00:00This was from a dressing gown worn by Nicola Copland aka Penelope Featherington,
00:05but what makes this really special is that it is signed from both Phoebe Denevore and Regé-Jean Page.
00:12Hi, I'm Julia Quinn and I'm inviting you in to see my personal library.
00:17This is Shelf Portrait for Marie Claire.
00:22One of the most exciting things for me about being an author is seeing my books translated
00:26into so many different languages and so I keep a lot of them on the bookshelf here and it's just
00:31so much fun for me. This is Danish. These are some new collections in French. Back here,
00:37actually this is Dutch. This is a box set for Brazilian Portuguese. I've got some Spanish here
00:44and then these are just some very special English editions that I have and we've got
00:48Thai and Korean and Japanese. So I'm going to share with you one of my most prized possessions.
00:55This, yes, it's The Duke and I which I wrote but this is a very special copy because
01:01for one, my bookmark is a scrap of fabric from the actual show. This was from a dressing gown worn by
01:08Nicola Copland aka Penelope Featherington, but what makes this really special is that it is signed
01:15from both Phoebe Denevore and Regé-Jean Page. So sometimes you buy a book just because you see it
01:21in the bookstore and it totally cracks you up and that is why I have purchased Crap Taxidermy.
01:26This book is so funny. I could open to any page and it will just make you die laughing. It's just
01:33the world's worst taxidermy. My entire family adores it. My mom just cleaned out her basement
01:40and we found one of my favorite books from when I was growing up. It is Louisa Alcott,
01:44Girl of Old Boston. It is a biography of Louisa May Alcott and it is so much fun to look through
01:51because you can see my old address and I wrote in that's my handwriting from when I was a little kid
01:56and it's just it's so beautifully illustrated. I have to find one for you. All in these great
02:02silhouettes. I read this book so many times as a child. Far more times than I actually read
02:09anything that Louisa May Alcott wrote herself. I love graphic novels and graphic memoirs and
02:14one book that I have purchased so many times recently because I've given it as a gift to
02:19just maybe not dozens of people but a lot of people is they call this The Enemy by George
02:24Takei. It is a memoir of his time in an internment camp during World War II and it is just so moving
02:36and told in such an accessible manner. Everybody should read this book. This is one of my most
02:40treasured possessions. It is an autographed set of March which is a three-part graphic memoir by
02:48Congressman John Lewis and I met him at the American Library Association conference a few
02:53years ago and he signed this for me. I think everybody should have some comics in their
02:57collection. Certainly we all need a little Kevin and Hobbes but one that I really like is by Grant
03:03Snyder. I will judge you by your bookshelf. It's a collection of comics about books and reading
03:09and they're just so much fun. I often share these on social media and so when I saw that he was
03:14having a collection I knew I had to buy it. I actually read books both paper and electronic
03:21and it's actually kind of funny because there were some books I wanted to recommend and I
03:25searched my whole house to find a copy and then I realized it was on my e-reader. So for example
03:30Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple. I love that book so much especially because Seattle, my
03:36city, is such an important part of it and she gets everything right but I don't have it to show you
03:41because it's on my e-reader. Here's another author I really love. I think I've read everything that
03:46she's written. It's Jenny Lawson. She has a blog called The Blog S but she also writes books and
03:52this is her most recent one. I think it just came out this year, Broken, in the best possible way.
03:57She is so funny. I mean shake the bed funny but at the same time she's incredibly moving. There's
04:04a section where she writes an open letter to her insurance company about all the things that they
04:08give her grief about and she has a number of chronic conditions both mental and physical
04:14and it just really gets you in the heart and I just I think she's so smart and so wise and I
04:21would really like to meet her someday. I love to read romance novels. That goes without question.
04:27I write historical romance. I love historical romance. If you follow me on Facebook I actually
04:32recommend a historical romance every single Monday but here are two authors who have new
04:36books out that I just happen to have here that I love. This is Sarah McClain with Bombshell and
04:42she writes books. They're just so fierce and feminist. I love them and then I've also got a
04:46new one by Julianne Long who's one of my favorite authors. She's so underappreciated. I don't know
04:52why everyone isn't reading her. You really should. Now I also read contemporary romance and one of my
04:57favorites is The Hating Game by Sally Thorne and this is going to be a major motion picture soon
05:03so read the book now before you watch the movie. My father was also a writer and he wrote for
05:10middle grade readers and he wrote this wonderful book called Cheesy Mac which is so smart and so
05:18funny and so my dad and this was the first book and this was I think this was the last and
05:27he passed earlier this year and I am so grateful that kids can still get a taste of the type of
05:35person he was through the books that he wrote and we keep these books on a very special part
05:39of my bookshelf here which is just a section where I've got a lot of people who are important to me.
05:45I think that no library would be complete without The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Careful
05:50readers know that this is one of my favorite books. If you read Romancing Mr. Bridgerton
05:55I have a little homage to it in there. Yes in Regency Romance I managed to reference
06:00The Hitchhiker's Guide. So like every book lover I know I buy more books than I'm able to read
06:06in a timely manner so this is just one stack of books I purchased in the last month that I have
06:11not read yet but I will or at least that's what I'm telling myself but I have Mom Jeans and Other
06:17Mistakes by Alexa Martin. Super excited about this one. I love her books. This one was recommended to
06:23me. I don't know that much about it except it sounds really cool. Finding the Mother Tree,
06:27Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. I've also got Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I love the
06:33Martians so I'm really excited to try this one. And then from Daniel James Brown who also wrote
06:40The Boys in the Boat, Facing the Mountain, a true story of Japanese American heroes in World War II
06:45and this has a big Seattle component to it which I'm excited about because I live in Seattle.
06:51And then finally The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel because we all love Alison
06:58Bechdel. So this is one of my favorite books of all time. The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger.
07:04It's an epistolary novel which means it's written in letters and telegrams and ticket
07:09stubs and bar mitzvah programs. It's set in the early 1940s in Brooklyn and it stars a wise
07:16cracking young 12-13 year old boy named Joey Margolis and the all-star third baseman for the
07:23New York Giants, Charlie Banks. And they end up becoming friends in this kind of bizarre way
07:29and it is funny and heartbreaking and it's this great example of how you can write a novel
07:36in such a different manner and have it be just perfect. Thanks for watching Shelf Portrait
07:43and don't forget to subscribe to Marie Claire.
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