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'.

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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

00:37two rows. Peekaboo. Whatever you see here, double that. And that's my collection. And I'm not someone

00:45who typically 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's just as good as

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

01:42fourth book. The first one was written 1978. 42 years later, he gives us another one. I mean,

01:52that's how you build up suspense as an author. But I love these books. They're absurdist. They're

01:57weird. They're about elementary school where things are kind of wacky and strange. So Wayside

02:02School stories. Doesn't matter how old you are, you can read them. You can love them. This is

02:08another book I loved as a kid. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. It's a book of vignettes

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

02:23pretty short, but so poignant. The main character of the book is named Esperanza, which means hope

02:29in Spanish. But her sister is named Magdalena. Nenny for short. Guess what? One of my cats

02:37named Nenny 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 Weckoning. She writes about growing up

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

03:16kind of frames America. This one stuck with me. I actually read it twice. Okay, another one blew me

03:22away thick and other essays. Tressie McMillan Cottom. Oof. Her brain. I don't even know how to start

03:32because it's bigger than all of ours. But yeah, she writes about different social issues,

03:39black feminism, politics, pop culture, beauty, media, money. She's a sociologist, but she's just,

03:46her writing is woo. Woo. That's my review. Another essay collection I love made me think a lot,

03:53The Unreality of Memory and other essays by Elisa Gabbert. Um, also a very thoughtful writer.

03:59She's a poet also. She just writes about, uh, you know, disaster culture, climate anxiety,

04:07our mounting collective sense of doom, just really living in the zeitgeist. And how about this cover?

04:14You know, it's a void. Okay. Last book of essays. This one's a lighter read. I know I'm throwing

04:22some heavy stuff at you. It's like, okay, professor. But this one, uh, by my friend, comedian and writer

04:28and actress, triple threat, Maeve Higgins. Uh, it's called Tell Everyone on This Train. I love them.

04:36It's a book of essays. It is so funny and fun and smart like Maeve is. John Ronson,

04:44Maeve 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 and Conversations

05:12by Mira Jacob. She learned to draw for this book. And then she wrote an entire graphic

05:21memoir that she, she learned to draw. She didn't know how to draw before this. And then she, oh my gosh,

05:30it's, it's upsetting, but the book is not. The book is great, thought provoking, funny,

05:36just like Mira. Okay. And lastly, two more memoirs. The Folded Clock by Heidi Julevitz,

05:47one of my favorite writers. It is kind of a different take on the diary. She goes through

05:52some childhood diaries and she realizes that she writes kind of like a tax auditor. Like,

05:58it's just cataloging what has happened to her. And I'm like that too. I'll be like, November 5th,

06:032011, I got oat milk instead of soy milk, you know, and then that'll be the big thing of the day.

06:11Even though, yeah, don't fact check that oat milk didn't exist in 2011. But I, yeah, The Folded Clock

06:18by Heidi Julevitz is sort of a different take on a diary. She catalogs two years in her life and she just

06:24weaves all these themes together and it's, it's incredible. And then another take on the sort of

06:31the memoir, Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krauss Rosenthal, who sadly passed away from

06:38cancer a few years ago. I have not survived against all odds. I have not lived to tell. I have not

06:45witnessed the extraordinary. This is my story. So she sort of turns that idea of like memoirs having to

06:52be these really huge critical life events and, and kind of focuses on the minutia of day to day,

06:58which is really where, what scratches my itch. And the even more fun part, she makes the memoir

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

07:12K, it says kids meals on flights. And she writes, I never remember to pre-order the kids meals. It never

07:18even occurs to me until I see the flight attendant prancing down the aisle with fun, colorful trays

07:23for children who are not mine. This is a book that I've read twice and I still can't give it away

07:30because I love it too much. We're through the books. On to the questions. My favorite genre is fiction

07:38because it's like reality, but it's not. My favorite childhood book was The Phantom Tollbooth. Still

07:47one of my favorite books. Um, it's about this, uh, guy Milo, Milo, who goes, uh, he basically enters this

07:55magical world through this tollbooth and it's a world that mirrors the brain. There's like a section

08:02of the world that's all about words and there's a section of the world that's all about numbers and

08:05it's sort of how it all fits together and it's really fun. And it's just one of those books that

08:11has always stuck with me and I I'm sort of a word nerd. So it just, yeah. I don't know the last time

08:17I stayed up all night, but I am constantly staying up late reading. I will push my bedtime. Even if I'm

08:24falling asleep, I will try to keep reading. I am actually part of a book club. It is a group of

08:32assorted people I know. The beautiful thing about this book club is you don't even need to read the

08:36book. Sometimes you can just come to the meeting and talk about what's going on in your life.

08:41So really it's just like a support group with books sometimes. Hard copy till the end. Guys,

08:51I'm so sorry to the trees, but I just love sticking my nose in the spine and getting a good whiff and

08:57flipping the pages with my fingers kind of in an annoying way to the people around me. But

09:03that's, that's my deal. I am someone who highlights books when they really have parts that stick with

09:12me. Do I ever come back and look at them? No, but it feels important to highlight it while I'm reading it.

09:17And I will also take quotes from the book and put them in a notes app on my phone. What am I gonna do

09:23with all those quotes? Who knows, but they're ready for the next dinner party I go to. This one's a big

09:31one for people in my field. The Artist's Way. I'm gonna be honest, I've referenced it in conversations,

09:38never actually read the darn thing. I'm gonna read it any day now. Any day now. I'm gonna go ahead and say

09:47the Artist's Way. Just because I love to see what they do with it. Maybe, 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

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

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

10:18waiter. I think they, I think anyone in the service industry, they have seen some crap and, excuse my

10:26language, and I want to know. I want to know everyone's bad behavior because I think it's, we know

10:34it's bad, but I bet it's even worse than we think it is. On the subject of books, I actually wrote a book

10:40of essays on Reliable Narrator, Me, Myself, and Imposter Syndrome. It comes out September 19th. And

10:47yeah, I'd love for you to check it out. But while you're at it, maybe subscribe to Marie Claire. I don't know.

10:56I don't ruin your life.

11:04I don't ruin your life.

11:06I don't ruin your life.

11:13But I think it's okay.

11:19The truth is, it seems...

11:26I don't think I'm gonna leave a little bit alone.

11:28I don't want to take a moment, right?

Aparna Nancherla | Shelf Portrait | Marie Claire

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