BOOK CLUB vol. 2: Dakota Johnson

UPDATE! March 12, 2024: Dakota has launched her own book club, pinpointing Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino as her first novel.

When I see a collection of books photographed for a clothing brand’s look book or in a video tour of someone’s home, I pause. What kind of good stuff is this person or brand interested in (or at least interested in displaying)?! A majority of my subscribers here are design-centric, brilliant women, so I think a good amount of you will find excitement in this volume of BOOK CLUB. Do you remember Dakota Johnson’s well-circulated Architectural Digest Home Tour? Of course you do. Because you love limes. You love them so much.

I think Dakota is adorable as heck and incredibly witty, so I am naturally curious about what she reads. Plus, her home is a mid-century modern Los Angeles gem, which is the niche topic that I have constructed (architecture pun!) most of my identity upon. She made literary snooping easy for us because she waxes on about her book collection for much of the tour. My kind of gal! Luckily, we have many moments to hear her commentary and to pause and rewind for another glimpse of the books.

Patti Smith sent her some signed books, such as Early Works (linked below).

She even showed us a glimpse of what all of us book collectors have: the shame stack. I love that she begs us to ignore them while hiding them in a cabinet below. “Go to a cooler pile,” she says after the hurried stash.

Dakota: “Oh that’s a really interesting one. Sex and the Constitution. *laughs* Oh, Jesus. What a weird girl.” (linked below)

Some of Dakota’s long list:

• Henry and June by Anais Nin

• Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller

• The Wayfinders by Wade Davis

• Early Work: 1970-1979 by Patti Smith

• Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America’s Origins in the 21st Century by Geoffrey Stone

• The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

• The Red Book by Carl Jung

• Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

• Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

• Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

• The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis

• How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed by Ray Kurzweil

• Rose C’est Paris by Bettina Rheims and Serge Bramly

• The Clarity Cleanse: 12 Steps to Finding Renewed Energy, Spiritual Fulfillment, and Emotional Healing by Habib Sadeghi and Gwyneth Paltrow

• Going to the Ballet by Arnold Haskell

• Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies by Scarlett Curtis

• A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry by Czeslaw Milosz

Giving Dakota Johnson book recs is now on my list of “oh-gosh-don’t-you-wish-this-could-happen?” Five books I would add to Dakota’s collection:

1. The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s by Maggie Doherty

2. The Postcard by Anne Berest

3. The Woman Who Says No: Francoise Gilot on her Life with and without Picasso by Malte Herwig

4. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

5. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

UPDATE!

March 12, 2024: Dakota has launched her own book club, pinpointing Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino as her first novel.

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More books and other things soon, soon, soon! In the next Absolument, we’re focusing on a British architecture historian and his passioned views of Los Angeles. He’s another person I would love to make book lists about…

Kelsey

PS - Many of the books above are linked to Bookshop.org, which is my absolute favorite place to buy books online. Bookshop.org works to connect readers with independent booksellers and stores all over the world. Since 2020, they’ve raised more than $28 million for independent bookstores—which is 28 million times better than supporting Amazon. You can see/shop my Bookshop here! I do get a teeny, tiny commission off of every book sale purchased directly from these links or from my Bookshop store front. I’ll only link books if I honestly believe in their goodness.