A Reading Recommendation Round Up: Election Edition
In this divisive world we live in, there are two sides to everything. When it comes to the impending election my husband and I will vote the same, but in the days prior to the actual event of driving to the polls, we’ll reside in two different camps. He is done with the rollercoaster/media storm/online banter. And I get that. It can be… a bit much. I understand that an election can push people towards feelings of negativity, overwhelm, and despair. But I, on the other hand, can’t get enough. Despite already knowing the names next to the bubbles I will fill in with a black marker, I can’t turn away from the commentary, the analysis, the updates and yes… the circus of it all.
We are each firmly rooted in our own space, Camp Escape with my Sanity vs. Camp Can’t Get Enough. What where are you pitching your tent?
No matter which side of this fence you sit on, I believe you’ll find something to enjoy in today’s politically themed book recommendation round up.
** Next to each title I have put ordering links. I would encourage you to choose Bookshop over Amazon, if you are able. Bookshop donates 10% of sales directly to indie bookstores. Or, better yet, head over to Barnes and Noble or reach out to your local bookstore and order there! I know my local stores, Birdy’s Bookstore https://www.birdysbookstore.com/ and Pearl Street Books https://www.facebook.com/PSBooks would be honored to get these titles for you. Remember, how you spend your dollar, just like how you cast your votes, matters. **
KidLit
I put together a book list of titles featuring the presidential election process for kids a couple of weeks ago and shared my selections in this video. In case you missed it, I want to share it again here.
I surpassed my 100 hour watch goal a few weeks ago, and am now moving on to a goal of 500! Can you help me by watching this video? Thanks in advance and don’t forget to subscribe!
We’ve been reading these books at my house on repeat and are especially excited to pull out the color-by-state electoral college map from What is the Presidential Election? next week as we watch the election coverage.
Grace for President - Amazon Bookshop
The Next President - Amazon Bookshop
Kid Presidents - Amazon Bookshop
What is the Presidential Election? - Amazon Bookshop
So You Want to be President? - Amazon Bookshop
MG/YA Titles
The MG/YA titles I want to recommend definitely fall into the Escape Camp, but their settings, plot lines and historical fact/name-dropping give them a solid spot on this list.
The Word Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry
In this hilarious novel, written in the voice of eighth-grader Wyatt Palmer, Dave Barry takes us on a class trip to Washington, DC. Wyatt, his best friend, Matt, and a few kids from Culver Middle School find themselves in a heap of trouble-not just with their teachers, who have long lost patience with them -- but from several mysterious men they first meet on their flight to the nation's capital. In a fast-paced adventure with the monuments as a backdrop, the kids try to stay out of danger and out of the doghouse while trying to save the president from attack-or maybe not.
I read this book aloud to my sixth graders back when I was teaching middle school and can tell you that they were both hooked by the storyline as well as excited when they recognized the famous sites they had visited the year prior during their Washington, D.C. safety patrol field trip.
American Royals
Two princesses vying for the ultimate crown.
Two girls vying for the prince's heart.
This is the story of the American royals.
When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne. Like most royal families, the Washingtons have an heir and a spare. A future monarch and a backup battery. Each child knows exactly what is expected of them. But these aren't just any royals. They're American.
As Princess Beatrice gets closer to becoming America's first queen regnant, the duty she has embraced her entire life suddenly feels stifling. Nobody cares about the spare except when she's breaking the rules, so Princess Samantha doesn't care much about anything, either . . . except the one boy who is distinctly off-limits to her. And then there's Samantha's twin, Prince Jefferson. If he'd been born a generation earlier, he would have stood first in line for the throne, but the new laws of succession make him third. Most of America adores their devastatingly handsome prince . . . but two very different girls are vying to capture his heart. The duty. The intrigue. The Crown. New York Times bestselling author Katharine McGee imagines an alternate version of the modern world, one where the glittering age of monarchies has not yet faded--and where love is still powerful enough to change the course of history.
The alternate history factor of this book SUCKED me in HARDCORE. I was a social studies minor in my undergrad years and loved the tiny twists on historical events, people and places author Katharine McGee snuck into the narrative. I started listening to the sequel to this book a few days ago, and can already attest that Majesty https://bookshop.org/a/11527/9781984830210 will be just as good as the first.
Red, White & Royal Blue
What happens when America's First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales?
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius―his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse. Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic.
This book was not only enjoyable, but really got me thinking. I wrote a full blog post about it and the relevance of reading books in which the characters’ lives differ dramatically from our own. If you missed it, you can read it here.
These are just a few of the titles in this niche of the reading world. There are entire series devoted to teenagers and new adults living political/royal lives. If you have already devoured these books, as I have, hit up Google, Goodreads or Amazon to find similar titles/”also bought” recommendations.
Political Fiction for Grown Ups (that aren’t solely about Politics)
It is not a secret that author Curtis Sittenfeld used the life of Laura Bush to inspire this story. You can read this NPR interview with the author discussing her thought and writing process entwining fact and fiction. As someone who grew up during the Bush Sr. Presidency, it was fun to try and speculate which bit of the story were historical truth and which were purely fiction.
American Wife
On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband’s presidency, Alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House–and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, “almost in opposition to itself.”
A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice learned the virtues of politeness early on from her stolid parents and small Wisconsin hometown. But a tragic accident when she was seventeen shattered her identity and made her understand the fragility of life and the tenuousness of luck. So more than a decade later, when she met boisterous, charismatic Charlie Blackwell, she hardly gave him a second look: She was serious and thoughtful, and he would rather crack a joke than offer a real insight; he was the wealthy son of a bastion family of the Republican party, and she was a school librarian and registered Democrat. Comfortable in her quiet and unassuming life, she felt inured to his charms. And then, much to her surprise, Alice fell for Charlie.
As Alice learns to make her way amid the clannish energy and smug confidence of the Blackwell family, navigating the strange rituals of their country club and summer estate, she remains uneasy with her newfound good fortune. And when Charlie eventually becomes President, Alice is thrust into a position she did not seek–one of power and influence, privilege and responsibility. As Charlie’s tumultuous and controversial second term in the White House wears on, Alice must face contradictions years in the making: How can she both love and fundamentally disagree with her husband? How complicit has she been in the trajectory of her own life? What should she do when her private beliefs run against her public persona?
In Alice Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is a gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and the exigencies of fate into a brilliant tapestry–a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare.
I read this book years and years ago, but while researching for this blog post came upon this author’s newest release and immediately added it to my TO-READ-LIST. “Deviously clever . . . Sittenfeld’s Hillary is both a player in the Game of Thrones and a romance novel heroine. She’s a brilliant badass who has found her voice and knows how to use it. She’s whoever she wants to be.”—O: The Oprah Magazine If that sound like something you’d like to read, add Rodham, by Curtis Sittenfield to your list as well.
Last but not least, the social studies minor in me would like to pop in again and recommend Kenneth C. Davis’ classic
Don’t Know Much About History
From the arrival of Columbus through the historic election of Barack Obama and beyond, Kenneth C. Davis carries readers on a rollicking ride through more than five hundred years of American history. In this revised, expanded, and updated edition of the classic anti-textbook, he debunks, recounts, and serves up the real story behind the myths and fallacies of American history.
I bought this book while studying for my undergrad teacher certification exams (The PPST #2 for all you education majors out there!) but have picked it up frequently since to double check the memory of my middle and high school education with the facts of what actually happened. A handy book to have around, especially when your own kids (or grandkids) start asking questions! Other books in this great series cover the topics of American presidents, literature, the Civil War, mythology, geography, the universe and the bible!
And finally, I’d like to remind you to VOTE! No matter who you choose, don’t let the opportunity to participate in this important American right and the chance to voice your values on the ballot, pass you by.
Happy voting and happy reading!
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