The Fifth Risk

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

Length: 6 hrs

Publisher's Summary

What happens when the President of the United States governs one Tweet at a time? When the elected leader of the free world may not have a firm grasp on the names of government agencies, much less an understanding of their intricate inner-workings? In the days following the 2016 inauguration, government personnel searched for answers that didn’t exist, while White House staff scoured halls for employees who would never be appointed.

Lewis’s insightful work is as much a testament to the unsung heroes who routinely go unnoticed in the unglamorous business of government as it is a criticism of the current administration’s negligence. He finds tireless public servants whose conviction and deep awareness keep schools in session and food programs afloat. Far from anti-government, The Fifth Risk is a powerful ode to those rare people who hold firm in their convictions and, despite all odds and opposition, remember why they got into government in the first place: to benefit society and better mankind. 

Please note: Included with The Fifth Risk is the entirety of The Coming Storm, the Audible Original story of two scientists who revolutionized climate predictions, bringing warning systems to previously unimaginable levels of accuracy. Michael Lewis uncovers the potential cost of putting a price tag on life-saving information.

©2018 Michael Lewis (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Mini-book

I’m a fan of Michael Lewis and his quirky and smart personality comes through as always. The book feels like he merged a couple chapters of one book with a couple chapters of another. The stories of the complete indifference and incompetence of the presidential transition quickly veered into the stories of some amazing people who work for the government. Both sides were interesting enough, however the two halves (of an already thin book) didn’t meld together. A miss for me.

Disappointed

Almost 1/3 of this book was already released on audible as “the coming storm.” I like Michael Lewis and his writing but I feel cheated that I used a credit on it. The main message of the book was already in The Coming Storm.

Awkward and Disappointing

I am a huge Michael Lewis groupie. The undoing project is literally my favorite book. That's why I feel so awkward writing this review as I was deeply disappointed with this book (and with audible as well).
As an audible member I recently got for free the book "The coming storm" by Michael Lewis. An awesome gift I thought. I read it and thought it was quite nice. Then, a few weeks later when The Fifth Risk was out, I was super excited to read that too. Half way through The Fifth Risk I discovered, to my surprise, that The Coming Storm is actually *the 2nd half of The Fifth Risk*. What???
So for the full price of an already short audiobook (5 hours) I got original content of just 2.5 hours. Money and value aside, this is just bizzare story telling! couldn't someone notify me these two books have the same content??
Why would I want to read the book's end before its start?

Other than that, the book is just ok. some truly interesting parts but I didn't feel a strong overarching theme (but maybe this is my fault as I read the 2nd part of the book few weeks before its first part... :/ ). Narrator is great.
If you ever decide to read this book do yourself a favor and don't read "the coming storm" AKA the second half of this book beforehand.

Knowledge makes life messier

"It's the places in our government where the cameras never roll that you have to worry about the most."
- Michael Lewis, The Fifth Risk

I've read several books about President Trump and his administration in the last couple years. They all depress me a bit. I feel like I'm reading some real-time version of Gibbons' 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'. But none of the other Trump books scared me like this one did. Lewis isn't interested in the Fox/MSNBC politics or the Twitter-level anxiety of the Trump administration. He is interested, in this book, in the systematic and bureaucratic failures of the Trump administration and what risks this administration's lack of professionalism (this is beyond politics, thisis about competency of governance) might mean to our country and our people.

Lewis does this using his usual approach (which is a bit similar to John McPhee's new nonfiction approach). He finds interesting people who become narrative heros and guides to an area and ties them together into a compelling story or narrative. The areas Lewis explores? Presidential Transitions (guide: Max Stier); I Department of Energy/Tail Risk (guides: Tarak Shah, John MacWilliams), II USDA/People Risk (guides: Ali Zaidi, Kevin Concannon, Cathie Woteki), III Department of Commerce/All the President's Data (Guides: Kathy Sullivan, DJ Patil, David Friedberg).

This is a short book. It is relevant but still not top-shelf Lewis. I enjoyed it, but just wished it was bit longer and a bit deeper*. It

* I get the irony. This books scared the sh!t out of me. It made me sad. Therefore, I wish it were longer.

Real Disappointment for a Michael Lewis Fan

I cannot fathom why a great writer like MIchael Lewis would agree to such a stupid stunt. I listened to The Coming Storm and really liked it. About half-way through The Fifth Risk, I couldn't believe that I was listening to the The Coming Storm again. I literally started a chat with Audible about having gotten a corrupt file. When they couldn't help me, I went back to the book description and saw the "warning label" about this book being The Coming Storm with a couple of chapters added on the front. I literally thought that The Coming Storm was a book that Lewis decided not to finish, so he gave it to Audible. Now I realize that The Fifth Risk is the book he didn't finish and The Coming Storm was the best part of it.

I'm really disappointed in Audible and in Michael Lewis. Audible should rethink its "Only from Audible" strategy. So far, it is definitely cheapening an otherwise great brand.

all US citizens must read

this book nearly brought me to tears. and I learned so much about our country.

All over the place

I have loved all of Lewis's other books. They had a clear story and a clear point, even if it took several chapters to really find out what it was. The Fifth Risk is really all over the place. We started out with the series of events that led up to Donald Trump getting elected and how poorly he managed the transition. Then we talk about the way some of the government departments were run before he was elected. Then we talk about NOAA and weather data and how the Trump administration revoked public data sets because AccuWeather is greedy. Then we talked about tornadoes in Oklahoma. There was no real story, no climax, and no real point to it all other than the obvious "Trump is bad, and the people he has appointed are either stupid or just not the right people for the jobs to which they were appointed." (that's not a quote from the book, it's just what I took away as the major theme of it all). This is not a political statement at all, as he cites very clear evidence that it's an accurate reality...I just had really hoped there was more to it than that. Pretty disappointed in this one.

Opens Your Eyes to what is going on behind the sce

Really gets behind the scenes of the Trump administration. The details in this book should scare everyone.

Intro Body and Conclusion didn't match

The book started off focusing on President Trump and leads the reader to believe the book was going to focus on blaming Trump on some perceived irresponsibility. As I don't really consider myself a Trump supporter I read on. The main body of the book talked about neglected government projects and programs that provide data and information that the private sector is very unlikely to produce on it's own and the information, technology and new techniques that have been developed because of the work of these projects. It was very insightful and educational as I now do see a need to continue funding to some of these programs but alas, Trump is in office and the Trump supporters reading this book would never have gotten past the introduction. The book then ends with the conclusion that "What you don't know about might just kill you". The intro, body and conclusion all seemed to be for different books, they didn't match or flow together at all. I don't understand why this book is on the top seller's list, it should have just left politics out, perhaps it's on the best seller's list because of the apparent Trump bashing in it adding fuel to the narrative of Trump supporters.

To summarized I really did appreciate the research and the insights provided in this book it was just poorly executed because of it's attempt to be political and the conclusion didn't seem to match the main theme of the book.

Your vote matters

Another great Michael Lewis book which makes it so clear why we need to pay close attention to who we give power to