Three political novels to get you through election season

It's not always easy to get through an election year, regardless of nationality, party affiliation, or candidate choice. I have been known to self-care politically by watching episodes of The West Wing or putting on the musical 1776. If you need even more escapism than the Bartlett Administration or the Founding Fathers in three-part harmony, here are some books I recommend that are works of pure fiction.

1. The President's Daughter

This 1984 book by Ellen Emerson White is self-explanatory. It was followed by three sequels published between 1985 and 2007 and the series was updated slightly in its most recent imprint, but the premise is timeless.

Meg Powers is the eldest daughter of a Senator from Massachusetts She is worried about keeping her grades up and winning her latest tennis match, but her mother announces one day that the time has come for Senator Powers to seek the office of the President of the United States. Suddenly, she has to have a public-facing persona as the candidate's daughter and reckon with newfound popularity. When her mother gets to the White House, things become only more complicated.

It's a Young Adult novel, but it's an interesting view of the democratic process from someone not old enough to vote yet.

2. Feed

Just to be clear, this is not the M.T. Anderson novel by the same name. Feed by Mira Grant opens with a journalist watching her brother be an idiot for attention. This is not idle work; he's someone who pushes the boundaries to interact with the walking dead and documents it for the news.

We are thus introduced to an America where the zombie apocalypse came, changed the face of the world, and affected the way that the world works. This is now the first time that a person who was not yet an adult at the time of The Rising will be running for president and the candidate has chosen three bloggers to be the press team that follows his campaign.

There is nothing idyllic or sunny about this world in which every person or animal who weighs more than 40 pounds could become a zombie. Things become more complicated when a series of unfortunate events point to conspiracies to kill presidential candidates, but it is the story of resiliency under literal fire and the entire series is as gripping as it is incisive.

3. All the King's Men

This 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren isn't true to life, but it is inspired by the story of Senator Huey P. Long. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 and was adapted twice into film.

In the Deep South during the Depression Era, Willie Stark seeks and gains public office. His story is narrated by a political reporter. It depicts the way that constituents abandon responsibility if they have someone to look up to and begin to embrace both nihilism and apathy where their own society is concerned.

It's a political classic described by reviewer George Mayberry as "the use of the full resources of the American language to record with imagination and intelligence a significant aspect of our life."