Need A Book Recommendation? Here’s What Celebrities Are Reading This Summer

From Reese to Oprah, we've found all the best celebrity book recommendations.

Celebrity book choices

by Shana Lynch |
Updated on

The anatomy of the perfect beach bag is hard. You need to squeeze a lot of things in there — SPF, water, snacks, a towel and, most importantly, a good beach book. Not any book makes a good beach book, either. It has to be entertaining, gripping and exciting enough that the loud kids playing in the water and the heat of the sun won’t distract you from the story.

And yes, you do need that book even if you're going to be just sat on your local park bench with it this year...

As evidenced this weekend, Gwyneth Paltrow knows how to pick a good beach book. In pictures of the actress on the beach in The Hamptons, a book is just visible peeking out of her beach bag. And it’s not just any book, it’s 2020’s book of the summer The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

This novel is the perfect beach book — it’s dramatic, mesmerising and full of plot twists that will keep you guessing. And it got us thinking, if Gwynnie is this good at picking out beach books, are our other favourite celebrities good at it, too?

Turns out, yes. Yes, they are. From Reese Witherspoon and her never-wrong book club to personal picks from Kendall Jenner, Adele and Halle Berry, here’s your list of the best celebrity book recommendations from this summer. Happy reading!

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Celebrity Book Recommendations - Grazia

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Untamed: Stop Pleasing, Start Living

Adele, who has recently undergone quite a personal transformation, gave a shout out to this self-help book on Instagram, saying 'Anyone who has any kind of capacity to truly let go and give into yourself with any kind of desire to hold on for dear life - Do it. Read it. Live it. Practice it. We are a lot! But we are meant to be a lot!' What more is there to say?

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Always Home: A Daughter’s Culinary Memoir

Another recommendation from Gwyneth, Always Home: A Daughter's Culinary Memoir by author Fanny Singer, daughter of revered chef Alice Waters, is described as 'a beautiful and unique memoir of sorts, with food as a central character' filled with memories, recipes and the bond of a close mother-daughter relationship.

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Luster

In Luster, recommended by Emma Roberts, we meet Edie, a young woman who doesn't really know what she's doing (relatable) until she meets Eric. Only problem is, he's married. And has a daughter.

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Girl, Woman, Other

2020's biggest star Daisy Edgar-Jones took to Instagram to recommend Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other, which shows a side of race, womanhood and identity in Britain that is rarely talked about.

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Crooked Hallelujah

Crooked Hallelujah, recommended by Sarah Jessica Parker, follows four generations of Cherokee women across four decades. SJP says, 'A book that you want to share with everyone you know and one that you are desperate to keep in your own possession. A masterful debut and a new and thrilling voice for readers across the globe.'

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The Overstory

The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and recommended by Halle Berry, tells the exhilarating story of nine strangers who are brought together to save the world by an impending natural disaster.

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More Myself: A Journey

Alicia Keys's long-awaited memoir, More Myself: A Journey, was released in April of this year and has been recommended by many celebrities this summer, including Oprah.

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Swing Time

Swing Time, recommended by Reese Witherspoon, is about the close friendship between two girls who dream of being dancers...but only one has the talent to do it. The friendship ends suddenly in their twenties, but is never forgotten by either woman.

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Ma'am Darling

Perfect for fans of The Crown, Lily Allen's pick of Craig Brown's Ma'am Darling is a hilarious, inside-look at the life of Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister.

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The Guest List

The Guest List, also from Reese Witherspoon's Book Club, is the perfect summer page-turner. On the remote Irish coast, thirteen guests gather for the wedding of their friends, but before the event can even begin, one of them is found dead. And when a storm hits the island, no one can escape...

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Deacon King Kong

Oprah's June pick for her book club, Deacon King Kong is described as being ' a reminder that while we struggle with pain and trauma, we can always find shelter in one another.'

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Pretty Things

Read Nicole's pick, Janelle Brown's Pretty Things, now before it becomes an Amazon Prime Limited series (starring Nicole Kidman) later this year.

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How to Cure a Ghost

Kendall Jenner's beach bag choice is How to Cure a Ghost, a book of poetry charting one woman's journey from self-hatred to self-acceptance.

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On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

As recommended by Ali Wong, poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a letter from a son to his mother who cannot read that explores the mother-son relationship as well as race, class and masculinity.

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Everything Inside

Perfect for those of us who always read novels but are looking for something a little different, Reese Witherspoon's August Book Club pick Everything Inside is a collection of eight short stories filled with drama, romance and mystery.

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Heaven, My Home

In Heaven, My Home, a young white boy, son of a Aryan Brother captain, goes missing and the only suspect is a black man. Set in Texas, where racial violence is on the rise after the election of Donald Trump, Ranger Darren Mathews has to battle centuries-old prejudices to save the boy and find the real culprit.

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You Should See Me In a Crown

This book is technically categorised as Young Adult, but you'd never know. Liz Lighty is running for senior prom queen to win scholarship money to her dream college, but it won't be that easy. From navigating typical teenage drama to falling for the new girl (who also happens to be her competition), it's a bumpy ride you'll want to be around for.

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Writers and Lovers

Casey has just returned to Massachusetts, grieving both the loss of her mother and a devastating love affair. Then she meets Silas, and things are looking up. Until a few weeks later when she meets Oscar, a single father of two boys who recently lost his wide. Suddenly, Casey is in the middle of a love triangle — and she doesn't know what to do.

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I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

In I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Reese's July pick, Austin Channing Brown tells the world what it's like 'growing up in a Black girl's body. It's about surviving in a world not made for me.'

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The Book of V

The Book of V, also a pick by Emma Roberts, tells the stories of three women across three centuries looking at their need for sex, power and desire. It shows how much has changed for women over time, and how much has not.

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Black Sunday

Sarah Jessica Parker recommends Black Sunday, Tola Rotimi Abraham's debut novel about sisterhood and female resistance set over two decades in Nigeria.

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Caste: The Lies That Divide Us

In Caste: The Lies That Divide Us, Isabel Wilkerson looks at the caste system that defines the world, specifically in America, and and how its arbitrary hierarchies still divide us today.

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