Celebrity Book Recommendation: In Focus Dua Lipa
Today we bring to you a list of recommendations put forward by the international pop sensation Dua Lipa. From reading by the poolside with her friends to reading after a hectic tour, she has done it all. What’s even more fascinating is the frequency with which she makes book recommendations! From Stephen King’s Misery to Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, her versatile selections are essentially the icing on the cake. The singer seems to downright inhale literary material and we are here for it. Let’s have a look at the list below to see what books made it to Dua Lipa’s ‘must reads’!
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
“…things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize that no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.”
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is a mammoth of a book but each page of the book is absolutely worth it. Recently Dua Lipa took to Twitter to post a picture of herself basking in the sun, using the book as a sunshade. “el scorchio in london todayyyyyy + started a brilliant new book called “a little life” — not just a sun shield” Dua wrote jokingly.
A National Book Award Winner and Man Booker Prize finalist, this book is a master of the depiction of finding love in the 21st century. Hanya weaves the narrative to successfully depict the entire spectrum of human emotions while exploring themes like the power of friendship, effects of abuse and art, and human life in fresh ways. This book is a must-read for those who love to read misery and fiction together.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
“A town always looked different once you’d returned, like a house where all the furniture had shifted three inches. You wouldn’t mistake it for a stranger’s house but you’d keep banging your shins on the table corners.”
Set in the time period ranging from the 1950s-90s, The Vanishing Half is the journey and life documentation of an African-American family. The book follows the life of twins Desiree and Stella Vignes, within which Bennett beautifully covers the themes of identity, desires, motherhood, expectations, and race. While vacationing in Albania — the country she hails from, Dua Lipa posted a picture of herself enjoying this marvelous book during August’21.
Though the story pushes off with a slow start, it makes it up with intricately detailed and elegantly written prose. Bennett doesn’t simplify the consequences of the choices that the twins consciously make, rather complicates them to expose the convoluted hierarchies of American society with the inherently complex nature of the human psyche.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
“The world may be mean, but people don’t have to be, not if they refuse.”
The Underground Railroad is a narrative dealing with the historically important and sensitive issue of the slave trade. The novel tells the story of Cora and Caesar, two slaves in the antebellum South during the 19th century, and their miraculous escape from their employer. This alternate historical fiction, written in third person narrative, is an absolute delight to read even if it might not be historically accurate (at some places). The book is a critically acclaimed piece and bagged the Pulitzer Prize in the genre of Fiction and The National Book Award for Fiction.
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Torentino
“how the internet is built to distend our sense of identity; second, how it encourages us to overvalue our opinions; third, how it maximizes our sense of opposition; fourth, how it cheapens our understanding of solidarity; and, finally, how it destroys our sense of scale.”
Up next on the list of recommendations by Dua Lipa is Trick Mirror. This is a collection of essays dealing with topics like internet culture, reality television shows, the intricacies of the life of female celebrities, female literary characters, and the near scarring and extremely problematic depiction of female celebrities by popular media platforms — an issue which many celebrities including Taylor Swift have addressed — for which the book uses popular culture examples of Miley Cyrus, Briteny Spears, and Amy Winehouse.
Dua Lipa posted a picture of a book haul on her social media which consisted of this book. The book has interesting discussions on privatism, performative activism and their like. If you are a netizen, then this book is a must-read for you — it does not fail to live up to its hype and provides a much-needed reality check in this era full of social media enthusiasts.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
“But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.”
When asked about her favorite book by a fan in an interview with British GQ in 2020, Dua Lipa mentions The Unbearable Lightness of Being. A smiling Dua praises the book by calling it a “very complicated love story” that she believes everyone must-read. As she describes in her remark, The Unbearable Lightness of Being revolves around a young girl in love with an incorrigible Casanova who in turn is torn between the protagonist and his mistress.
This complicated story is set in the late 1960s, during the Soviet occupation of Prague. Kundera manages to deal with just about every aspect of the story — from discussing communism, the past lives of the lovers, philosophical insights to soul-hitting observations and the human psyche. This book, primarily based on the genres of magical realism and philosophical fiction is a must-read for all age groups.
Other books recommended by the singer include:
- Queenie by Candice Carty Williams
- Luster by Raven Leilani (Instagram)
- Misery by Stephen King (Instagram)
- The Girls by Emma Cline
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
Dua Lipa has been an avid reader and that is fairly easy to guess seeing her social media. It can be said that her favorite genre is that of historical fiction and books pertaining to current social problems interests her. With this, we provide you with some books recommended by Dua Lipa and we will be back soon with a new celebrity next time.
