Representative Katie Porter on Akwaeke Emezi, 'Evicted,' and the Book That Shaped Her Worldview

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Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com’s books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you’re on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you’re here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too.

Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA)—schooler of CEOs, wielder of whiteboards, champion of government transparency—brings her signature forthrightness in I Swear: Politics is Messier Than My Minivan (Crown), which recounts her experiences in the chaos of American politics.

The single mother of three, who flipped a historically red district in Orange County in 2018, won a third term in November. Her bills to lower drug prices and raise fees on polluters of public lands were signed into law, and she has improved mental health care coverage and made it easier for taxpayers to deduct medical expenses. She is a member of the Joint Economic Committee, Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Committee on Natural Resources. In January, she announced her run for Senator Dianne Feinstein’s seat in 2024.

Raised in a house built by her great-grandfather on an Iowa farm, Rep. Porter attended Yale and Harvard Law, where Senator Elizabeth Warren was her professor and mentor (her daughter Betsy is named after her). She interned for Senator Chuck Grassley, was appointed by then-Attorney General Kamala Harris as California’s independent monitor of a $25 billion national mortgage settlement, practiced bankruptcy law in Oregon, and is on leave from teaching bankruptcy and commercial law at University of California-Irvine. Favorite constitutional power: oversight. Supports: Every Kid Outdoors, which gives 4th graders and their families free passes to national parks.

She unwittingly popularized The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck as the House Speaker vote dragged on for 15 rounds–here are more books she recommends.

The book that:

…I recommend over and over again:

Evicted by Matthew Desmond, for anyone who wants to understand the consequences of America’s housing affordability crisis.

...shaped my worldview:

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, to understand how the failure to regulate big tech is reshaping our fundamental freedoms.

…I swear I’ll finish one day:

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganus, because I’ve moved it across four states over the years.

...I read in one sitting, it was that good:

Virtually every book I’ve read since getting elected to Congress, because the airplane flights to California are so long, and I’m a fast reader.

…currently sits on my nightstand:

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. The bright orange cover exactly matches my dress on election night in 2022, and I’m a sucker for award winners when I’m short on time to select a book.

…I’d pass on to my kid:

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg is the perfect antidote to the helicopter/smother parenting of today, igniting kids’ imaginations about adventure and self-reliance.

…made me laugh out loud:

Straight Man by Richard Russo. As someone who spent more than a decade suffering through faculty meetings, this is altogether too true about academia.

…I’d like turned into a TV show:

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore. This series balances friendship, politics, history, and romance in just the right mix.

…features a character I love to hate:

Call, one of the two main characters in Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, whose qualities as a father never match his as a friend to Gus.

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