Take A Tour Of Cleo Wade's Impeccably-Curated Bookshelves | Shelf Portrait | Marie Claire - video Dailymotion

Marie Claire

Writer Cleo Wade brought Marie Claire inside her home to show off her poetry-and-pottery-filled bedroom library. Hear about the last book that kept her up all night and why Reese Witherspoon is one of her book gurus.

Transcript

00:00 Hi, this is Cleo Wade and welcome, Mary Claire, to the bookshelf in my bedroom for Shelf Portrait.

00:14 I'm actually a non-professional but I feel professional bookshelf accessorizer.

00:21 I have a lot of bookshelves in our house because I'm a writer, my partner Simon's a writer,

00:26 so we have a zillion books and I do all of our bookshelves at our house.

00:32 So I did this one.

00:33 This is one of the only ones I did that was kind of color coordinated.

00:36 The rest of ours are kind of just free and loose, but we have a lot of the kind of black

00:41 books and tan books and red books and white books together.

00:45 I really like to mix in pottery.

00:47 My friend Lisa makes these beautiful pottery pieces.

00:50 They're in here.

00:51 Some I got from Casa Edo.

00:54 This is from a shop in New Orleans called Sunday Shop.

00:57 I also think when you have bookshelves, it's really important to try to mix in art, whether

01:01 it's art from your friends.

01:03 My brother-in-law gave us this photo.

01:05 It's a photo of the Simon and him at the beach when they were babies to something very fancy.

01:12 I feel very lucky to have this beautiful Lorna Simpson in our lives and in our bedroom.

01:17 And then even just your family photos.

01:19 It's a photo of Simon and I hugging on a hike.

01:23 Obviously the first book I want to share from my bookshelf is Remember Love.

01:29 My new book, it's Words for Tender Times.

01:31 I spent a few years writing this book and I love it so much.

01:34 It's kind of about how to find steadiness when the world around you is just spinning

01:41 with change and you're just trying to find your way and get back to yourself.

01:47 A lot of this book also has to do with heartbreak.

01:50 And I said to my friends, it's kind of like every aspect of your life.

01:54 If you're trying to rebuild, this is the book for you.

01:56 So whether you're rebuilding in your career or in your personal life or in your family

02:01 relationships or in your relationship with yourself, that's why I wrote Remember Love.

02:06 Black Women Writers at Work, one of my very favorite books.

02:10 My friend Stevie recommended this book to me when I was writing Heart Talk, my first

02:14 book, and it's the best book on writing you'll ever read.

02:17 I recommend it to everyone if you are thinking of writing or you feel like you have a book

02:22 in your heart.

02:24 This book is incredible.

02:26 My friend Jenna's Human Design book, which is also amazing.

02:30 I am obsessed with human design.

02:32 It's something I've personally followed for a long time.

02:35 So I love having her book on here.

02:37 This is really special to me.

02:38 This is a first edition of Beloved.

02:42 My friend Kate gave me for my birthday this year and I love it so much.

02:46 It's one of my favorite books from Toni Morrison.

02:48 I also have a first edition of The Bluest Eye, which I think Simon gave me when we first

02:52 started dating.

02:53 I have my friend Doreen McCaslin's book On the Other Side of Freedom.

02:57 If you are an activist or you have a young activist in your family, I really, really

03:02 couldn't recommend that book more.

03:04 We have the Complete Collective Poems of Maya Angelou and oh my God, of course, Derek Wolcott.

03:10 Lots and lots and lots of poetry.

03:12 We have the Mindset book by Carol DeWitt, which is incredible.

03:16 I always recommend that book.

03:18 My book, where to begin?

03:21 I think we're mostly politics, self-help, spiritual, poetry in our bedroom, and pottery.

03:28 Yes, this is the shelf, my shelf portrait.

03:36 I think my favorite genres has to be poetry.

03:40 Poetry is really the genre that made me love, love and fall in love with reading.

03:46 That's really hard.

03:47 I guess I could say it's a tie between Toni Morrison and Maya Angelou, but it's hard because

03:53 Generations, Lucille Clifton's memoir is one of my favorite books of all time.

03:58 Toni Cade Bambara, I don't know.

03:59 I really couldn't pick.

04:00 James Baldwin, it's really, it's very hard.

04:03 I actually just reread Nora Ephron's Heartburn and I hadn't read that book in like 10 years.

04:10 And I laughed and laughed and laughed.

04:11 And I think I was traveling with it.

04:12 It was the first time I'd even like kind of like walked with the book.

04:13 I was going through the airport walking with it when I got to the hotel.

04:14 I stayed up reading it.

04:15 You know, the reason I love Nora Ephron's book so much because you really feel like you're

04:26 visiting with a friend.

04:28 And I feel like when I write in a much different way than Nora Ephron, but I do try to make

04:32 it feel like you're visiting with a friend or your friend has come to see you and ask

04:38 you how you're doing and give you a hug.

04:41 Is there a book I've never been able to finish?

04:43 I do not finish any books I don't like.

04:45 I do not have the urge to complete just because I started something.

04:51 If I feel like what's that famous Kim Cattrall line where she's like, if I'm not enjoying

04:56 something for even a minute, I'm not going to do it.

04:59 Like I, I actually am that way.

05:02 I'm like, if I am not enjoying it, close the book.

05:05 Goodbye.

05:06 The vision of the bluest eye.

05:08 I mean, it's just, it's so haunting.

05:11 It's so beautiful.

05:14 And somehow, you know, I don't know if this is my favorite or not, but I, it always kind

05:18 of struck me because this is a book cover that really captured the haunting energy of

05:24 a book.

05:25 I really loved Tana Hesse Coates' Water Dancer cover.

05:30 I remember when it came out and I was like, gosh, that's so beautiful.

05:34 Who gives me the best book recommendations?

05:36 I'd have to say there's two people and they are polar opposite recommendations.

05:43 And I love that.

05:44 I think Reese Witherspoon gives the best book recommendations.

05:47 Of course she has a book club and my friend Stevonna Ellen Rogers gives the best book

05:52 recommendations.

05:53 Reese's are more for fiction.

05:55 I always read her book club recommendations.

05:57 I love her fiction, uh, Rex and Stevie mostly reads nonfiction.

06:02 So she's actually who shared with me black women writers at work.

06:06 I'd say probably those same two people.

06:08 I feel like Stevie is someone where you can really kind of like soak in every word of

06:16 how someone wrote something from their heart.

06:19 And I love that she really holds words to be this really divine, ritualistic, beautiful,

06:25 ancient spiritual practice and process.

06:28 So I love her feedback on words.

06:30 She's one of the first people I asked to read my own work.

06:33 She has like a witchy thing about reading and words.

06:35 And so discussing any book with her is amazing.

06:39 And then Reese is also one of the best people to discuss a book with because she loves stories

06:46 and she loves women's stories.

06:47 And you're just reminded of the life and liveliness and excitement and mystery and passion and

06:54 all of like the juicy stuff of life.

06:57 She really soaks in and so, and she gets genuinely excited about it.

07:01 And so to be able to listen to her talk about any book is always just, I don't know, it

07:07 makes you feel like alive and juicy.

07:08 Well, I collect a lot of vintage books and I'll find those anywhere online.

07:12 I'll buy them on old bookseller sites.

07:16 Most of your local bookstores, which is why it's so important to shop local, do have a

07:20 kind of vintage section for their books.

07:22 And I love that.

07:24 So when I'm in DC, I love mahogany books and politics and prose.

07:29 If I'm in New York, I love, uh, obviously the strand and McNally Jackson, Los Libros.

07:35 I love Baldwin and company in New Orleans.

07:39 The kind of local independent bookstores sellers are almost like parks where a park really

07:43 tells a lot about the community.

07:45 And I feel like whenever you're visiting somewhere, one of the best things you can do is go find

07:50 your local bookseller there and explore because I feel like you learn so much about the vibe.

07:56 It's like finding the best local restaurant, finding the best local bookstore.

08:01 I feel like that's the real experience of traveling.

08:04 So I think I have a different one, different favorite bookstore in every city I go to.

08:08 What book have I read the most in my life?

08:10 I probably returned to the fire next time more times than any other book in my life.

08:15 It's a, it's really, as a book that you can reread.

08:17 I've actually reread the little prints probably the most in my life.

08:22 And, um, I think probably my interest complete work of poetry.

08:27 Well seeing as how I have two very small loud children, um, wherever I can read a book,

08:34 um, is where I will read a book.

08:36 So sometimes I lock myself in my closet and read a book.

08:41 Sometimes I get to read in bed after everyone's gone to sleep, but I think probably the best

08:45 place to read a book might be an airplane for me anyway.

08:48 Thank you so much for watching my shelf portrait.

08:53 And if you will, please subscribe to Mary Claire.

08:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]

Take A Tour Of Cleo Wade's Impeccably-Curated Bookshelves | Shelf Portrait | Marie Claire

Category

Transcript

Recommended