Stars… They’re just like us. Or perhaps, more accurately, we wish to be just like them.

There’s a lot that inspires us regular people about our favourite celebs… for better or for worse!  With stars being considered arbiters of taste and culture for many, it can be tough to be influenced without feeling bad about yourself, or without being sold something you don’t need. 

Luckily, being smart is sexy, and books are one of the hottest accessories right now. With celebrities launching substacks and book clubs, and a surge in high-profile book-to-screen adaptations, it feels like stars are being asked about books more than ever before, with interviewers like Jack Edwards becoming a major part of celebrity press junkets, and #BookTok influencers being invited to major publicity events and premieres. Celebrities like Reese Witherspoon have even created production companies and media empires out of their love for books. 

So, in the spirit of being inspired by your fave celebrities, I scoured podcasts, interviews, Instagram posts, and recent celebrity book club picks, for some book recommendations for you, straight from the stars!

Jessie Buckley

Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys

Actress Jessie Buckley has been a favourite during awards season, and in a recent interview with Jack Edwards, the actress shared her required reading, including the perfect book for Fleabag fans.

Jean Rhys’ Good Morning, Midnight is set in 1930s Paris, where a young woman is teaching herself indifference. She has escaped a personal tragedy and come to France to find courage and seek independence. She tells herself to expect nothing, especially not kindness, and especially not from men.  Tomorrow, she will dye her hair blonde. This is a painful, complicated, and powerful story of emancipation.

Dua Lipa

The Son of Man by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo

Dua Lipa has a book club called Service95, and I have deeply enjoyed her thoughtful reviews and author interviews. The book club’s  latest read is Jean-Baptiste Del Amo’s The Son of Man. 

Jean-Baptiste Del Amo’s The Son of Man is set on a hostile and glorious mountainside, haunted by the transgressions of the past. In the soft morning light, a man, a woman, and a child drive into the mountains. After several years of absence, the man has reappeared in the lives of his wife and son, intending for them to be a family again. He takes them to Les Roches, a dilapidated house in the mountains, where he grew up with his ruthless father, who then died in a fit of mania. There, while the mother awaits the birth of her new child, the son becomes bewitched by nature. Although the family is now reunited, the father exerts a growing hold over the mother and child, dictating mysterious laws for their existence, supported by the provisions he has stocked. As the weather turns from spring, to summer, and finally to autumn, the house falls further into disrepair, and the mother and son inch further and further from their old life. Haunted by his past, the father slips into madness, one that only the son will be able to challenge.

Emma Roberts

Strangers by Belle Burden

Emma Roberts was one of the first celebrities to start a book club, along with producer Karah Preiss, and the Belletrist book club has been going strong for years. Their February pick is Strangers by Belle Burden.

Strangers is a fascinating memoir. In March 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, Belle Burden’s husband of twenty years announced, without warning, that he was leaving her. This shocked Belle, as she had believed he was a happy man, a committed partner, and a devoted father to their three children. She thought he was a man who had settled into the life he had, but overnight, he had transformed from her steady companion to a stranger. As she pieces her life back together, grieving a loss she never saw coming, this is a story of self-discovery, and learning to use your voice.

Margot Robbie

Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

When interviewed for Jack Edward’s book club, Inklings, Robbie was asked what book she considered required reading, and she recommended Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. This book was given to her by her Wuthering Heights co-star Alison Oliver, who called it “the lady bible”.

In every woman there is a powerful force, filled with ageless knowing, creativity, and good instincts. She is the Wild Woman, representing the instinctual nature of women, a nature that is endangered, as society attempts to “civilize” women into rigid roles that go against their very souls. Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Using myths, fairy tales, and stories from across multiple traditions and cultures, this book aims to help women reconnect with their fierce Wild Woman nature. This book includes stories and commentary to help you retrieve, examine, love, and understand the Wild Woman.

Alison Oliver

 The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Speaking of Alison Oliver, on her Inklings episode with Margot Robbie, the actress shared her required reading was John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies.

The story follows Cyril Avery, born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community, and adopted by a well-to-do eccentric Dublin couple, through the intervention of a hunchbacked nun. Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only by his friendship with the glamorous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. Constantly at the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself, and where he came from, struggling to discover an identity, a home, and so much more. 

Kaia Gerber

I Want to Show You More by Jamie Quatro

Model and actress Kaia Gerber loves to read, and has started a book club (called Library Science) with writer Alyssa Reeder — their latest pick is Jamie Quatro’s I Want to Show You More.

I Want to Show You More is a short story collection about lives stretched between spirituality and sexuality. The stories explore God, illicit sex, raising children, and running. The stories confront us with dark complexities of theology. A wife comes home with her husband, only to find her lover’s corpse in their bed; a teen attends bible camp, where he seduces a young cancer survivor, hoping to cure his own rare condition; a girl’s embarrassment about attending a pool party with her quadriplegic mother turns into fierce devotion under the pitying gaze of the other guests. The stories are dark, startling, and utterly unique.

Jennette McCurdy

Little Children by Tom Perrotta

Actress and writer Jennette McCurdy was recently interviewed by Inklings, and as an avid reader she had quite a few “required reading” recommendations, including “anything by Tom Perrotta”. Her favourite book by the author is Little Children.

Tom Perrotta’s Little Children follows unhappily married Sarah, who passes the days at the local playground with her three-year-old daughter. When happily unemployed Todd (also married) and Sarah meet, their attraction is immediate. They start a passionate affair just as their suburban utopia is rattled by the arrival of a registered sex offender, Ronald James McGorvey. With the news of his arrival, disgusted parents wonder if any of their little children will be safe.

Daisy Ridley

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

Looks like celebrities aren’t immune to the hype. Over the holidays, actress Daisy Ridley was reading Iron Flame, the sequel to Rebecca Yarros’ bestselling Fourth Wing, which definitely got my group chat buzzing about whether she was teasing possible casting news (no confirmation yet, but I’m READY!).

Fourth Wing has taken the world by storm. Iron Flame is the sequel, and since I don’t want to spoil anything if you haven’t read it, I’ll tell you about book one. Fourth Wing follows twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail, who was supposed to become a Scribe, living a quiet life among books and history. Now her mother — the commanding general — has ordered her to join the hundreds of candidates who are aiming to become one of the elite dragon riders of Navarre. But when you’re smaller than everyone else, and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away, because dragons don’t bond with “fragile” humans… they incinerate them. With fewer dragons who are willing to bond than there are cadets, Violet doesn’t just have to survive the trials, but also her classmates. Many of whom would kill her just to better their own chances or because of who her mother is — especially Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader. With every day that passes, danger continues to grow both outside and inside the school. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect that their leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Emily Bader

The Uncool by Cameron Crowe

Emily Bader, the star of People We Meet On Vacation,  was recently interviewed on the red carpet by Coach for their Front Row Book Club, where she mentioned her current read was Cameron Crowe’s The Uncool.

Cameron Crowe is one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers, and his memoir, The Uncool,  paints a picture of his formative years in the world of rock and roll. Crowe was an unlikely rock and roll insider, born to parents who banned the genre from their house, but he dove into the world of music anyways, writing for The Rolling Stone by the time he graduated from high school (at fifteen)! This is his coming-of-age in the world of rock and roll, with plenty of anecdotes and experiences with music legends, while also being an intimate portrait of a family. 

McKenna Grace

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Actress McKenna Grace was also interviewed for Coach’s Front Row Book Club, and one of the books that she’s always recommending is one of her favourites from when she was younger, Neal Shusterman’s Scythe—a personal favourite of mine as well.

This is a fast-paced young adult novel, set in a futuristic world with no hunger, no disease, no war, and no misery. Humanity has conquered all these things, they’ve even conquered death itself. Now, Scythes are the only ones who can end life, commanded to do so, in order to keep the population under control. Both Citra and Rowan are chosen as apprentices to a Scythe, and it’s a role neither of them want. However, they must soon master the art of taking a life — or they could lose their own. 

Reese Witherspoon

In Her Defense by Philippa Malicka

Reese Witherspoon is one of the most famously well-read celebrities, having turned her book club Hello Sunshine into a media empire. Her February pick is Philippa Malicka’s In Her Defense. 

This gripping thriller is about a sensational celebrity libel trial, and a young woman who was at the periphery and secretly wields the power to make or break the case. The whole country has been riveted as beloved TV star and national treasure Anna Finbow stands in court, accusing her daughter Mary’s therapist Jean Guest of brainwashing her daughter Mary for her financial gain. Jean insists Mary’s traumatic memories arise from her upbringing, and her time at art school, and that only her therapy can heal these wounds. However, as the trial unfolds, Anna’s former employee Augusta (Gus) may hold the key to untangling this web of lies and deceit. What really happened to Mary? And can her memories even be trusted?

Beth is Dead by Katie Bernet

Witherspoon also recently launched a version of her book club for teens, calling it Sunnie. Sunnie’s first selection is Katie Bernet’s Beth is Dead—a twisty and thrilling retelling of Little Women.

When Beth March is found murdered in the woods, her sisters will stop at nothing to track down her killer… and there are plenty of suspects. From the neighbour who has feelings for two of the sisters; to Meg’s manipulative best friend; to Amy’s flirtatious mentor; to Beth’s first love. And it doesn’t take long for the March sisters to start suspecting each other, too. Despite all their suspicions, it’s hard to know for sure if the crime was committed by someone close to the family. After all, the sisters were thrust into the spotlight months ago, when their father published a bestselling book about his daughters… Beth’s killer could be anyone. 

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Ameema Saeed (@ameemabackwards) is a storyteller, an avid bookworm, and a curator of very specific playlists and customized book recommendations. She’s a book reviewer, a Sensitivity Reader, a book buyer at Indigo Books & Music, and the Books Editor for She Does the City, where she writes and curates bookish content, and book recommendations. She enjoys bad puns, good food, dancing, and talking about feelings. She writes about books, big feelings, unruly bodies, and her lived experiences, and hopes to write your next favourite book one day. When she’s not reading books, she likes to talk about books (especially diverse books, and books by diverse authors) on her bookstagram: @ReadWithMeemz