As the end of the 2024 presidential campaign is exactly two weeks away, Republican nominee and Ohio Senator JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance have found their second home on the campaign trail. But, it’s not home on the nationwide trail without Usha carrying one of her favorite books, “The Iliad.”
According to NBC News, she has quite an expansive book list, with the 800-page Greek epic traveling with her from country to country. Usha, a Yale law graduate and attorney, has a reading list on Goodreads filed with her maiden name “Chilukuri.” On it are a chock-full of classics, literary masterpieces and books with unique premises.
While Usha has remained quite analog on social media, her Goodreads presence has been vibrant from 2007 to 2017. Her most recent book rating was on JD’s book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis,” of which she gave a gleaming five stars.
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NBC has also observed Usha holding copies of Daniel Mason’s 2023 historical fiction “North Woods” and Tana French’s 2007 mystery novel “In the Woods” while jet-setting and disembarking on the campaign plane in the recent months on the trail.
Better yet, you can listen to all of these titles on Audible by signing up; it’s only 99 cents for the first three months right now, and perfect if you’re (almost) as busy as Usha on the campaign trail.
Ahead, find some of the titles Usha ranked favorably to help inspire the next book on your reading list. Most are tried-and-true classics that’ll help expand you genre palette, while others may be ones you’ve been meaning to read for quite some time.
Goodreads rating: 3.86/5 stars
Usha’s rating: 5/5 stars
About the book: “Hillbilly Elegy” is a personal memoir that explores the struggles of Vance’s Appalachian family and community, highlighting issues of poverty, culture and the impact of social decline in rural America.
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Goodreads rating: 3.91/5 stars
About the book: “The Iliad” recounts the epic tale of the Trojan War, focusing on the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon and exploring themes of honor, glory and the human experience of war.
While it doesn’t appear Usha has ranked the title on Goodreads, she has been seen walking around with her copy of “The Iliad” while on the campaign trail.
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Goodreads rating: 4.04/5 stars
Usha’s rating: 5/5 stars
About the book: “Secret Ingredients” is a collection of essays and articles from The New Yorker that delves into the cultural significance, history and personal narratives surrounding food and drink.
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Goodreads rating: 3.98/5 stars
Usha’s rating: 5/5 stars
About the book: “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” portrays a single day in the life of a prisoner in a Soviet labor camp, highlighting the struggles for dignity and humanity amidst the harsh realities of totalitarianism.
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Goodreads rating: 3.89/5 stars
Usha’s rating: 5/5 stars
About the book: “Everything is Illuminated” follows a young American man’s journey to Ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II, interweaving themes of memory, loss and the search for identity through multiple narratives.
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Goodreads rating: 4.03/5 stars
Usha’s rating: 5/5 stars
About the book: “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” is a collection of short stories that explores the complexities and nuances of love, relationships and human connection through raw, minimalist prose.
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Goodreads rating: 3.88/5 stars
Usha’s rating: 5/5 stars
About the book: “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov tells the story of Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged literature professor who becomes obsessed with his landlady’s young daughter, exploring themes of obsession, manipulation and the complexities of desire through a richly poetic and unsettling narrative.
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Goodreads rating: 4.04/5 stars
Usha’s rating: 5/5 stars
About the book: “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” tells the tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an 18th-century orphan with an extraordinary sense of smell, who becomes a serial killer in his quest to create the perfect fragrance, exploring themes of obsession, identity and the nature of humanity.
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Goodreads rating: 3.79/5 stars
Usha’s rating: 5/5 stars
About the book: “White Teeth” by Zadie Smith weaves together the lives of two families in London, exploring themes of multiculturalism, identity and the complexities of modern British life through their intertwined histories and experiences.
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