Gilmore Girls Star Lauren Graham's Favorite Books

Although the very mention of Lauren Graham's name quickly conjures images of her fast-talking character Lorelai Gilmore from "Gilmore Girls," that's not the only impressive achievement Graham has under her belt. Not only has she had roles in such iconic shows as "Seinfeld" and "Law & Order," proving that she can be just as funny and charming as she can be dramatic, but she's also an author, having written both fiction and a memoir.

"I was drawn to all New York City had to offer, and less so to the library to study," Graham told Barnes & Noble in April 2013 after the publication of her first book, "Someday, Someday, Maybe," one of the best fiction books by a celebrity. "But as an English major, I read. I was usually reading two or three books at once. I absorbed a lot, and was constantly challenging myself to take on more." It's this deep love of reading that inspired Graham to become a writer, too.

While there are plenty of books to pick up if you're looking for "Gilmore Girls" vibes, if you want a better understanding of what makes Graham tick, then reading her favorites is a great place to start. Each one is an American classic in its own right, so there's a good chance you may have read a few already. If not, then maybe it's time to branch out. After all, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote far more than just "The Great Gatsby."

Of all the books that Lauren Graham has read, her favorite is "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," by Betty Smith. Published in 1943, the semi-autobiographical book is about Francie Nolan coming of age in the extremely poor neighborhood of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Broken into five parts, the book covers Francie's experiences from 11 to 17, and the struggles her family encounters due to her father's alcoholism and their impoverished life.

In September 2018, Graham appeared on PBS's "The Great American Read" to discuss the book and the impact it had on her as a child. Francie, like so many others throughout history, turned to reading as a way to escape the realities of her life — something that she had to teach herself to do. In the episode, Graham reads one of her favorite excerpts from the book, and it's the moment when Francie realizes that she's finally able to read, not just seeing the words on the page, but understanding them, too.

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is the perfect book to read for the first time when you're about 10 or 11, as Graham did, because you can relate to 11-year-old Francie. But it's also a book that gets better each time you pick it up. Like the characters in the book, we, the readers, also undergo so much change, growth, and setbacks that it's definitely worth a few rereads over one's lifetime. While it's not among the best coming-of-age picks from the Read With Jenna book club, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is also a favorite of Jenna Bush Hager's.

Whether it's because you're a fan of Lauren Graham or you want to read one of the best memoirs by non-celebrities with important stories to tell, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," by Maya Angelou, is a must. Like "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," Angelou's memoir covers her childhood up until the age of 17. Although neither book is an easy read, Angelou didn't fictionalize her life like Betty Smith did, laying the truth about her life right out on the table; that aspect makes this read more painful in some ways. There's also the fact that we're reading about the life of a young Black girl, as opposed to a white one, which is loaded with much more very real systemic injustice.

As a writer and memoirist herself, it makes sense that Graham would love "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." It's so unabashedly raw and unrelenting in its prose and topics it tackles, that reading it almost feels like one gut punch after another. But while Angelou's early life was far from an ideal situation, it made her who she was and showcased her gift for the written word. Shortly before it was published in 1969, James Baldwin said of the book, via Smithsonian Magazine, "I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not since the days of my childhood, when the people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I found myself so moved ... Her portrait is a biblical study in life in the midst of death." Of course, Baldwin nailed it with this description. 

Like all great writers, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote what he knew best. After using himself and his wife, Zelda Fitzgerald, as inspiration for Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan in "The Great Gatsby," he moved on to "Tender Is the Night," again turning to himself and Zelda for influence. At this point in his career, Fitzgerald was in the trenches of alcoholism and near-financial ruin, and Zelda's mental health was deteriorating quickly, making them the perfect real-life counterparts for Dick and Nicole Diver.

Although Lauren Graham doesn't say why she loves "Tender Is the Night," considering the characters, as a writer, it's hard not to get pulled into the messy life of the Divers in the French Riviera. Less than a decade before, the Fitzgeralds were on top of the world, enjoying the excesses of the Jazz Age, but that was over, and the world was moving on. However, with "Tender Is the Night," you can see Fitzgerald wasn't giving up the past so easily — something that his most famous character, Jay Gatsby, refused to do too.

"Tender Is the Night" is the very definition of tragic. Fitzgerald knew his time in the sun was coming to an end regarding his career, marriage, and literary standing. So, he chose to write it all down and pass it off as fiction, though there's little fiction involved. What makes "Tender Is the Night" even more devastating is that it was Fitzgerald's final novel — he died at 44 before completing "The Love of the Last Tycoon" — and he thought it was his best work, while many critics panned it.

As we continue along with Lauren Graham's favorite books, something is very clear: she likes complicated stories where the main characters, fictional or not, are put through the wringer. "Postcards from the Edge" is Carrie Fisher's semi-autobiographical novel about her life in the entertainment industry, detailing the experiences of Suzanne Vale, who's based on Fisher, trying to get her life and career back on track after a stint in rehab for a drug overdose. But as dark a storyline as it is, Fisher makes it a comedy, as her character finds herself in ridiculous situations, like dealing with ageism in Hollywood despite only being in her 30s.

"Postcards from the Edge" proves that Fisher's wit — something that her favorite books were very much a testament to — wasn't only something she displayed on screen; she could put it down on paper. Starting as a series of first-person postcards from Suzanne to her family members, the structure changes over the course of the book's five parts, ultimately coming to a third-person narrative, as the story comes full circle. Suzanne comes to realize that she's very lucky with the life she has, but knows that it's going to take work to stay on the straight and narrow and out of trouble. In July 1987, Carolyn See reviewed the book for the Los Angeles Times, saying, "This is not an inspirational novel, but something on the order of a tough look at reality; a 'serious' piece of work." It was made into a movie in 1990, with Meryl Streep cast as Suzanne.

As the only complete, full-length novel by J.D. Salinger, "The Catcher in the Rye" remains both an American classic and one of the best coming-of-age stories ever written. Although Salinger also wrote several short stories and novellas, it was his novel that put him on the map, solidifying Holden Caulfield as one of the most iconic literary characters of all time. What also makes the book and main character so easy to identify with, especially if you read it when you're a teenager, is that alienation during adolescence, at least to some degree, is inevitable. But it's not just "The Catcher in the Rye" that Lauren Graham loves; it's all of Salinger's work.

"Salinger's 'Franny and Zooey' made a huge impact on me when I first read it (In college? High school maybe?), and it plays into the plot of the book, so I knew my main character's name," Graham told Barnes & Noble in April 2013 when talking about her own debut novel. "The others also came sort of organically, although my editor had to point out to me at one point that I had a Dan, Fran(ny), and Stan, so I changed Stan's name to Herb." While the characters were changed so the names wouldn't rhyme, Herb definitely sounds like it could have been a name of one of the other siblings of the Glass family, of which Franny and Zooey are the youngest. In other words, Graham carries Salinger with her always, which is hard not to do once you meet Holden and his adolescent take on life.