Keke Palmer's Favorite Books Include A Fellow Funny Lady's Memoir

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Keke Palmer has a finely tuned sense of humor, and the receipts are plentiful. Before she became the internet's reigning empress of the well-timed quip, she was holding her own as the whip-smart teen CEO in "True Jackson, VP" and delivering scream-laced satire in "Scream Queens." As her stardom grew, so did her cultural reach. She coined the internet's favorite endlessly quotable lines (like "Sorry to this man," and "You know it's your girl!"), and brought her signature spark to Issa Rae's dopamine-infused film "One of Them Days" alongside SZA. She boasts off-the-charts charisma and a smile that radiates through the screen. As the TikTok sound would have it: she's an icon, she's a legend, and she is the moment.

But even the most effervescent performers need a place to recharge. For Keke Palmer, that place is the page. When Elle asked her to name a book that made her laugh out loud, as part of its Shelf Life books column, she chose "Bossypants," Tina Fey's singular spin on the celebrity memoir. "Because she is too damn funny!" Palmer said — a sentiment shared by the masses. Over a million readers have contributed to "Bossypants'" solid four-star rating on Goodreads, many of them charmed by Fey's reflections on gawky adolescence and life at the helm of "Saturday Night Live." From one brilliantly funny woman to another, it's not difficult to see the appeal.

Tina Fey's "Bossypants" might make Keke Palmer laugh out loud, but her bookshelf contains multitudes. She reads across genres and emotions, listing "The Bluest Eye" as the novel that moved her to tears, joining Lily-Rose Depp and Yara Shahidi, who both love this classic Toni Morrison book. "The story of Pecola Breedlove is a devastating one," Palmer told Elle, " and this book is a classic." In fact, Morrison's work helped shape Palmer's own memoir, "Master of Me" — one of the celebrity memoirs you'll want to listen to on audiobook.

Keke Palmer's bookshelf is full of inspirational reads, often circling questions of identity and personal growth. She read A'ja Wilson's "Dear Black Girls" in one sitting, drawn to its unsparing tenderness. Elaine Welteroth's "More Than Enough" resonated as well, with Palmer saying to Elle, "I really loved the way Elaine talked about finding her voice and moving toward her full purpose in this book."

Similarly, in "Power Moves" by Sarah Jakes Roberts, she felt called to step fully into her own strength. Palmer told Elle, "There's nothing like reading a book where someone wants you to tap into the most authentic and powerful version of yourself." With taste this good, we wouldn't mind seeing Keke Palmer start her own celebrity book club. At the very least, we'd read whatever she recommends.