Aparna Nancherla | Shelf Portrait | Marie Claire - video Dailymotion

Marie Claire

Aparna Nancherla is clearly an avid reader. The comedian, actress, and author has so many books that she needs a two-layered shelving system to hold all the titles. Take a look inside her personal library and then order her own book, 'Unreliable Narrator'.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Aparna Nincharla. This is my personal library. Welcome to Shelf Portrait.

00:11We're sitting here in front of my library. It's just one shelf, but there are more books in my

00:18home, I assure you. It's just that I moved recently, eight months ago, and the house is

00:24still not in order. So this is what we get to look at today. I hope, I hope that moment of

00:30vulnerability connects you to me. So these are my books. Here's a little secret. It's actually two

00:38rows. Peekaboo. Whatever you see here, double that. And that's my collection. And I'm not someone who

00:46typically holds on to books once I've read them. So these are all books I either haven't read yet

00:53or have been meaning to read or give to a friend. Life is short. Let's be honest, probably not going

01:00to get to all of them. I was told to share five of my favorite books, but here's the thing. I'm

01:06horrible at following directions. So I actually picked 13 books to share. It's going to go fast.

01:14Don't worry. First books, see four at once. We're going to fly through this. This was one of my

01:20favorite series as a kid. The Wayside School stories. Sideways stories from Wayside School.

01:27Wayside School is falling down. Great sequel. How often can you say the sequel is just as good as the

01:33original? Wayside School gets a little stranger. And then, okay, get this. 2020, he releases the fourth book.

01:43The first one was written 1978. 42 years later, he gives us another one. I mean, that's how you build

01:53up suspense as an author. But I love these books. They're absurdist. They're weird. They're about

01:58elementary school where things are kind of wacky and strange. So Wayside School stories,

02:03doesn't matter how old you are, you can read them. You can love them.

02:07This is another book I loved as a kid, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. It's a book of

02:14vignettes about a little girl, a little Mexican girl and her family growing up in Chicago. And

02:22each chapter pretty short, but so poignant. The main character of the book is named Esperanza,

02:29which means hope in Spanish. But her sister is named Magdalena, Nenni for short. Guess what? One of

02:36my cats named Nenni after this book. I mean, there's no higher honor. This book, Zazie and the Metro,

02:45I have not read by Raymond Cano, but our other cat named Zazie. Uh oh, seems like you're in a really

02:54literary house. Next up, we have some essay collections. This one really blew me away.

03:00Minor Feelings by Kathy Park Hong and Asian American Reckoning. She writes about growing up

03:07Asian American and just how that racial identity fits into the sort of black and white narrative

03:15that kind of frames America. This one stuck with me. I actually read it twice.

03:20Okay, another one blew me away thick and other essays. Tressie McMillan Cottom.

03:28Her brain, I don't even know how to start because it's bigger than all of ours. But yeah,

03:35she writes about different social issues, black feminism, politics, pop culture, beauty, media,

03:43money. She's a sociologist, but she's just her writing is woo. Woo. That's my review. Another

03:51essay collection I love made me think a lot. The unreality of memory and other essays by Lisa Gabbert.

03:57Also very thoughtful writer. She's a poet. Also, she just writes about, you know, disaster culture,

04:06climate anxiety, our mounting collective sense of doom. Just really living in the zeitgeist. And how

04:13about this cover? You know, it's a void. Okay, last book of essays. This one's a lighter read. I know

04:21I'm throwing some heavy stuff at you. It's like, okay, professor. But this one, uh, by my friend,

04:27comedian and writer and actress, triple threat, Maeve Higgins. Uh, it's called Tell Everyone on

04:34This Train. I love them. It's a book of essays. It is so funny and fun and smart like Maeve is.

04:42John Ronson. Maeve Higgins is the funniest writer I know. There you go. Two graphic memoirs that I love.

04:50Passing for Human by Liana Fink. Her drawing style is just so original and it's like spare, but so

04:59evocative. But yeah, this is a memoir of sort of how she became an artist. Um, kind of her parents'

05:05timelines. It's, it's gorgeous. It's gorgeous. This one, Good Talk, A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob.

05:14She learned to draw for this book and then she wrote an entire graphic memoir that she, she learned to,

05:26she didn't know how to draw before this. And then she, oh my gosh. It's, it's upsetting. But the book

05:33is not. The book is great, doubt provoking, funny, just like Mira. Okay. And lastly, two more memoirs.

05:44The Folded Clock by Heidi Julevitz, one of my favorite writers. It is kind of a different take on

05:50the diary. She goes through some childhood diaries and she realizes that she writes kind of like a

05:57tax auditor. Like it's just cataloging what has happened to her. And I'm like that too. I'll be like

06:02November 5th, 2011. I got oat milk instead of soy milk, you know? And then that'll be the big thing

06:10of the day. Even though, yeah, don't fact check that oat milk didn't exist in 2011. But I, yeah,

06:17The Folded Clock by Heidi Julevitz is sort of a different take on a diary. She catalogs two years

06:22in her life and she just weaves all these themes together and it's, it's incredible. And then another

06:30take on the sort of the memoir, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krauss Rosenthal, who sadly

06:37passed away from cancer a few years ago. I have not survived against all odds. I have not lived to

06:43tell. I have not witnessed the extraordinary. This is my story. So she sort of turns that idea of like

06:51memoirs having to be these really huge critical life events and kind of focuses on the minutiae of

06:57day to day, which is really where, what scratches my itch. And the even more fun part, she makes the

07:05memoir into the form of encyclopedia. So it's like A to Z and there's just different categories. Like

07:11on your K, it says kids meals on flights. And she writes, I never remember to preorder the kids meals.

07:17It never even occurs to me until I see the flight attendant prancing down the aisle with fun,

07:22colorful trays for children who are not mine. This is a book that I've read twice and I still can't

07:30give it away because I love it too much. We're through the books. On to the questions.

07:36My favorite genre is fiction because it's like reality, but it's not. My favorite childhood book

07:45was The Phantom Tollbooth. Still one of my favorite books. It's about this guy Milo, Milo, who goes,

07:53uh, he basically enters this magical world through this tollbooth. And it's a world that mirrors the

08:00brain. There's like a section of the world that's all about words. And there's a section of the world

08:04that's all about numbers. And it's sort of how it all fits together. And it's really fun. And it's just

08:10one of those books that has always stuck with me. And I, I'm sort of a word nerd. So it just, yeah.

08:16I don't know the last time I stayed up all night, but I am constantly staying up late reading.

08:22I will push my bedtime. Even if I'm falling asleep, I will try to keep reading.

08:26I am actually part of a book club. It is a group of assorted people I know. The beautiful thing about

08:34this book club is you don't even need to read the book. Sometimes you can just come to the meeting and

08:39talk about what's going on in your life. So really it's just like a support group with books. Sometimes

08:48hard copy till the end guys. I'm so sorry to the trees, but I just love sticking my nose in the

08:55spine and getting a good whiff and flipping the pages with my fingers kind of in an annoying way

09:01to the people around me, but that's, that's my deal. I am someone who highlights, uh, books

09:09when they're really have parts that stick with me. Do I ever come back and look at them? No,

09:14but it feels important to highlight it while I'm reading it. And I will also take quotes from the

09:20book and put them in a notes app on my phone. What am I going to do with all those quotes?

09:25Who knows? But they're ready for the next dinner party I go to. This one was a big one for people in

09:32my field. The artist's way. I'm going to be honest. I've referenced it in conversations. Never actually

09:39read the darn thing. I'm going to read it any day now. Any day now. I'm going to go ahead and say

09:47the artist's way just because I'd love to see what they do with it. Maybe, um, you know, Meryl Streep could

09:54play the concept of morning pages. That's pretty cool. Actually, don't use that idea. There's a strike right

10:02now. Don't, don't use that. Don't use that. I honestly think enough famous people have been given book

10:08deals. Enough is enough. I think the person who should write a tell-all is probably like

10:17a cater waiter. I think they, I think anyone in the service industry, they have seen

10:23some crap and excuse my language. And I, I want to know. I want to know everyone's bad behavior

10:32because I think it's, we know it's bad, but I bet it's even worse than we think it is. On the subject

10:38of books, I actually wrote a book of essays, Unreliable Narrator, Me, Myself, and Imposter Syndrome.

10:44It comes out September 19th. And yeah, I'd love for you to check it out. But while you're at it, maybe

10:53subscribe to Marie Claire. I don't know. I don't ruin your life.

Aparna Nancherla | Shelf Portrait | Marie Claire

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