injected in this book with regards to Biden’s and Trump’s personalities. But in the end, Mr Sopel says ‘election defeat to Trump was what kryptonite was to Superman.’

There is a reason why the 2020 election gives a different flavour and tension compared to the previous ones. We have the Covid-19 pandemic, which was declared a national emergency in the US in March 2020. Mr Sopel is not shy to provide us with personal remarks about how the pandemic is affecting his globalised family, leaving him estranged from his wife and daughter who live in the UK and his son and daughter-in-law in Australia, whereas he was expected to return to the US to cover the election for the BBC. But it is through this mixture of personal experience that he could build sympathy with ordinary people affected by the pandemic, in contrast with the handling of the pandemic by the Trump administration that brought many casualties with death tolls comparable to the whole US military casualties in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq combined.

Mr Sopel’s analysis is top-notch. And no, this is not a heavy-to-digest political textbook. The language used by Mr Sopel corresponds to what a diary should look like, but still providing in-depth analysis about Trump’s blunders that led to his eventual demise, why Biden won despite the fact that he was labelled ‘sleepy Joe’ not by few, and the turn of tides of the election that bring more favourable outcomes to the Dems in November. I noticed that there are two important factors that led to Trump’s defeat as Mr Sopel points out in this book. The first is the coronavirus which the White House mishandled, with Trump’s recommendation often in conflict with what his chief health advisor recommended, such as the recommendation to wear a face mask which he vetoed and his decision to hold election rallies with little respect to social distancing protocols. Second, as an incumbent, Trump could no longer blame other politicians or authorities for the fiascos that have happened during the three-and-a-half years of his administration. The logic of Trump’s campaign could no longer hold up his position with a narrative as louse as ‘choose Trump to save America from Trump’s America’.

Overall, UnPresidented is a thought-provoking book, although I don’t know how the tension during the 2020 election will be remembered in the next few decades in history, about two old guys over their seventies fought for the presidency of the US during the time when coronavirus has been claiming a large number of lives with the elderly as its main target. But I’d have to agree that ‘2020 hasn’t been a normal election. 2020 hasn’t been a normal year’.

A informative read told in the form of the authors personal diaries as he reports on the election.The author shares with us his view of this in someways shocking election.Jon solely has sharp at times humorous point of view.I enjoyed following his intimate day to day reporting,#netgalley#eburypublishing

I absolutely loved this book. It is very informative and yet brings a personal look at the whole of the lead up to the elections in 2020. Jon Sopel writes in an easy and yet very authoritative way that helps us 'Brits' understand the complexities of Washington D.C and the White House. I am going to read more of his work as it is so entertaining and readable.

In UnPresidented: Politics, pandemics and the race that Trumped all others, BBC North America Editor Jon Sopel presents a diary of an election like we've never quite seen before.

A brilliant and fascinating (and shocking!) look at the events of the past year of American politics and the election. Despite this book describing events over in America, I was hooked into all that unfolded

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

A real insight into what it was like to follow Trump as a journalist. Jon Sopel has a dry sense of humour and his diary is a collection of his ponderings as he follows the election and the presidency of Trump. The style is very conversational and there is real emotion behind some of the diary entries. The absolute madness of some of the speeches Trump makes and the decisions taken on Black Lives Matter, covid and general running of the country is clearly portrayed by someone who was living through it all. The book ends with Biden’s inauguration and gives a brief glimpse into the future that we are all now living in.

I really enjoyed Jon Sopel's book about the run-up to the 2020 US Presidential election. It was written in a diary format and took the reader through the, often bizarre, twists and turns of the election campaign, with the extra curve-ball of a pandemic thrown in. It was good to be reminded of many of the events and although I followed the US election pretty closely there were still things that were new to me.

As a journalist, Sopel would be used to quickly interpreting and putting perspective on events, sometimes as they are actually unfolding. So, given the diary format of the book, I would be interested to know how much of the book was based on the contemporary account and how much of it was finessed with the benefit of hindsight. But that doesn't detract from the book itself.

This is the second of Sopel's books that I've read - the other being A Year at the Circus. The previous book, also about Trump's time in office, was in part based around various themes and was also a really fascinating read. I hope there is more to come from Jon Sopel.

Just posted a review on Amazon. It's not released yet.
I admire Jon Sopel's TV journalism and was delighted to be offered a review copy of this book. It is essentially a diary from 2020-2021 with a post script on Jan 6th. It was written without hindsight and this gives it a special sharpness. It does not claim to be a work of research but a record of what it was like to be a BBC journalist facing Trump's regular scorn at press conferences.
It was a delight to read and offers sharper critical views on Trump than JS than he was able to give on BBC TV.
Because of COVID and Trump's attitude to the BBC, it is written at a slight distance.
I enjoyed reading lot very much but with some reluctance I could not give more than 4 stars,: there are so many books on the Trump era and if you have a limited time to read, this may not be the first choice.

It was an election liķe no other.
The same, of course, has been said of most recent US elections ‐ the 2000 Bush/Gore disputed result, Obama's historic 2008 win, the 2016 Trump upset.
But as veteran British correspondent, Jon Sopel's diaries remind us, the 2020 campaign really was, again, an election like no other. This is partly because of the unprecedented circumstances: the combination of a global pandemic, the resulting economic crisis and the George Floyd riots made it seem like a replay of 1919, 1929 and 1968 all at once.
It was also because of the uniquely eccentric personality of President Donald Trump. With the ultimately victorious Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden maintaining a low profile, the transparent and belligerent Trump largely lost the election by himself, suggesting at one point that the public inject themselves with bleach, deliberately and dishonestly playing down the extent of the pandemic and shamelessly and recklessly spreading it amongst the populace during his campaign.
Sopel's compelling diaries now contain a new introduction on the violent aftermath of the election result and Trump's second impeachment.