Here, British comedian Gina Yashere shares her favorite books in MC's 'Shelf Portrait' series.
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00:00 (box thuds)
00:02 See, look, all my books are falling down
00:04 'cause it's creepy, because this is horror
00:06 and there's supernatural stuff going on.
00:08 What's happening, people?
00:08 I'm Gina Yashere, a stand-up comic,
00:11 writer, exec, producer, co-creator,
00:13 and actor on "Bob Hearts and Vichola" on CBS,
00:16 and now author.
00:19 Wait.
00:20 There!
00:20 So I'm about to give Mary Claire and you guys
00:23 a peek into my personal library.
00:25 So, welcome to Shell Portrait.
00:28 (upbeat music)
00:30 I've been reading books since I was a young child.
00:36 My mother, as a Nigerian, super overprotective,
00:40 wouldn't let us play out in the streets
00:41 in case we got run over and killed.
00:43 So books were my solace.
00:44 I read a lot as a child.
00:48 As a kid, I started off with fairy tales.
00:49 Those were my favorite genre.
00:51 Fairy tales, then I moved to ghost stories,
00:54 and then I moved to horror.
00:55 And to this day, horror is still probably my favorite genre,
01:00 and my favorite writer has got to be Stephen King.
01:03 There is no other.
01:04 This book is my favorite book that I read as a child.
01:07 It's, look how thick it is!
01:09 Look at this book.
01:10 See, look, all my books are falling down,
01:15 'cause it's creepy, because this is horror,
01:16 and there's supernatural stuff going on.
01:18 I was about 14 when I read this book, maybe,
01:20 and I knocked it out in three days.
01:23 I just didn't eat, didn't sleep.
01:25 I just sat there, stewing in my own juices
01:28 while I finished this book, and I loved it.
01:30 It was a book about, you know, killer clowns,
01:34 child-eating spiders, but also about children
01:37 who were misfits, who formed their own little gang,
01:40 and fought evil together.
01:41 And so this is definitely one of my favorite books
01:44 as a kid, by Stephen King.
01:45 I'm a big fan of black women writers.
01:47 I like to support black women writers.
01:49 One of my favorite authors, I got into science fiction.
01:52 I'm not a big science fiction fan,
01:54 but Octavia Butler, one of the best authors
01:59 of any generation, and this is one
02:02 of my favorite books of hers.
02:03 In fact, this is my favorite book of hers, "Kindred."
02:08 It's kind of time travel, it's about a black woman
02:10 in the '70s, 'cause I think this book was written
02:11 in sort of late '70s, I think it was based in '79,
02:15 but a black woman living with her boyfriend,
02:17 who's white, and for some reason,
02:20 she gets dragged back into the past,
02:23 and finds herself back in slavery times.
02:26 So she's a modern woman, dragged back into the past,
02:29 and has to act a certain way so as not to be killed.
02:32 And then in one chapter, her boyfriend gets dragged back
02:35 through with her, and he's white,
02:36 so he has to pretend to be her owner.
02:39 Crazy book, wonderful book, and I don't know
02:42 why it's not a movie.
02:43 Why is this not a movie?
02:45 I would pay to see this movie.
02:47 In fact, I don't know if anybody's bought the rights.
02:49 If they haven't, I think I've given my idea away,
02:51 but I would love to buy the rights of this
02:53 and make this a movie, but I ain't got rights
02:55 buying money yet.
02:56 But anyway, "Kingman," Octavia Butler.
02:58 Speaking of black women writers, Nigerian authors,
03:02 "Second Class Citizen" by Buchi Emecheta.
03:06 She was a Nigerian author.
03:08 She died, God bless her soul, a few years ago.
03:10 And we used to study her books in school.
03:13 But what was the most fun part of this,
03:15 I knew this woman.
03:17 My mother and her were very good friends,
03:19 and I used to go with my mom to Auntie,
03:22 I used to call her Auntie Emecheta.
03:23 I used to go to her house when I was a child
03:25 and sit in a corner reading her books
03:27 while she and my mom discussed life back in Nigeria,
03:30 'cause they all came to England around the same time.
03:33 And this book, "Second Class Citizen,"
03:35 is a story of a woman coming from Nigeria to England
03:38 and all the challenges she faced with racism,
03:41 racism, racism, and the struggles and trials
03:46 and tribulations of raising her children in England.
03:49 And that was basically my mother's story.
03:51 So it's a beautiful book because it kind of tells mine
03:54 and my mother's story.
03:56 And it's a wonderful author, a very well-known author.
03:59 We read her books in school and I knew her as well.
04:02 So extra special, extra special.
04:05 Another author I love, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
04:09 And this is one of my favorite books of hers,
04:11 if not my favorite.
04:12 I mean, she's got some fantastic books,
04:14 "Half of a Yellow Sun," another wonderful book
04:16 that was made into a movie, but I didn't like so much.
04:19 I'm sorry, am I allowed to say that?
04:20 I didn't like the movie as much.
04:21 The book was amazing.
04:22 But anyway, Americana, one of my favorite books of hers.
04:25 A lot of the stories in this book are very similar
04:29 to chapters in my life.
04:30 So I was reading the book and going,
04:31 "Oh my gosh, it's like she's in my mind.
04:34 "It's like she's lived my life."
04:36 A lot of the similar stories of journey and change
04:39 and trying to find yourself and trying to fit into a society
04:42 that doesn't necessarily want you.
04:44 Americana, wonderful book.
04:47 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, wonderful writer.
04:50 Go read her stuff.
04:51 And I'm pretty sure she was probably,
04:54 she probably read a lot of Bucci and Leta's stuff as well.
04:58 Okay, so this book, I found this by accident.
05:02 I was just looking for fun new books
05:04 and it came up as a suggestion
05:07 after I'd read one of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's books.
05:10 And this is called "My Sister, the Serial Killer"
05:12 by Anka Braithwaite.
05:13 And oh my gosh, great writing.
05:17 So funny as well, actually.
05:18 It was very, very humorous as well as being dark
05:21 'cause it is about her sister
05:23 who likes to kill her boyfriend.
05:25 But I'm not gonna tell you anymore.
05:26 You have to read the book.
05:27 But very fun book, really well written,
05:29 really witty, really hilarious, really good fun.
05:33 Black women writers, man.
05:34 We're killing it.
05:35 Another black woman writer,
05:36 I don't know if you've heard of her.
05:37 Her name's Gina Yashway.
05:38 Yeah, that's me.
05:39 I've read the book, people.
05:40 I'm an author.
05:42 I'm an author.
05:43 This is called "Cack-Handed."
05:44 This is my first book.
05:45 I wrote it myself, all by myself.
05:49 It's called "Cack-Handed" because I'm left-handed.
05:51 And in England, left-handed, the term is cack-handed,
05:56 which also means clumsy and awkward
05:58 'cause left-handed people
05:59 are supposed to be clumsy and awkward.
06:00 I don't believe that to be true.
06:02 I just think that the whole world
06:03 is made for right-handed people.
06:05 So the few of us who are not right-handed,
06:07 we're gonna be perceived as clumsy and awkward
06:10 because the world is not made for us.
06:12 So that's why I called this book "Cack-Handed"
06:14 because it kind of, because I'm left-handed
06:16 and also because my journey through life
06:20 and through career has been awkward
06:21 and clumsy and different and weird.
06:23 And that's why it's a memoir covering my birth,
06:27 well, my parents traveling from Nigeria to England,
06:29 my birth in England, my life as an engineer,
06:31 'cause I was an engineer before I did comedy,
06:33 before I went in entertainment,
06:35 and my journey to get to America,
06:37 which to me was like, yeah,
06:40 it was the place that you had to be.
06:41 After watching kids on TV solving crimes
06:44 and riding around on cool bikes,
06:46 I had to come to America.
06:47 So this is my memoir that covers that story.
06:50 So please buy it.
06:51 It's available on all good platforms.
06:54 Yeah.
06:55 I love a good journey.
06:56 I love a good story of coming up against the odds.
07:00 And this book, "Jennifer Lewis, Mother of Black Hollywood."
07:04 You know, I love Jennifer Lewis.
07:05 I'm a big fan.
07:06 She's super talented, super funny.
07:08 She's fantastic on "Blackish" on ABC,
07:10 and she's been fantastic in everything she's done.
07:12 And this book is a chorus, hilariously funny,
07:17 but also very touching, very, very fun book to read.
07:21 Another Stephen King book that I read when I was a kid,
07:23 "Pet Sematary."
07:24 Horror, dead animals coming back to haunt you
07:29 and then burying your kids.
07:30 This was the first book that let me know
07:32 that children are not safe.
07:35 Most movies I watched as a kid,
07:37 kids always got out alive.
07:38 The adults died, but the kids always got out alive.
07:42 But Stephen King took that safety net away
07:45 when a baby was buried and came back to haunt his parents.
07:48 But great, great book.
07:50 So that's my favorite genre, horror.
07:52 My favorite place to read a book,
07:55 there are many places.
07:56 When I'm on vacation and I'm on the beach,
07:58 'cause I'm not an active person when I go on vacation.
08:00 I don't wanna climb.
08:01 I don't wanna hike.
08:02 I don't wanna do anything.
08:03 My bed, I just wanna sit by the water,
08:06 not go in the water
08:07 'cause I don't even like swimming that much.
08:08 I sit by the water and read a good book.
08:10 That is my idea of a perfect reading location.
08:15 On a beach or on a rooftop or by a pool, doing nothing.
08:19 Just reading and ordering cocktails.
08:22 This is Dinkoons.
08:25 I think I'm pronouncing his name correctly, Dinkoons.
08:26 Okay, when I was 12, I used to go to the library
08:30 to get my books.
08:31 I couldn't afford to buy all the fun books I wanted to buy.
08:33 So I'd go to the library and just borrow them and read them.
08:36 And I went through all of Stephen King's books at the time
08:39 and I was looking for a horror fix.
08:42 I was desperate for a horror fix.
08:44 And I was in the library asking the librarian,
08:46 "Please, is there any new Stephen King books out?
08:49 Is there anything I need to read?
08:50 I need some more horror."
08:51 And a strange looking man sort of sidled up beside me
08:54 and he was like, "I know what you'd like.
08:57 If you like Stephen King, you'll love Dinkoons."
09:02 And I never saw him again.
09:03 I think he was a ghost.
09:04 He might have been a ghost that haunted the library
09:05 just helping people out with book selections.
09:08 But I took his advice and I started reading Dinkoons.
09:12 And he is my second best horror supernatural typewriter
09:16 after Stephen King.
09:17 And this was his first book that I read.
09:19 I don't know if it's his first book,
09:21 but it's definitely the first book of his that I read.
09:23 It's called "Lightning."
09:24 And it's a book of time travel
09:26 and fantastic dogs and love stories.
09:29 And it's just brilliant.
09:31 So, Dinkoons.
09:34 I've read all of his books too,
09:35 but this is definitely one of my first book of his I read
09:38 and my favourite.
09:40 Well, people, that's it.
09:41 Thank you so much for watching "Sheriff's Portrait."
09:44 Hope you had as much fun as I did.
09:45 And make sure you watch "Bob Hearts Abishola"
09:48 Monday nights, CBS, 8.30 PM, 7.30 Central.
09:52 Don't forget to buy my book.
09:53 Get candid.
09:54 I don't know why I'm whispering.
09:56 Buy my book.
09:58 I guarantee you'll love it.
10:00 If you don't, I'll give you back the money,
10:02 if you can find me.
10:03 Now that I have some private time by myself with my book.
10:07 I love you, Kevin. See you.
10:10 Oh, yeah, and don't forget to subscribe to Nellie Claire.
10:13 (gentle music)
10:16 (gentle music)
10:18 (gentle music)
10:21 (upbeat music)
10:23 (upbeat music)