Celebrities: They’re Just Like Writers!

Big names from your streaming queue will appear on your reading list this fall. For several actors and directors, these titles are debuts in fiction, essayism and spiritual guidance; for others, they’re new additions to past series or first installments of new ones. To help navigate which books are best for you, we devised Netflix-esque recommendations based on books you previously enjoyed.

Because You Read James Thurber …

Tom Hanks, Uncommon Type

Across 17 stories—each featuring a typewriter, which Hanks collects—the actor introduces characters like a World War II veteran, a small-town newspaper columnist, some friends who go bowling and to the moon and an actor, albeit not an A-lister. They are often as charming and as (the descriptor has become unavoidable) all-American as the author himself.

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Because You Read Oprah Winfrey and Joel Osteen …

Tyler Perry, Higher Is Waiting

The comedic titan offers the lessons he learned about faith during a childhood of brutality inflicted on him, his mother, his aunt and their elders before them—and during his adult life as a powerful entertainment-industry figure. At the end of each chapter, Perry poses questions for readers to ask themselves and often offers proverbs to consider.

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Because You Read Edith Wharton …

Matthew Weiner, Heather, the Totality

After becoming haunted by witnessing a teenage girl experience what may have been a threatening interaction on a New York City street, the Mad Men showrunner began what became this novel, written from the perspective of several characters vying for control of a well-heeled young woman. One of the contenders is a man who is more than mad.

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Because You Read Mindy Kaling and Bad Feminist …

Gabrielle Union, We’re Going to Need More Wine

In her collection of essays about being an actor who is both black and famous (and funny and honest and a “grown-ass woman”) Union details how the expectations of celebrity conflict with reality—including when you’ve had several miscarriages, yet every stranger not only asks whether you’re pregnant but says they hope you are.

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Because You Read John Grisham and John Green …

Krysten Ritter, Bonfire

The Jessica Jones lead has turned her attention to a new lawyer: one who returns to her hometown after a decade to investigate a major company, Optimal Plastics. There are allegations of dumping chemicals, but she soon finds herself tracking the case of a high school bully, who went missing after suffering mysterious spasms.

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Because You Read B.J. Novak …

B.J. Novak, The Alphabet Book With No Pictures

For the sequel to his blockbuster, The Book With No Pictures, the actor has put together another, well, pictureless picture book. This time he introduces each letter of the alphabet in order—and as the chapters progress, he deploys only the ones readers have met so far. It’s a lively and delightful new kind of ABCs, which begins with an “AaaaaAAAAaaA.”

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