Usha Vance is a closed book – but her Goodreads account is surprisingly revealing

Guardian opinion columnist Arwa Mahdawi has put forward what they call a only slightly unhinged theory: that the Goodreads account of Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance, offers clues to the thinking of a second lady known for guarding her privacy. Mahdawi allows that the choices could instead be trolling, according to The Guardian.

According to the column, Usha Vance is studying German, hosting a literacy podcast, rereading classics and raising four young children.

Mahdawi ties her titles to the news. In April, when, in Mahdawi's telling, JD Vance was explaining Catholicism to Pope Leo XIV, Usha Vance began Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, a novel about a French missionary priest sent to bring order to a New Mexico church where other priests have strayed. Amid talk of whether JD Vance will succeed Donald Trump, she finished I, Claudius by Robert Graves, in which an underestimated member of Rome's imperial family outlasts court violence and becomes emperor almost by accident. She is now reading Medieval People by Eileen Power, which Mahdawi jokes could be preparation for the dark ages.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Guardian’s reporting. Read the full story at The Guardian →