Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Born A Crime

WINNER OF THE THURBER PRIZEThe compelling, inspiring, (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.One of the comedy world's brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life. As host of the US hit show The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he provides viewers around the globe with their nightly dose of biting satire, but here Noah turns his focus inward, giving readers a deeply personal, heartfelt and humorous look at the world that shaped him. Noah was born a crime, son of a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother, at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents' indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the first years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, take him away.A collection of eighteen personal stories, Born a Crime tells the story of a mischievous young boy growing into a restless young man as he struggles to find his place in a world where he was never supposed to exist. Born a Crime is equally the story of that young man's fearless, rebellious and fervently religious mother - a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence and abuse that ultimately threatens her own life.Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Noah illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and an unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a personal portrait of an unlikely childhood in a dangerous time, as moving and unforgettable as the very best memoirs and as funny as Noah's own hilarious stand-up. Born a Crime is a must read.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
When I read @Trevornoah's "Born A Crime," I could not put the book down. Excited to announce that I will be starring in and producing its feature film adaptation!
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Freckleface Strawberry: Backpacks!

Academy Award–winning actress and New York Times bestselling author Julianne Moore brings us more adventures from Freckleface Strawberry! Freckleface and her best friend, Windy Pants Patrick, each have something secret in their backpacks: sticky, gooey gum and a squished, messy donut. When it comes time to pull their homework from their backpacks to hand in to the teacher, suddenly their snack choices seem like a really bad idea. With predictable sentence patterns, simple words, frequent repetition, and bright, colorful illustrations, this is a new Freckleface Strawberry book that young readers can read all by themselves!"Moore offers another delightful tale of her red-headed heroine, Freckleface Strawberry."—School Library Journal
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
“Another odd-one-out story told with lightness, humor and lots of love. Freckleface Strawberry and Sulwe would make great friends.” -LN
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Return to Love

Back by popular demand -- and newly updated by the author -- the mega-bestselling spiritual guide in which Marianne Williamson shares her reflections on A Course in Miracles and her insights on the application of love in the search for inner peace.Williamson reveals how we each can become a miracle worker by accepting God and by the expression of love in our daily lives. Whether psychic pain is in the area of relationships, career, or health, she shows us how love is a potent force, the key to inner peace, and how by practicing love we can make our own lives more fulfilling while creating a more peaceful and loving world for our children.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
“I come to this book again and again to remind myself what the practice of love is.” -LN
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Saga Vol. 1

From New York Times bestselling writer BRIAN K.VAUGHAN (Y: THE LAST MAN, EX MACHINA) and critically acclaimed artist FIONA STAPLES (MYSTERY SOCIETY, NORTH 40), SAGA is the sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in a sexy, subversive drama for adults. This specially priced volume collects the first arc of the smash hit series The Onion A.V. Club calls "the emotional epic Hollywood wishes it could make. Collects SAGA #1-6
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
“A friend of mine recommended it as a good introduction to comic book reading for adults, and I latched onto it. It’s Romeo and Juliet passion meets Star Wars epic and Game of Thrones provocativeness but with sharp and witty dialogue and incredibly imaginative illustration. My favorite character: Lying Cat: a cat that, instead of meowing, says, ‘lying’ every time someone lies in its presence – now that’s a superpower I would want!” -LN
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

A Life in Parts

“Nothing short of riveting...an engrossing first-person account by one of our finest actors” (Huffington Post)—both a coming-of-age story and a meditation on creativity, devotion, and craft—Bryan Cranston, beloved and acclaimed star of one of history’s most successful TV shows, Breaking Bad.Bryan Cranston began his acting career at the age of seven, when his father, a struggling actor and sometime director, cast him in a commercial for United Way. By fifth grade he was starring in the school play, spending hours at the local movie theater, and re-enacting favorite scenes with his brother in their living room. Cranston seemed destined to be an actor. But then his father left. And his family fell apart. Troubled by his father’s missteps, Cranston abandoned his acting aspirations and resolved to pursue a steadier career in law enforcement. Then, on a two-year cross-country motorcycle journey, Cranston re-discovered his talent for acting and found his mission and his calling. In this “must-read memoir” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Cranston traces the many roles he inhabited throughout his remarkable life, both on and off screen. For the first time he shares the story of his early years as an actor on the soap opera Loving, his recurring spots on Seinfeld, and his time as bumbling father Hal on Malcolm in the Middle, to his tour-de-force, Tony-winning performance as Lyndon Baines Johnson in Broadway’s All the Way, to his most iconic role of all: Breaking Bad’s Walter White. “An illuminating window into the actor’s psyche” (People), Cranston has much to say about creativity, devotion, and craft, as well as innate talent and its challenges and benefits and proper maintenance. “By turns gritty, funny, and sad” (Entertainment Weekly), ultimately A Life in Parts is a story about the joy, the necessity, and the transformative power of simple hard work.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
“A very frank, unsentimental and yet heartfelt account of Mr. Cranston’s life with some invaluable practical tips for how to navigate decision making in the entertainment business.” -LN
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

An Exaltation of Larks

A delightfully unexpected, lovingly curated ode to the unique collective nouns that adorn our language, from “a leap of leopards” to “a murder of crows” and beyond, from the inimitable voice behind Inside the Actors Studio“I am madly in love with collective nouns! They make language so colorful and ticklish. . . . [An Exaltation of Larks] possess[es] an embarrassment of riches (wink wink!).” —Lupita Nyong’o, The New York TimesFor those who have wondered if the familiar “pride of lions” and “gaggle of geese” were merely the tip of a linguistic iceberg, James Lipton has provided a definitive answer: here are hundreds of equally pithy, often poetic terms he has unearthed and collected into one exhaustive volume. Over years of painstaking research, he embarked on an odyssey that has given us a “slouch of models,” a “shrivel of critics,” an “unction of undertakers,” a “blur of Impressionists,” a “score of bachelors,” a “pocket of quarterbacks,” and many more.Witty, beautiful, and remarkably apt, An Exaltation of Larks is a brilliant compendium of more than 1,100 resurrected or newly minted contributions to that ever-evolving species, the English language.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
“A book on collective nouns that I read from often, and I wish more people knew about it. I am madly in love with collective nouns! They make language so colorful and ticklish. I love throwing them into casual conversation.” -LN
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

A Visible Man

* THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ** A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK *'I wish he could be editor of the world!' GRAHAM NORTON'Enjoy it. Share it.' IDRIS ELBA'Inspirational . . . and it's not just for people in fashion' CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN'One of the most inspirational books I've ever read' CHRIS EVANS'Inspiring and fascinating' BERNARDINE EVARISTO'Courageously truthful' SALMAN RUSHDIE'Edward Enninful is a pioneer' ELIZABETH DAY-Why look back when you can look forward? Why look in when you can look out? Where's the next evolution? I throw everything into my work, but once it's done, I'm really more concerned with what's new. The future is my thing.Edward Enninful has lived an extraordinary life.Here, for the first time, he shares the inspiring story of his journey, beginning in a childhood bedroom in Ghana overlooking firing squads, to arriving in 1990s London as an asylum seeker, to today setting the cultural agenda as the first Black editor-in-chief of British Vogue. His covers have changed our understanding of beauty and desirability. Featuring exclusively African models, first responders, global activists and the oldest cover star at age 85, they have also broken sales records. This is the story of how he did it.A Visible Man is the story of a husband, son, brother, friend – and icon. Taking us from the neon thrills of Soho clubs to nights spent on friends' sofas, this is the story of Edward's phenomenal grit and determination: through fame and failures, joy and loss, ill health and addiction, heartbreak and coming out. It's the story of one man's revolutionary mission to change how we see the world, showing how unwavering passion and perseverance can allow anyone to make their mark.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
I highly recommend this beautiful book from my beautiful friend! 🖤edward_enninful’s life is groundbreaking and we’re so lucky he captured it in his memoir, #AVisibleMan.
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Just as I Am

“In her long and extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson has not only succeeded as an actor, she has shaped the course of history.” –President Barack Obama, 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony“Just as I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. In these pages, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and a mother, a sister and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by his hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.” –Cicely Tyson
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
I can't wait to read IAmCicelyTyson's new book, #JustAsIAm, which details her six-decade career on and off the screen. Without the gains of women like her, women like me would have much greater pains to bear in the arts.
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Sapiens

**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER** What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us Sapiens? This bestselling history challenges everything we know about being human.Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it: us.In this bold and provocative book, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here and where we’re going. ‘I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species’ Bill Gates ‘Interesting and provocative... It gives you a sense of how briefly we’ve been on this Earth’ Barack Obama**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
What do you plan to read next? “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” by Yuval Noah Harari." I am trying to figure out what the devil is wrong with us that we seem so hell bent on destroying ourselves!
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Book of Yiddish proverbs and slang

Gathers a wide variety of Yiddish idioms, slang words, proverbs, curses, colloquialisms, and ribald expressions
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
What book might people be surprised to find on your shelves? A book of Yiddish proverbs.
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Becoming

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
I AmBecoming an avid reader this season, thanks to @michelleobama!
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Dawn

An alien race calls on one woman to revive mankind after Earth’s apocalypse in this science fiction classic from the award-winning author of Parable of the Sower. Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien spacecraft piloted by the Oankali—who arrived just in time to save humanity from extinction. They have kept Lilith and other survivors asleep for centuries, as they learned whatever they could about Earth. Now it is time for Lilith to lead them back to her home world, but life among the Oankali on the newly resettled planet will be nothing like it was before. The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly. Featuring strong and compelling characters and exploring complex themes of gender and species, Octavia E. Butler presents a powerful, postapocalyptic interplanetary epic, as well as a ray of hope for humanity. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Octavia E. Butler including rare images from the author’s estate.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time? What makes a work classic? Who determines that status? I recently picked up “Dawn,” by Octavia E. Butler, and I was stunned by how relevant the themes of the book are to today. I did not imagine that sci-fi would be an enjoyable genre to get into for me, but Butler writes with such a familiarity that the alien is welcome and intriguing. She really artfully exposes our human impulse to self-destruct.
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

The Sun Does Shine

A powerful, revealing story of hope, love, justice, and the power of reading by a man who spent thirty years on death row for a crime he didn't commit
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
"The Sun Does Shine,” by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin. It’s a shatteringly beautiful memoir about his life on death row for 28 years for a crime he did not commit. It’s a real downer to read about something as dark and unfortunate as wrongful incarceration, but Mr. Hinton expresses himself with a heart incomprehensibly swollen with love and gives meaningful insight into his alienating experience.
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

The Great Gatsby

With an Introduction and Notes by Guy Reynolds, University of Kent at Canterbury. Generally considered to be F. Scott Fitzgerald's finest novel, 'The Great Gatsby' is a consummate summary of the "roaring twenties", and a devastating expose of the "Jazz Age". Through the narration of Nick Carraway, the reader is taken into the superficially glittering world of the mansions which lined the Long Island shore in the 1920s, to encounter Nick's cousin Daisy, her brash but wealthy husband Tom Buchanan, Jay Gatsby and the mystery that surrounds him. 'The Great Gatsby' is an undisputed classic of American literature from the period following the First World War and is one of the great novels of the twentieth century. AUTHOR: There are few, if any, classic novelists whose current popularity exceeds that of F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). With his novels and short stories of "The Jazz Age", Fitzgerald is considered one of the greatest American novelists of the twentieth century, and 'The Great Gatsby' is his masterpiece.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is the book I have read the most times. I love the decadent melancholy of it.
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Not Quite Narwhal

In the tradition of Uni the Unicorn and Gaston, this heartwarming and adorable debut picture book tells the story of a young unicorn who was born under the sea to a family of narwhals.Growing up in the ocean, Kelp has always assumed that he was a narwhal like the rest of his family. Sure, he’s always been a little bit different—his tusk isn’t as long, he’s not as good of a swimmer, and he really doesn’t enjoy the cuisine. Then one night, an extra strong current sweeps Kelp to the surface, where he spots a mysterious creature that looks just like him! Kelp discovers that he and the creature are actually unicorns. The revelation leaves him torn: is he a land narwhal or a sea unicorn? But perhaps, if Kelp is clever, he may find a way to have the best of both worlds. Told with heartwarming illustrations and spare, sweet text, Jessie Sima’s debut picture book is about fitting in, standing out, and the all-encompassing love of family.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
I love the whimsy of both the story and the illustration. It's a story about being the odd one out, adoption and belonging, and it tells it so gently and sweetly.
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Love, Gnosis & Other Suicide Attempts



Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
On my nightstand: Love, Gnosis & Other Suicide Attempts by Amir Sulaiman.
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

Americanah

The bestselling novel from the award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele. “From one of the world’s great contemporary writers comes the story of two Nigerians making their way in the U.S. and the UK, raising universal questions of race and belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for identity and a home.” —Barack ObamaIfemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
I'm also rereading Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

I Am Not Sidney Poitier

I Am Not Sidney Poitier is an irresistible comic novel from the master storyteller Percival Everett, and an irreverent take on race, class, and identity in AmericaI was, in life, to be a gambler, a risk-taker, a swashbuckler, a knight. I accepted, then and there, my place in the world. I was a fighter of windmills. I was a chaser of whales. I was Not Sidney Poitier.Not Sidney Poitier is an amiable young man in an absurd country. The sudden death of his mother orphans him at age eleven, leaving him with an unfortunate name, an uncanny resemblance to the famous actor, and, perhaps more fortunate, a staggering number of shares in the Turner Broadcasting Corporation.Percival Everett's hilarious new novel follows Not Sidney's tumultuous life, as the social hierarchy scrambles to balance his skin color with his fabulous wealth. Maturing under the less-than watchful eye of his adopted foster father, Ted Turner, Not gets arrested in rural Georgia for driving while black, sparks a dinnertable explosion at the home of his manipulative girlfriend, and sleuths a murder case in Smut Eye, Alabama, all while navigating the recurrent communication problem: "What's your name?" a kid would ask. "Not Sidney," I would say. "Okay, then what is it?"
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
My book club just finished reading I Am Not Sidney Poitier, by Percival Everett. It was crazy because after I read it I got to meet Sidney Poitier, in the flesh!
Books from Lupita Nyong'o

The History of Love

Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006 and winner of the 2006 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, The History of Love by bestselling author Nicole Krauss explores the lasting power of the written word and the lasting power of love. 'When I was born my mother named me after every girl in a book my father gave her called The History of Love. . . 'Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author.Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the love lost that sixty years ago in Poland inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives. . . 'Wonderfully affecting...brilliant, touching and remarkably poised' Sunday Telegraph'A tender tribute to human valiance. Who could be unmoved by a cast of characters whose daily battles are etched on out mind in such diamond-cut prose?' Independent on Sunday'Devastating...one of the most passionate vindications of the written word in recent fiction. It takes one's breath away' Spectator Nicole Krauss is an American bestselling author who has received international critical acclaim for her first three novels: Great House (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011), The History of Love and Man Walks into a Room (shortlisted for the LA Times Book Award), all of which are available in Penguin paperback.
Lupita Nyong'o
Actress, Writer
I'm currently reading The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss.