Dua Lipa's Book Club: See What the Star Is Reading

March 2025: ‘There There’ by Tommy Orange

Orange’s acclaimed novel follows 12 Native American characters whose stories intersect when they travel to the Big Oakland Powwow.

“Among the tragedy that is foreshadowed throughout, there is also redemption and humanity,” Lipa says of the book, which was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction.

February 2025: 'The Bee Sting' by Paul Murray

This sprawling saga follows the Barnes family as parents Dickie and Imelda and children Cass and PJ, experience a host of trials and tribulations while living in their small Irish community. “As the book builds pace, it sucks you into a whirlpool of tension, where all escape routes are cut off,” Lipa says of the novel.

January 2025: 'Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead' by Olga Tokarczuk

Tokarczuk’s novel about a reclusive woman who becomes intertwined in a murder investigation after her neighbors' deaths won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature. It's the perfect pick for a cold winter’s night. “Darkly humorous, deadly serious and with a quirky cast of characters that will stay with you forever, this is definitely not to be missed,” Lipa says of the book.

November 2024: 'On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous' by Ocean Vuong

Written as a letter from the narrator, Little Dog, to his mother, a Vietnamese immigrant who cannot speak English, Lipa says this stunning novel has “poetic language [that] dances on every page.”

October 2024: 'Lincoln in the Bardo' by George Saunders

Saunders’ acclaimed novel reimagines the story of Willie Lincoln, the son of former President Abraham Lincoln, and the purgatory the boy must navigate after his death at 11 years old. “The voices of these spirits — the wretched and the brave, and the dead boy Willie Lincoln — will stay with me forever,” Lipa says.

September 2024: 'Bad Habit' by Alana S. Portero

This moving coming-of-age novel, translated from the original Spanish by Mara Faye Lethem, follows a transgender woman in Madrid, as she embarks on a journey to discover herself amidst the changing landscape of her city in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

“This is an important book, one that reminds us of the often painful and treacherous reality of growing up trans,” Lipa says. "This is a book to savor.”

July 2024: 'Noughts and Crosses' by Malorie Blackman

Lipa’s first young adult pick follows Sephy and Callum, childhood friends who begin a romance in a parallel society, in which Black citizens (Crosses) are the ruling class and White citizens (Noughts) are seen as second-class.

“Like many people my age, I was partly raised by Malorie Blackman,” Lipa says. “She creates worlds you want to carry with you and each story encourages its young readers to ask the important questions in life."

June 2024: 'Say Nothing' by Patrick Radden Keefe

This gripping historical account explores the conflict in Northern Island through the lens of Jean McConville, a woman whose abduction and murder kicked off a national conversation about violence within the country.

Lipa calls this book “a masterclass in the art of the ‘nonfiction novel.’”

May 2024: 'Swimming in the Dark' by Tomasz Jedrowski

Told through a letter between lovers Ludwik and Janusz, this moving novel set against 1980s Communist Poland interweaves forbidden love with a fraught political moment in Europe’s history. 

“It’s poetic and tender, burning with a quiet rage at the persecution the LGBTQ+ community in Poland has suffered for decades and continues to fight against today,” Lipa says.

April 2024: 'Crying in H Mart' by Michelle Zauner

The lead singer of indie rock project Japanese Breakfast shares a new, personal look at her life away from music. In this moving memoir, written with “raw honesty,” Zauner reflects on her Korean American identity, and her complicated relationship with her mother, who died from cancer in 2014. An ode to grief, food and family.

March 2024: 'Trust' by Hernan Diaz

Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows a wealthy Manhattan couple throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, and is told through a variety of formats: a novel, a memoir and a journal, to name a few.

“I was obsessed and you might just be too,” Lipa says of the book.

February 2024: 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini

The author of The Kite Runner pens “an illuminating story of the cultural and political history of Afghanistan” with this novel, says Lipa. The book follows two Kabul women whose lives become connected through war and fate.

January 2024: 'The Guest' by Emma Cline

While chosen for Lipa’s January read, Emma Cline’s second novel is the perfect addition to your beach bag this summer. The novel follows the misadventures of a young woman, and her relationship with an older man, leading up to a Labor Day party. It “shimmers with tension” and “flirts with danger,” according to Lipa.

November 2023: 'The Vanishing Half' by Brit Bennett

Bennett’s acclaimed second novel follows the Vignes twins — two sisters who are Black, one of whom is White-passing, and the lives they live as adults. Lipa says the book “brilliantly surfaces a multitude of questions about race, class and gender.”

October 2023: 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' by Gabriel García Márquez

Lipa calls this classic family saga “irresistible.” Bonus material for the book includes a conversation with the late author’s son and more information about the 1928 Colombia Banana Massacre, which inspired scenes in the sprawling, seminal novel.

September 2023: 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith

A musician’s memoir feels fitting for Lipa, who announced Just Kids, her only nonfiction pick so far, as her September book. Legendary punk singer and poet Patti Smith details her life as a young artist in 1960s and 1970s New York City, as well as her treasured friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, in this National Book Award-winning autobiography.

August 2023: 'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This 2006 novel, which takes place during the Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafran War) follows multiple characters as they navigate love and relationships during a time of political unrest. Lipa calls this book one of “love, jealousy, infidelity and forgiveness,” and author Adichie also wrote an exclusive essay about the importance of Igbo culture and language in writing.

July 2023: 'Pachinko' by Min Jin Lee

Set in both Korea and Japan, Pachinko follows four generations of a Korean family, as well as their experiences with identity, womanhood and colonialism. Author Min Jin Lee was interested in the history of Koreans in Japan, as well as the popular game Pachinko, and writes about how these inspirations helped inform her novel.

June 2023: 'Shuggie Bain' by Douglas Stuart

Lipa has “a thing for heartbreaking books,” she said about her June pick. Shuggie Bain, set in Thatcher-era, working-class Scotland, focuses on the relationship between young Hugh (nicknamed Shuggie) and his alcoholic mother, Agnes. Bonus book club material includes a playlist inspired by the book’s Glasgow setting, which is also author Douglas Stuart’s hometown.