A survey of titles on celebrity bookshelves
Zoom happy hours are far less exciting now than they were in March. So is sourdough starter. A lot of the early preoccupations of our lockdown life don’t quite have the same charm anymore. But the chance to speculate about the minds and proclivities of the famous by gawking at their on-camera bookshelves never gets old.
TOM HANKS ON ‘TODAY,’ JULY 7
› The Presidential Recordings of Lyndon B. Johnson, Volumes 1-3: Transcripts of 700 hours of telephone conversations that Johnson secretly recorded that include his dealings with the Kennedys, cursing about Vietnam and his push to help the cause of civil rights.
› “St. Marks Is Dead,” by Ada Calhoun: This close-up look at the history of an idiosyncratic New York City street where both Emma Goldman and the Beastie Boys partied is also a meditation on all that changes in urban spaces and all that stays the same.
› “The History of Manned Space Flight,” by David Baker: A very complete history of the early space missions — Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and onward — for the NASA geek.
REGINA KING ON ‘LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MYERS,’ JUNE 12
› “Waiting to Exhale,”
by Terry McMillan: The 1992 hit about the friendship of four women in their 30s supporting each other through the frustrations of looking for love.
› “Tupac Shakur Legacy,” by Jamal Joseph: Curated by a family friend, this “interactive biography” of the rapper includes photos of Shakur’s home life and reproductions of handwritten lyrics.
› “Barack Like Me,”
by David Alan Grier: A memoir by the comedian best known for his work on “In Living Color” that muses on politics and race in the age of Barack Obama.
GWYNETH PALTROW ON INSTAGRAM, JUNE 11
› “French Riviera: Living Well Was the Best Revenge,” by Xavier Girard: Glamorous photos of the creative rich and famous — like Picasso and Coco Chanel — who lived on the Mediterranean coast in the 1920s and ’30s.
› “Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture”: A look at the luxury brand’s most high-end collaborations, from Zaha Hadid to David LaChapelle to Annie Leibovitz.
› “Defining Decadence: The Legacy of Gustav Klimt”: The complete catalog of Klimt’s paintings, including the extravaganzas in gold leaf like “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” also known as “The Lady in Gold.”