This is not a presidential election year—and there are no midterms until 2026—but there’s certainly no shortage of political books being published this fall. Some of the titles are by current and former lawmakers, and others are about politicians who, chances are, would rather be left out of these critical accounts.
The most prominent of the bunch is Kamala Harris’ bestselling 107 Days (Simon & Schuster, September 23), in which the former vice president analyzes her whirlwind 2024 campaign against Donald Trump. Our review calls the book “a determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.” Another book by a former presidential candidate is Fight Oligarchy by Bernie Sanders (Crown, October 21). An outgrowth of the Vermont senator’s Fighting Oligarchy tour, organized with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after Trump’s inauguration, the 160-page paperback is being sold for the humble price of $14.99.
Joe Manchin, the former U.S. senator (and key swing vote) who left office in 2025, has kept busy in his retirement, writing Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense (St. Martin’s Press, September 16). The title alludes to the West Virginian’s 2024 change of party affiliation, from Democrat to independent, after more than four decades in politics. The Democratic Party, he writes, “pushes hard on woke ideology, DEI mandates, and other social agendas.” On the other hand, he observes, “I have watched the Republican Party lose itself to one man.”
One of the many members of Congress who defends the president—but isn’t afraid to call him out—is the ever-quotable John Kennedy, the Republican senator from Louisiana. “He asked me one time how I liked his tweets,” Kennedy writes in his new book, How To Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will (Broadside Books/HarperCollins, October 7). “My response, which I thought was diplomatic, was ‘Mr. President, I like them. I also like steak. But I don’t like eating eight of them at one time.’”
Taking a far more hard-hitting view of Trump is Jonathan Karl, chief Washington correspondent for ABC News. The title of his new book speaks volumes: Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America (Dutton, October 28).
Two women who weren’t elected to office—but played important roles in presidential administrations—have also weighed in on current events. In Giving Up Is Unforgivable: A Manual for Keeping a Democracy (Dutton, October 21), former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance writes, “The way to challenge the bully is at the ballot box.” Our critic called the book “a hopeful manifesto for a renewed democracy.” Karine Jean-Pierre, meantime, sees hope elsewhere. The White House press secretary to former President Joe Biden has parted ways with the Democratic Party. She explains her switch in Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines (Legacy Lit, October 21).
John McMurtrie is the nonfiction editor.
