♪ If you wanna run away with me, I know a galaxy ♪
♪ And I can take you for a ride ♪
♪ I had a premonition that we fell into a rhythm ♪
♪ Where the music don't stop for life ♪
- Hello, hello, hello.
Welcome back to my celebrity book club.
Today I have a question for you.
Who is your favorite book Instagrammer?
You don't have to say me,
because my personal favorite is Dua Lipa.
Dua freaking Lipa!
That's right, Miss Future Nostalgia herself,
Miss I had a premonition that we fell into a rhythm
where the music don't stop for life, of course she reads.
Of course she reads!
And she has been generously sharing
her reading recommendations with us mere mortals.
These recommendations have been shared on her Instagram
and Instagram stories and so,
like any rational human being would,
I have decided to read all of them.
This woman is so cool. She releases banger after banger.
And I want to know if these books, too, will blow my mind.
Mwah. (laughs) That actually went way better in my head.
I don't know why I said that. (laughs)
I actually have the week off work this week.
And so yes, I will be spending it reading
all of Dua Lipa's reading recommendations.
That isn't sad.
In the words of Dua Lipa, IDGAF. I think.
But before we get started, I just wanted to let you know
that today's video is very kindly sponsored by Karma.
Karma have been a huge supporter of this YouTube channel
and basically allow me to continue posting nonsense
on the internet and I love them a lot.
Karma is an app and Chrome extension that makes sure
you never miss a price drop or a coupon code.
It is constantly saving me money when I buy books
for these videos, especially when people
like Dua Lipa recommend a whole library.
So click the link down below to download Karma.
And then when you're shopping
on your favorite online stores you can
save the items using the Karma button and then
you'll get a notification when the item goes on sale,
has a relevant coupon code, or is back in stock.
You can then organize your items into lists
and shop mindfully.
Here is my Dua Lipa list.
And on the Chrome version, Karma will scan the internet
to find you a relevant coupon code
and apply it automatically.
And you can now earn Karma cash to your PayPal account
when shopping from select retail partners.
And Karma is completely free to download.
So click the link in the description box below.
And when Dua Lipa said, don't start now
she was not referring to this video
because we absolutely will be starting right now.
And we will see if these books
will leave me levitating or break my heart.
I'm really trying here, guys. (laughs)
And the first book I'm going to be reading is Queenie.
(light cheerful music)
So here's the thing, right?
I may or may not have consumed
this whole thing in one sitting,
because it was that good and that engaging.
This book is all about sex and relationships,
gentrification, misogynoir,
and ultimately, I suppose, self worth.
It centers around a woman called Queenie Jenkins
who is from a dysfunctional Jamaican-British family
and the story enters her life just as her
and her longterm boyfriend decide to take a break.
They refer to themselves as the interracial Ross and Rachel.
She's trying and failing to navigate her life,
her personal relationships, her mental health, and her job.
And honestly, the thing I loved most about this book
was the really vibrant cast of peripheral characters.
Every single one had such a distinctive personality.
And that's something that I feel
a lot of authors actually struggle to do.
But this book is a masterclass in writing characters
who actually added to the narrative.
And the other thing I think this book does really well
is showing how small occurrences, interactions,
and microaggressions over time build up
and become very overwhelming and ultimately
wears someone down, like they do with Queenie.
For example, one major motif in this book,
which you can probably tell from the cover, is black hair.
And we see how regularly white people try to touch it
or make inappropriate comments about it.
When it's distilled into a book like this,
it's so impactful.
Do you ever just want to reach into a book and slap someone?
Because that happened a lot in this. (laughs)
I also liked that Queenie is a flawed character.
She's not perfect.
She regularly pushes people away
who are just trying to help her and she makes bad decisions.
But don't we all? But for me that made her more real.
Normalize being wrong, regularly.
This is a quick, fast paced read,
but it covers so much ground.
Dua Lipa was a fan. So am I.
Dua Lipa was actually sent an advance copy of this book
because "New Rules" is mentioned in it.
At one point, Queenie is making a list of promises
which she regularly breaks.
And her friend is basically like,
"Okay, Dua Lipa with your new rules."
And Dua Lipa describes it as
"A brilliant coming of age book. It's so honest and so raw."
And I highly agree. This was a win.
(light cheerful music)
Now, the few books I bought because Dua Lipa posted
a book haul on her Instagram stories.
And the thing is, I, too,
love a book haul on my Instagram stories.
We should be besties.
In the meantime, (laughs) I read this book.
And this is Luster by Raven Leilani.
This was long listed for the women's prize this year
and I can see why, because it is exquisitely written.
"You can be yourself with me, you know," he says,
and it's all I can do not to laugh right in his face.
"Thanks," I say, but I know he doesn't mean it.
He wants me to be myself like a leopard
might be herself in a city zoo.
Inert, waiting to be fed.
Not out in the wild with tendon in her teeth.
Like, are you kidding me?
Luster is basically a portrait of a woman
who is in her mid twenties and she's having an affair
with a middle-aged married man.
And it's one of those books where (laughs) not a lot
actually happens, but you stay for the gorgeous writing.
There are lines that will wreck you.
When it comes to this, I cannot help feeling
that I am at the end of a fluctuation
that originated with a single butterfly.
I mean, with one half degree of difference,
everything I want could be mine.
I am good, but not good enough,
which is worse than simply being bad.
It is almost.
The difference between being there when it happens
and stepping out just in time to see it on the news.
I rest my case.
There are so many sharp and witty observations
about the human experience.
And it's so darkly funny and original and provocative
and brutal and I'm so glad that I read this.
My verdict is this book is hotter than hell.
I guess I am still going with the Dua Lipa references.
I'll run out soon. (laughs) I'm sure.
But until then, onto the next book.
(light cheerful music)
The next book in Dua Lipa's book haul was this one,
and this is Trick Mirror.
Now this may sound dumb, but hear me out.
If I had a friend who was one of the most famous women
on the planet, I would recommend this book to them.
I think Dua Lipa is the perfect reader of this book.
And Trick Mirror is a collection of essays,
which cover internet culture, reality TV,
female celebrities, female characters in literature,
and also the way that the media often portrays famous women
as difficult if they fail to compartmentalize and box them.
So for instance, it speaks about people like Britney Spears,
Amy Winehouse, and Miley Cyrus: women who the media
deemed to be too much and basically why that's so damaging.
For me, the best essay was the first one,
which is called, "The I in Internet."
And I underlined the shit out of that.
It talks about how social media is an attention economy.
So we basically exchange
our private lives for public domain.
It's also about how we lose a sense of scale on the internet
and overvalue our personal opinions.
We form very strong opinions on things
that we actually don't know that much about.
And there's a really interesting discussion
about performative activism and also how
pretty much everything you do online
is a performance of some type.
And maybe this is an extreme response to this book,
but after reading that essay
I deactivated my Twitter account.
And it's because I kind of realized that on Twitter,
everyone is always trying to out nuance each other
and you can never truly represent how you actually feel
and taking things out of context
for the sake of retweets and likes and I was just done.
I really said, "Get that fire exit door, I'm off."
But having said that, as much as I loved that first essay,
and a few of the others as well, you know how
Future Nostalgia has just hit after hit?
This book was not that. It was nothing of the sort.
Because some of the essays are just a bit naff.
A few of them just retell other stories
and I found it a bit dull, because they just didn't feel
anywhere near as original or astute.
So I had a kind of mixed reaction to this book,
because it peaked so early on,
but I kind of felt like the target audience for this book
already knows or at least agrees with 95%
of the things that are said in this book.
And so I didn't really feel like I learnt much at all
after that first essay, and so it just
fell a bit flat for me, to be honest.
Apparently it's flat as my head. (laughs)
So onto the next book.
(light cheerful music)
Can we talk about The Vanishing Half?
'Cause this is phenomenal.
And our bestie, Dua Lipa, has posted about this,
not only on her Instagram story, but also she recently
posted a picture of her sister reading it.
And I can highly relate to that, because like Dua Lipa,
I cannot shut up about this book
and I do recommend it to everyone I know.
It's basically about two sisters who are black
but could pass as white.
In fact, it is actually inspired by this book,
which is called Passing by Nella Larsen.
In The Vanishing Half the identical twin sisters
become separated and whereas one that lives her life
as a black woman, the other one chooses to pass as white.
So it's all about how their lives
diverge and collide as of that moment.
Very interestingly, we also follow their children's lives
and there's also some really cool trans representation.
This book is just the best.
I truly just think it's the perfect book.
So nuanced, so beautifully told, easy five stars.
Dua Lipa, I know you got spare Grammys. Can this have one?
I was completely and utterly gripped by this.
Please read The Vanishing Half.
You know, I have just realized, every single book
that Dua Lipa has recommended so far
has been by a female black author, so that's really cool.
Very refreshing to see such an influential voice
recommending this fiction.
So yeah, onto the next one.
(light cheerful music)
Next book that Dua Lipa has said
is her favorite book of all time
and also good sun protection.
And oh my Lord Dua Lipa said, "You are going to suffer,"
because this was an emotional decathlon, Jesus.
It is, of course, the beast
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara.
And when I tell you the only thing little about this
is the title, holy hell, this is 720 pages
of just pure emotional trauma and turmoil and suffering.
Just the most profoundly sad thing
I think I've ever encountered,
aside from my bank balance after a night out.
I'm telling you when the guy from Come Dine With Me said,
"What a sad little life, Jane,"
this is the little life he was referring to.
This is sad.
A Little Life is about this group of guys
who went to university together.
And it spends the first 200 pages making us adore them.
I would die for these characters.
When Dua Lipa said, "Am I falling in love
with the one that could break my heart?"
she was referring to this book.
And just as you start to care so deeply
about these characters, the author just wrecks them.
And it wrecked me in the process.
Did I finish this book or did this book finish me?
I don't even know. It did cure my big book fear, though.
I devoured this in four days.
And I actually did film a more detailed vlog
of my reading experience of this book
over on my second channel.
So if you wanna go check that out, link is down below.
What I will say, however, is that if you have triggers,
you're probably gonna find them in here.
This is not a book I will ever recommend to someone
without making sure they've read
all of the trigger warnings, because this could mess you up.
I experienced such extreme emotions just reading this.
It's shocking, it's distressing, it's devastating.
It hit me hard, but I also thought it was genius.
And maybe I'm insane for saying that,
but I thought this was a masterpiece.
So many beautiful lines.
It is written unflinchingly with so much clarity and depth.
And because the page count is so long,
it really gets to explore absolutely everything.
But this was a big 2021 goal of mine
to get round to reading this, so thank you, Dua Lipa.
Much appreciated, even though this destroyed me.
(light cheerful music)
Another day, another Dua Lipa reading recommendation.
Because this woman will not let me breathe.
Every time I think I'm nearly done with this video,
she recommends another book.
And it's fine. I'm doing fine.
She is currently on holiday and her holiday read,
which she's been posting loads of pictures of,
is Misery by Stephen King.
And because I didn't have a physical copy of the book,
I've been listening to it as an audio book.
And this is the biggest page turner
where I never had to turn a page; I was hooked.
It's basically a very sinister, creepy story about a writer
who is the author of a very popular romance series
about a character called Misery and he is basically captured
and held hostage by his number one fan.
And this fan basically makes him write
another book in the series.
I do think it is a great holiday read
because it's one of those books that you can't help
but keep listening to or reading because
you just want to know what happens next.
It is captivating. Stephen King has a cult following.
He's written so many iconic books, and this was actually
the first one of his I've ever read slash listened to.
And it was great. I really enjoyed it.
And aside from the plot, is also superbly written.
I am a big fan of this
and I can't wait to read more Stephen King.
And then the next book is in my bag, 'cause I was reading it
on the train, and that is The Girls by Emma Cline.
And this is all about a woman who is reflecting
on her time when she was younger and misunderstood
angsty teenager and she joined a cult.
She feels very trapped in the home of her mom
and her stepfather and then she sees these girls.
And she just becomes enthralled by them
and their sense of abandon and the freedom
that she perceives that they have.
So she's basically retelling the story of her time
in the cult and all of the crazy things that they get up to.
And I have to say, it's a slow burner at first.
The first hundred pages I found such a bore,
but then it does get quite good
so it is worth sticking with.
I've never really understood when people
refer to books as whimsical.
I've never really understood why that was a word
people use to describe books, until this.
Whimsical is just the perfect way to sum up this book.
It's a very understated writing style, very atmospheric,
very quintessentially 1960s, and also feels like
quite a summery read, but not necessarily a new favorite.
Also, I got this in a charity shop and the previous owner
has written their email address and passwords
for all social media in the back of this.
I'm not going to hack them, but just a note,
don't write your passwords in a book
that you then give to charity.
I think we can all learn a lesson here.
I'm gonna go now, but by the time I see you next,
Dua Lipa may have recommended 12 more books.
So watch this space.
(light cheerful music)
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
is the first book that I've read for this video
that I just, I didn't enjoy.
To be honest, I kind of hated it. Please don't come for me.
But I just didn't gel with the writing style at all.
I found that it was very, she did this, then she did that.
Then she did this, then she did that. And I didn't like it.
I also felt like I was being held
at arms length from the characters.
I wish this had been written in first person
because the ideas and the subject area are so important.
Because it's basically a book about the slave trade
and about two people who miraculously manage to escape
from their captor and then it's the process of them
being on the run and being pursued
by someone who's trying to recapture them.
To his credit, Colson Whitehead clearly
did an insane amount of research on this
and imagines what it would have been like
if the underground railroad had been a physical locomotive
that would basically pick up people escaping from slavery.
And Dua Lipa recommended this book last year
as part of an educational reading list,
all about America's history, specifically during
the Black Lives Matter protest last year.
And yes, obviously this book and learning about that history
is so fundamentally important.
For me though, this fictional retelling isn't anywhere near
as useful as actual slave narratives from the time.
For example, you have Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs, as well as
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
I would personally highly, highly recommend
you read those two instead of this.
And subject area aside, from a purely literary perspective,
I just felt like the characters in this book
weren't developed at all, including the characters
at the center of the novel.
One of them literally disappears for 75 pages
and I didn't even notice he was gone,
'cause he just hadn't been developed.
Like, go, girl, give us nothing.
Obviously we're rooting for these characters
because of the awful, awful circumstances
that they are escaping, but to keep me actively engaged
for 400 pages, I wanna know how they're feeling,
not just what they're doing.
So yeah, kind of underwhelmed by this, not gonna lie.
But the last book is an absolute corker.
And so I will see you tomorrow for the end of the video.
(light cheerful music)
The final book that Dua Lipa has recommended
is Normal People by Sally Rooney.
You know how I feel about this book.
I've said it before, I will say it again,
I would read this woman's shopping list if she published it
because she is so talented.
This book is all about love and friendship
and commitment and class.
I think it properly captures university
and the experience of imposter syndrome.
I love the way that Sally Rooney approaches communication
or lack thereof with complex flawed characters.
And I just think her writing is electrifying.
Big fan Sally Rooney fan. Sally Rooney stan over here.
And Dua Lipa agrees.
She said that she read this whole book,
Normal People, in one day, which is very relatable,
'Cause that is exactly the same way
that I consume this book, it's addicting.
And so what we learned from this video?
Firstly, I have too much free time.
And secondly, Dua Lipa has taste.
And now I'm even more obsessed with her.
Dua Lipa, if you're watching, I'm sure you're not,
thanks very much for the recommendations.
This has been a fantastic time.
I really enjoyed myself,
even though some of these books destroyed me.
Dua's interest in literature seems to prioritize
fascinating, complicated characters
over a really detailed plot
and I definitely agree with that, that's what I prefer too.
And she also reads and recommends a huge range
of diverse authors, which is really fricking cool.
Thanks very much for watching the video.
I hope you enjoyed.
If you did, give it a thumbs up
and you can subscribe down below for more from me.
A massive shout out, of course,
to the virtual shopping assistant Karma,
the link to download will be down below.
Check it out if you want to
and have a wonderful day, bye bye!