The five books Jennifer Garner couldn’t live without: “They’re so beautiful”
The best part of Marvel‘s self-obsessed quip-fest Deadpool & Wolverine was by far and away the cameos.
Of all the pre-MCU superheroes who made their triumphant return in the movie, it was most satisfying to see Jennifer Garner back in the role of Elektra. The sai-wielding anti-heroine caused a major downturn in the star’s career the first time around, so it was great to see her reclaim the character and make her look badass over two decades later.
Alongside reprising her once-despised super alter ego, Garner has appeared in a number of movies based on novels not of the graphic variety. In 2016, she starred in Miracles From Heaven, an adaptation of a religious memoir. Her role as the titular character’s mother in Love, Simon made her a key part of the modern queer tapestry, and then there are her various projects based on children’s books, which are too numerous and mediocre to get into now.
The written word clearly plays a big part in Garner’s life, where, in an interview with Oprah, she listed her five favourite books of all time, starting with the script for a Pulitzer Prize-winning play. “Crimes of the Heart was the first play I read that I completely related to,” she revealed, “I am the middle of three sisters, I come from a Southern family, and I wanted to be cast as one of the girls in this story.”
The play, which was written by Beth Henley, follows three sisters living in Mississippi in the mid-20th century, and its themes of femininity, domestic abuse, and familial bonds have made it an enduring and relevant favourite.
Garner’s next choice is not for the faint of heart, which is Possession by English writer AS Byatt, a multi-genre, multi-format, post-modern story of a recently unearthed love affair between two poets. “The sentences are all drippy with words that you have to look up in a dictionary,” the Juno star said of the Booker Prize winner, “But they’re so beautiful that it’s worth taking the time”.
W Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge came along at just the right time to be our subject’s third choice, with the star revealing, “I was in my early 20s at the time I read this. I was with the wrong guy and could have used that same self-awareness”. The book is about an American pilot left traumatised by World War I and his subsequent search for self-meaning, which was also adapted into a film in 1984, with Bill Murray in the leading role.
“I think David McCullough is one of our national treasures,” she said of her next choice, adding, “I’ve tried to branch out and read other historians’ work, but nothing sticks with me or gets the pages turned as quickly as his books.” McCullough’s many works are focused on American history, particularly the country’s presidents, and Garner selected John Adams among them, which is about the life and times of the second-ever US leader; it was turned into an HBO miniseries with Paul Giamatti in the title role.
Finally, she opted for something a little different in the form of The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten, admitting, “I read cookbooks like they’re novels. I always bring Ina Garten… She makes a cook out of a non-cook. Buy a few ingredients, make one of her recipes, and you’ll feel like a stud.”
Jennifer Garner’s five favourite books:
- Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley
- Possession by AS Byatt
- The Razor’s Edge by W Somerset Maugham
- John Adams by David McCullough
- The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten
