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Harry Potter 7: The Deathly Hallows
J.K. Rowling The final book in the Harry Potter series gives us a lot of insight into the Ministry of Magic and how Voldomort takes over society through the legal framework of Wizarding law. Early on in the story, we learn that the Ministry falls and is now being led by the Deatheaters. While at the ...
Harry Potter 6: The Half Blood Prince
J. K. Rowling While certainly less political than the previous book, the 6th book in the series offers some interesting insights into Harry’s relationships and loyalties both to his schoolmaster, Dumbledore, and the Ministry of Magic, now headed by Rufus Scrimgeour who supplanted Cornelius Fudge. At the beginning of the book, Rufus and Fudge both teleport into ...
The Titan of Industry: John D. Rockefeller
Ron Chernow The Titan refers to John D Rockefeller, Sr. He is called that because of his Titanic role in forming American industry into what would become the future of large scale industry as well as his incredible Philanthropic charitable actions such as founding the University of Chicago or The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. This ...
Harry Potter 5: The Order of the Phoenix
J.K. Rowling I’m starting off discussing the 5th book in the series for a reason: while the earlier books mention some interesting things about politics and ethics, such as Hermione’s quest for the rights of house-elves to not be slaves to their masters or the struggle of racism between the muggles and pure bloods, the 5th ...
The Trial: A Forgotten Dystopian Masterpiece
Franz Kafka This book is what I imagine the modern, surrealist painter movement of the likes of Picasso and Dali is when applied to the art of literature. It is disjointed and contains dream-like, hazy scenes that leave you wondering if the character ever experienced it at all or was just daydreaming it. This book swirls ...
Red Rising
Pierce Brown It’s easy to read the first book in the Red Rising series and dismiss it as “just another hunger games”. It feels very similar; a young man named Darrow lives a harsh, totalitarian society built around slavery ruled by the higher, elite classes of which he is told he will never be a part ...
The 1619 Project
The 1619 project is a recent set of articles published by the New York Times. Several of the articles were written by academic scholars, but I want to focus on the article by Nikole Hannah-Jones as the first article in the series and the headliner and the flaws and biases on full display in ...
Fathers and Sons
This book is a wonderful story of love, family, and ideas. Turgenev was banned from Russia partially for writing this book. While the story of love and a son venturing out on his own and figuring out his own path are excellently told albeit politically benign, there is a lot of talk among the characters ...
Crime and Punishment
This book is one of the most acclaimed books in literature history, and it’s not hard to see why. The intensity of the writing, the passion and depth of the characters, and the mystery and intrigue of the plot all weave together into an incredible story.