The primaries have been a wild-ride, that’s for sure, and even after Super Tuesday, it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any less chaotic. With buzzwords like “plurality”, “brokered convention”, and “superdelegates” being tossed around like pistachio shells, it can be difficult to drown out the noise and focus on what’s important. Whether these books help analyze the electoral or governmental processes at play, or delve deeply into the issues surrounding them, here are some suggestions that have helped me be a conscientious voter in this year’s primaries, and beyond.

Camelot's End: The Democrats' Last Great Civil War Detailing the last time an incumbent was challenged by their own party, Ward dissects the 1980 primary challenge Ted Kennedy waged against President Carter, that effectively ruptured the Democratic party and shattered faith in government for decades to come. While there is no incumbent challenger on the Republican side, Camelot’s End is nonetheless, an artful depiction of how polarization within a political party (much like the type we are seeing between Biden and Bernie supporters) can effectively lead to implosion, rather than progress. Buy on Amazon $ 19 Free Shipping | Free Returns

A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America Phillip Rucker and Carol Leonnig detail Trump’s chaotic nature extraordinarily closely. While there are so many books from White House Officials and Former Trump Administrator’s on the shelves, the reporting by Rucker and Leonnig is unparalleled, and supporting journalism and free press when the press is attacked everyday by the Commander-In-Chief is of unrivaled importance. Buy on Amazon $ 18 Free Shipping | Free Returns

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker For me, voting can be tricky because I’m not just voting for myself. Young’s memoir in essays provides a vivid example of the experience of one black man in America, detailing how he makes sense of the various neuroses this country has given him, and turning an unflinching eye not just on himself, but on the society that surrounds him. Buy on Amazon $ 17 Free Shipping | Free Returns

Lost Children Archive A follow-up to her groundbreaking essay Tell Me How It Ends, Luiselli fictionalizes a road-trip from New York to Arizona, where the distant-seeming immigration crisis suddenly becomes a stark reality. Told in spellbinding prose, this expansive and highly-researched novel educates on the inhumanity being served up at the border, forcing us to reconcile our minimal differences and become aware of our extensive similarities. Buy on Amazon $ 15 Free Shipping | Free Returns

Confirmation Bias Hulse details how the death of Antonin Scalia tilted the court, and along with it helped decide a presidential election, and forged a Senate of unprecedented polarization. Intrepid in his discussion of the dysfunction at play among all three branches of government, Hulse details in a lively discussion just how the judicial wars of the past two decades have led to our current polarization as a country. Buy on Amazon $ 18 Free Shipping | Free Returns

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