Cleo Wade | Shelf Portrait | 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.
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00:00Hi, this is Cleo Wade and welcome, Mary Claire, to the bookshelf in my bedroom for Shelf Portrait.
00:14I'm actually a non-professional but I feel professional bookshelf accessorizer.
00:21I have a lot of bookshelves in our house because I'm a writer, my partner Simon's a writer,
00:26so we have a zillion books, and I do all of our bookshelves at our house, so I did this
00:32one.
00:33This is one of the only ones I did that was kind of color coordinated, the rest of ours
00:37are kind of just free and loose, but we have a lot of the kind of black books and tan books
00:42and red books and white books together.
00:45I really like to mix in pottery, my friend Lisa makes these beautiful pottery pieces
00:50that are in here, some I got from Casa Edo, this is from a shop in New Orleans called
00:55Sunday Shop.
00:57I also think when you have bookshelves it's really important to try to mix in art, whether
01:01it's art from your friends, my brother-in-law gave us this photo, it's a photo of the Simon
01:07and him at the beach when they were babies, to something very fancy, I feel very lucky
01:13to have this beautiful Lorna Simpson in our lives and in our bedroom, and then even just
01:18your family photos, that's a photo of Simon and I hugging on a hike.
01:24Obviously the first book I want to share from my bookshelf is Remember Love, my new book,
01:30it's Words for Tender Times, I spent a few years writing this book and I love it so much,
01:35it's kind of about how to find steadiness when the world around you is just spinning
01:41with change and you're just trying to find your way and get back to yourself.
01:47A lot of this book also has to do with heartbreak and I said to my friends, it's kind of like
01:53every aspect of your life, if you're trying to rebuild, this is the book for you, so whether
01:56you're rebuilding in your career or in your personal life or in your family relationships
02:01or in your relationship with yourself, that's why I wrote Remember Love.
02:06Black Women Writers at Work, one of my very favorite books, my friend Stevie recommended
02:12this book to me when I was writing Heart Talk, my first book, and it's the best book on writing
02:17you'll ever read, I recommend it to everyone if you're thinking of writing or you feel
02:22like you have a book in your heart, this book is incredible.
02:26My friend Jenna's Human Design book, which is also amazing, I am obsessed with human
02:31design, it's something I've personally followed for a long time, so I love having her book
02:36on here, this is really special to me, this is a first edition of Beloved, my friend Kate
02:42gave me for my birthday this year and I love it so much, it's one of my favorite books
02:47from Toni Morrison, I also have a first edition of The Bluest Eye, which I think Simon gave
02:52me when we first started dating, we have my friend Doreen McKesson's book On the Other
02:56Side of Freedom, if you are an activist or you have a young activist in your family,
03:01I really, really couldn't recommend that book more, we have the Complete Collected Poems
03:06of Maya Angelou and, oh my God, of course, Derek Wolcott, lots and lots and lots of poetry,
03:12we have the Mindset book by Carol DeWitt, which is incredible, I always recommend that
03:17book, my book, where to begin, I think we're mostly politics, self-help, spiritual, poetry
03:25in our bedroom and pottery, yes, this is The Shelf, my shelf portrait, I think my favorite
03:37genres has to be poetry, poetry is really the genre that made me love, love and fall
03:44in love with reading, that's really hard, I guess I could say it's a tie between Toni
03:49Morrison and Maya Angelou, but it's hard because Generations, Lucille Clifton's memoir is one
03:55of my favorite books of all time, Toni Cade Bambara, I don't know, I can't, I really couldn't
04:00pick James Baldwin, it's really, it's very hard, I actually just reread Nora Ephron's
04:07Heartburn and I hadn't read that book in like 10 years and I laughed and laughed and laughed
04:14and I think I was traveling with it, it was the first time I'd even like kind of like walked with
04:16the book, I was going through the airport walking with it when I got to the hotel, I stayed up
04:20reading it, you know, the reason I love Nora Ephron's book so much because you really feel
04:25like you're visiting with a friend and I feel like when I write in a much different way than
04:31Nora Ephron, but I do try to make it feel like you're visiting with a friend or your friend
04:36has come to see you and ask you how you're doing and give you a hug. Is there a book I've never
04:42been able to finish? I do not finish any books I don't like, I do not have the urge to complete
04:50just because I started something, if I feel like what's that famous Kim Cattrall line where she's
04:55like if I'm not enjoying something for even a minute, I'm not gonna do it, like I actually
05:01am that way, I'm like if I am not enjoying it, close the book, goodbye. First edition of The
05:07Bluest Eye, I mean it's just, it's so haunting, it's so beautiful and somehow, you know, I don't
05:16know if this is my favorite or not but it always kind of struck me because this is a book cover
05:22that really captured the haunting energy of a book. I really loved Ta-Nehisi Coates' Water
05:28Dancer cover, I remember when it came out and I was like gosh that's so beautiful. Who gives me
05:34the best book recommendations? I'd have to say there's two people and they are polar opposite
05:42recommendations and I love that. I think Reese Witherspoon gives the best book recommendations,
05:47of course she has a book club and my friend Stevonna Ellen Rogers gives the best book
05:52recommendations. Reese's are more for fiction, I always read her book club recommendations,
05:57I love her fiction recs and Stevie mostly reads non-fiction so she's actually who shared with me
06:05Black women writers at work. I'd say probably those same two people, I feel like
06:11Stevie is someone where you can really kind of like soak in every word of how someone wrote
06:17something from their heart and I love that she really holds words to be this really divine,
06:24ritualistic, beautiful, ancient, spiritual practice and process. So I love her feedback
06:30on words, she's one of the first people I asked to read my own work. She has like a witchy thing
06:34about reading and words and so discussing any book with her is amazing and then Reese is also one of
06:42the best people to discuss a book with because she loves stories and she loves women's stories
06:47and you're just reminded of the life and liveliness and excitement and mystery and
06:53passion and all of like the juicy stuff of life. She really soaks in and so and she gets genuinely
07:00excited about it and so to be able to listen to her talk about any book is always just,
07:06I don't know, makes you feel like alive and juicy. Well I collect a lot of vintage books
07:10and I'll find those anywhere online, I'll buy them on old bookseller sites, most of your local
07:16bookstores, which is why it's so important to shop local, do have a kind of vintage section
07:21for their books and I love that. So when I'm in DC, I love Mahogany Books and Politics and Prose.
07:28If I'm in New York, I love obviously The Strand and McNally Jackson, Los Fiebros, I love Baldwin
07:36and Company in New Orleans. The kind of local independent booksellers are almost like parks
07:42where a park really tells a lot about the community and I feel like whenever you're
07:46visiting somewhere, one of the best things you can do is go find your local bookseller there
07:52and explore because I feel like you learn so much about the vibe. It's like finding the best
07:57local restaurant, finding the best local bookstore. I feel like that's the real experience of traveling
08:03so I think I have a different one, different favorite bookstore in every city I go to.
08:08What book have I read the most in my life? I'd probably Return to the Fire Next Time
08:13more times than any other book in my life. It really is a book that you can reread. I've
08:18actually reread The Little Prince probably the most in my life and I think probably Maya Angelou's
08:25Complete Work of Poetry. Well, seeing as how I have two very small, loud children, wherever I
08:33can read a book is where I will read a book. So sometimes I lock myself in my closet and read a
08:40book. Sometimes I get to read in bed after everyone's gone to sleep but I think probably
08:45the best ways to read a book might be an airplane for me anyway. Thank you so much
08:50for watching my shelf portrait and if you will, please subscribe to Mary Claire.