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. We'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 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
02:47by Congressman 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
03:35Seattle, my city, is such an important part of it and she gets everything right, but I don't have
03:41it to show you because it's on my e-reader. Here's another author I really love. I think I've read
03:46everything that she's written. It's Jenny Lawson. She has a blog called The Blog S, but she also
03:51writes books and this is her most recent one. I think it just came out this year, Broken, in the
03:55best possible way. She is so funny. I mean shake the bed funny, but at the same time she's incredibly
04:04moving. There's a section where she writes an open letter to her insurance company about all
04:07the things that they give her grief about. She has a number of chronic conditions, both mental
04:12and physical, and it just really gets you in the heart and I just I think she's so smart and so
04:19wise and I would really like to meet her someday. I love to read romance novels. That goes without
04:26question. I write historical romance. I love historical romance. If you follow me on Facebook,
04:31I actually recommend a historical romance every single Monday, but here are two authors who have
04:35new books out that I just happen to have here that I love. This is Sarah McClain with Bombshell
04:41and she writes books. They're just so fierce and feminist. I love them and then I've also
04:46got a new one by Julianne Long, who's one of my favorite authors. She's so underappreciated. I
04:51don't know why everyone isn't reading her. You really should. Now I also read contemporary romance
04:56and one of my favorites is The Hating Game by Sally Thorne and this is going to be a major
05:02motion picture soon, so read the book now before you watch the movie. My father was also a writer
05:09and he wrote for middle grade readers and he wrote this wonderful book called Cheesy Mac,
05:14which is so smart and so funny and so my dad and this was the first book and this was
05:24I think this was the last and he passed earlier this year and I am so grateful that
05:32kids can still get a taste of the type of person he was through the books that he wrote
05:37and we keep these books on a very special part of my bookshelf here, which is just a section where
05:43I've got a lot of people who are important to me. I think that no library would be complete without
05:48The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Careful readers know that this is one of my favorite
05:52books. If you read Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, I have a little homage to it in there. Yes,
05:57in Regency Romance, I managed to reference The Hitchhiker's Guide. So like every book lover I
06:03know, I buy more books than I'm able to read in a timely manner. So this is just one stack of books
06:09I purchased in the last month that I have not read yet, but I will, or at least that's what I'm
06:15telling myself. But I have Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes by Alexa Martin. Super excited about
06:19this one. I love her books. This one was recommended to me. I don't know that much
06:24about it, except it sounds really cool. Finding the Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of the
06:29Forest. I've also got Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I love the Martians, so I'm really excited
06:35to try this one. And then from Daniel James Brown, who also wrote The Boys in the Boat,
06:41Facing the Mountain, a true story of Japanese American heroes in World War II. And this has
06:46a 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
06:57Alison Bechdel. So this is one of my favorite books of all time, The Last Days of Summer by
07:02Steve Kluger. It's an epistolary novel, which means it's written in letters and telegrams and
07:08ticket stubs and bar mitzvah programs. It's set in the early 1940s in Brooklyn, and it stars a
07:16wisecracking young 12, 13-year-old boy named Joey Margolis and the all-star third baseman for
07:23the New 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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