Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski can often be found reading a book when she isn’t working. She has ventured out and has played a role in a popular book adaptation, Gone Girl in 2014. And today, we will be looking at Emily Ratajkowski’s favorite books about relationships.
On top of being a model and an actress, Ratajkowski is also a New York Times Bestselling author with her My Body. Interestingly enough, we both have the same first novel that shaped our love for reading.
“I definitely associate different writers and books with different parts of my life,” Ratajkowski said in an interview with Esquire. “Like, I remember the first novel that really made an impact on me was ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ which is an obvious one.” She first read the novel when she was eight years old. “My mom was really into it and she had given it to me.”
In another interview with Vogue, Ratajkowski talks about her favorite books and how unique her list of favorite books are.
“When you start with such a banger of a book so young, you’re pretty much destined to have a really eclectic list of favorites as you get older,” she said. “Almost impossible to just pick five books.”
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett.
In this article, we will be focusing on three books about relatiobships that Ratajkowski loves. The first one she mentions is Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett. It is a memoir by Patchett about her friendship with writer Lucy Grealy that lasted for over decades before Grealy passed away from a heroin overdose in 2002.
“I read this book when I was in college. Someone gave it to me because it was about female friendship—in particular the friendship between Ann Patchett and another writer named Lucy Grealy. They weren’t just friends, though, they were young women navigating sex and beauty (Grealy had some physical deformities due to a childhood cancer), and there’s something so honest about this book that it makes you kind of wonder: Is it okay to tell a story this way? “
“There was a back-and-forth with Grealy’s friends and family about the publication of the book because they didn’t love the way Grealy was portrayed. But I have yet to read as compelling a work about female friendship, female beauty, and ideals about male desire—and all those things intersect with what I write about in my book.”
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
“I read this book my senior year of high school. It was one of those books that people were always talking about, but it had never been assigned to me. I can’t remember why I actually picked it up, but I immediately became obsessed with it when I did, and read it in three days. I remember sitting on a bed—it was actually my boyfriend’s bed—and sobbing when I finished it. He came in and was like, “What’s wrong with you?”
“I think it’s one of those books that should be required reading for young women. The problems that Madame Bovary faces are actually modern, existential questions of how you feel in your body as a woman, about hope and love and the idea of a Prince Charming. I don’t think men are taught they should look to romance to figure out who they are—that still seems true today. And the main character—who at points you can’t stand and at other points you have so much love for—is one of the best of all time.
All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
“I really admire bell hooks for how plainly and directly she writes. She has no pretentious aspirations in her writing; rather she is just specific and deliberate. This is one of her more recent books, and it entails a really refreshing marriage between a spiritual and intellectual approach to understanding what love is and what it’s capable of doing for us. It’s a beautiful book that has a lot of hope in it. It would make a great gift.”
Conclusion
These are Emily Ratajkowski’s favorite books about relationships and you can check out some of her other favorite books here. I always enjoy reading why someone chose a book as their favorite and we get to hear Ratajkowski share anecdotes about them. How many of these books have you read or plan to read?