Shelf Life: Jennifer Beals

Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com’s books column, in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you’re on the hunt for a book to console you, move you profoundly, or make you laugh, consider a recommendation from the writers in our series, who, like you (since you’re here), love books. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too.

She might have launched the off-the-shoulder sweater and leg warmer trend as an 18-year-old in 1983’s Flashdance, but actress Jennifer Beals considers centering LGBTQ causes her much more important contribution to culture. The actress and activist, who played an art dealer-turned-politician on The L Word and its sequel The L Word: Generation Q, most recently published The L Word: A Photographic Journal, a collection of 400-plus behind-the-scenes photographs and memories from the groundbreaking Showtime series that chronicled the lives of a group of lesbians in Los Angeles.

The Chicago-born and -raised author and actress was studying American literature at Yale University when she got the role of steelworker Alex in the movie that rocketed her to fame; claims she would be a Buddhist nun if she weren’t an actress; makes block prints and paints watercolors; once had a crush on Matthew Broderick; co-founded media company Run-a-Muck Media with L Word creator and The Handmaid’s Tale executive producer Ilene Chaiken; is part of the Red for Revolution podcast cast; and supports the human rights/queer youth organization GLSEN.

Likes: trees; the Tate Modern in London; solitude; Coco Gauff; drag brunches; Cowboy Carter; the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris; Kara Swisher; and pickleball.

Peruse her book recommendations below.

The book that…: …helped me through loss:

Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative by Herbert Mason. After my father died, the grief came along with me wherever I went. Reading the Epic of Gilgamesh, particularly the very end, helped me look at loss from another perspective.

…made me weep uncontrollably:

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever” is a line that sticks with me. The book makes you cherish life so thoroughly that you think, One more breath, and my heart will explode.

…made me rethink a long-held belief:

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse helped me rethink my ideas of identity and the false notion of permanence. The scene where he sits by the river and realizes the water moves continuously—and yet it is still the river—knocks me out every time.

…I read in one sitting; it was that good:

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The book just flew by. The voices were so clear, the structure was intoxicating, and I fell in love with Daisy. The same was true for Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. She creates unforgettable heroines.

…currently sits on my nightstand:

I Could Tell You Stories by Patricia Hampl. It’s this beautiful tapestry of a memoir, investigating the notion and purpose of both personal and political memory. I’m currently obsessed with the force of collective memory as a firewall to erasure. I would recommend reading Maria Stepanova’s In Memory of Memory in tandem.

...made me laugh out loud:

[The L Word stars] Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey’s So Gay For You. Just when I thought I knew everything about their legendary friendship, along comes this perceptive memoir that made me laugh out loud and cry in the same sitting, unveiling things I never knew, making their friendship that much more magical. It’s available for preorder now.

…I’d like turned into a TV show:

Mecca by Susan Straight. There are stories that entertain, and there are stories that precipitate healing. Mecca is both of those things. Set in that part of Southern California too many people just drive by to get somewhere else, the novel looks at a series of characters whose lives at first glance seem separate. Within a few chapters, you realize these narratives braid together to tell a cohesive story of the bonds of family, love, and the ways in which language and landscape loop in and out of our collective DNA over and over again. It’s spicy and propulsive.

…I last bought:

Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood. I am obsessed with Gatwood’s voice. I discovered the novel after I saw her perform her poem “Ode to the Women on Long Island.” Her brilliant debut novel centers on a tech billionaire, his seemingly perfect girlfriend, and the imperfect neighbors next door. A work of fiction, the story looks at how the “beauty” and/or functionality of the female body dictates its value, and as women, how do we shift the way we look at our own bodies when our looking has been so programmed from birth? In the end, it’s about identity, loneliness, friendship, and how technology—whether it’s television or AI—figures into the equation.

…changed my life:

The Family of Man. “The Family of Man,” originally, was a photography exhibit curated by Edward Steichen, who, at the time, was the head of the Museum of Modern Art’s photography department. The book is a collection of the majority of those photographs that were accompanied by quotes from various novelists and poets. I discovered the book when I was maybe 6 or 7. I was introduced to the idea of humanity experiencing suffering and joy and all the things in between as a collective. The collection of photos blew my little mind wide open.

…has a sex scene that will make you blush:

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee. This book is so damn sexy and smart. Lee delves into ageism, celebrity, and love…and it is also smokin’ hot. I read it in one sitting, and I can’t wait for her next novel to come out.

…helped me become a better writer:

I don’t consider myself a writer, but I can say A Swim In the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders ushered in this idea of wanting to write with intention. Tolstoy’s “Master and Man” has a welcome spot in my brain forevermore.

…should be on every college syllabus:

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story created by Nikole Hannah-Jones. If you are very lucky, once in a blue moon a book will come along that changes your life. Black history is American history.

…I consider literary comfort food:

Wild Geese: Selected Poems by Mary Oliver. To be read over and over and over. The solace and lessons from nature and the wise mind of Mary Oliver in one volume, who could ask for more? It has a hallowed place on my nightstand.

…surprised me:

The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley. Let’s just start by saying: Walter Mosley is unbelievably brilliant. He can take on any genre. When I picked up this book, I thought it might be a mystery, and in some ways it is, but the philosophical wormhole delighted me and took me by surprise. It’s a book I revisit.