The Best Picks From Dua Lipa's Book Club, Service95

Grammy-winning pop sensation Dua Lipa is at your service. No, really. In May 2023, the chart-topping singer decided to write some new rules for reading with the launch of her Service95 Book Club. As an offshoot of her lifestyle platform, Service95, its raison d'être is to "represent diverse global voices, telling powerful stories spanning fiction, memoir, and manifesto." Each month, Dua shares her pick, interviews with featured authors, and a wealth of supplementary content to enrich the reading experience.

Celebrity book clubs are the trend du jour, but what inspired the global superstar to join the likes of Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, and Kaia Gerber by adding literary curation to her ever-expanding repertoire? As Dua herself said, "Reading provides a form of escapism, a way to understand human connection and help us navigate human relationships. Through the pages of a book, I can go places that I have never been and feel like I have lived there a lifetime." Since its inception, the club has treated fans to an eclectic selection of works, all ranging in theme and form. With each pick, Dua sets out to kindle your sense of wonder, and through the power of literature, it's guaranteed she can blow your mind — mwah!

When an acclaimed queer Vietnamese-American writer turns his pen from poems to prose, the result is "On Earth, We're Briefly Gorgeous." Ocean Vuong's debut novel is an autofictional account of identity, trauma, and survival — written as a letter from a son to his mother who cannot read English. The narrative collapses linear time, threading together disjointed vignettes that mirror the splintered way memory operates. The effect is a transfixing read. The story's narrator is Little Dog, who mines his identity through tender epiphanies of his sexuality and evocative recollections of his Vietnamese heritage. A generational chasm exists between the letter's addressee — his mother, who is shaped by survival and sacrifice — and her son, who is defining himself in America, the land that promises new possibilities. The gap is only widened as his dream materializes, though he cannot escape the inherited weight of the immigrant experience. The irony of the Vietnamese word nhớ, which means both "to miss" and "to remember," is not lost on this deeply introspective work.

This text burst into the zeitgeist like a shot of adrenaline, a fitting trajectory for a work that also grapples with substance abuse. Vuong's natural imagery throughout is irresistible and softens trauma's blow. Unsurprisingly from a creative who first made his name as a poet, there is a distinct musicality to his style. We may be gorgeous on Earth just briefly, but Vuong's writing will stay beautiful forever.

"Shuggie Bain" clinched the Booker Prize, was deemed Best Book of the Year by 13 huge names in literature, and a wall in Scotland boasts a mural in its honor. Douglas Stuart's debut novel follows the fraught existence of 16-year-old Shuggie Bain, who lives with his mother, Agnes. With its merciless privations and stark austerity, life in Margaret Thatcher's Britain is punishing enough — but even more so if you're a gay, working-class Glaswegian teenage boy with a wayward absentee father and a worsening alcoholic mother. Such is Shuggie's lot.

At the Hay Festival, in conversation with Dua Lipa, Stuart reflected that while "we can get into the cliché that working class communities have so much solidarity and we're all in it together, that solidarity comes at the cost of conforming." (22:15) For Shuggie, a queer boy growing up in the unforgiving, patriarchal milieu of 1980s Scotland, conformity is untenable. Through densely textured prose and the unvarnished grit of Glasgow's idiom, what unfolds is a visceral painting of a young man who must reclaim himself in the world, even if he cannot redeem his mother. This was Dua Lipa's first-ever book club pick, and by nature of its very themes, is a heavy read — but it's no less rewarding.

Since its initial publication way back in 2001, "Noughts and Crosses" by Malorie Blackman has shaken readers with its subversion of racial inequality. Set in a society that starkly mirrors and distorts our own, Blackman offers a tale both brutal and tender. She welcomes us into the ill-fated bond between Sephy, a Cross, and Callum, a Nought, as they maneuver a world engineered to sever their connection.

Blackman is an indomitable force in British literature, and her novel is daringly breathtaking, dismantling expectations while revealing the raw sinews of love and power. Its impact was monumental, later earning her the mantle of Children's Laureate. And for those enthralled by this work, the journey doesn't have to end here. "Noughts and Crosses" is the beginning of a six-book series, accompanied by three spin-off novellas, offering an expansive exploration of the world Blackman so boldly created.

Dua Lipa has a growing appetite for identity-driven stories, and Michelle Zauner's "Crying in H Mart" serves up just that, with a generous helping of Korean store-bought groceries, of course. Best known as the frontwoman of the indie band Japanese Breakfast, Zauner swaps melodies for memories to create an intimate self-portrait of her Korean-American upbringing, and the tremendous loss of her mother, Chongmi, to cancer.

Zauner's writing pits the tactile comforts of Korean food with the intangible ache of maternal longing. The memoir's beating heart lies in the fraught dynamic between mother and daughter: Chongmi's exacting expectations pushing against Zauner's yearning for approval. The narrative unspools through vivid recollections of shared meals. Food becomes a lifeline to reclaim what her mother left behind. This memoir was well-received and widely celebrated. Now, it's poised to receive the Hollywood treatment, under the direction of Will Sharpe of "The White Lotus" fame (via People).

Dua Lipa's literary palate takes a jolting turn with this nonfiction masterpiece about The Troubles of Northern Ireland. At the core of "Say Nothing" is the infamous 1972 disappearance of Jean McConville, a widowed mother of ten abducted by the IRA. With razor-sharp reporting, Patrick Radden Keefe distills these events into a narrative that feels scarcely believable yet remains firmly anchored in truth. His hypnotic style propels the case forward with an unrelenting momentum.

Keefe won the Orwell Prize for this piercing vivisection of history. He dissects the collective psyche of a fractured nation and cuts through layers of political strife to reveal the human toll beneath. McConville's harrowing story, alongside the enigmatic lives of leading Republican operatives like Dolours Price, Brendan Hughes, and Gerry Adams, poses questions that do not surrender to easy answers. In a similar defiance, Keefe's refusal to sanitize the era's complexities results in a narrative both unflinching and unforgettable. It's a story we mustn't let fade — a story that, thanks to its thoughtful adaptation into a Hulu series, now reaches an even wider audience.

Dua Lipa has curated a strong array of literary treasures since her book club's inception in May 2023. This made the task of whittling it down to just five titles a formidable challenge. Her selections are united in their power to spark thought, stir emotion, and linger long after the last chapter. To pare the list to its essence, we considered how effectively each book delivered on its unique premise, and whether the author's approach brought fresh insight or perspective to their story. This task was made easier by the bountiful resources the singer paired with her choices, including interviews with the writers themselves.

We also evaluated how well the books resonated with readers, both critically and commercially. Awards, glowing reviews, and the books' ability to stake a claim in the cultural conversion all played a role in shaping our recommendations. We looked at the excitement generated by these titles in the press and across social media platforms, where their themes prompted lively discourse.