If ever there was a champion of books, Damian Barr is it. The Scottish writer came to prominence with his scabrously funny (and deeply poignant) memoir, Maggie & Me, about growing up gay in working class Glasgow during Margaret Thatcher’s polarizing premiership, but it’s the way he’s used his platform to promote contemporary writing that is truly inspiring. In 2008 he launched Damian Barr’s Literary Salon, an informal gathering of like minded friends that has since grown into a wildly popular series at London’s famed Savoy Hotel. Since then Barr has published the critically-acclaimed novel, You Will Be Safe Here, composed of twin narratives, one set during the Boer War, the other in the present, inspired by a brutal murder at a South Africa camp for adolescent boys, and cemented his tastemaker credentials with a UK TV show, The Big Scottish Book Club, now in its second season. Below are Damian Barr's favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Damian Barr'S FAVORITE BOOKS

It’s an odd thing to have your career go into overdrive during a global pandemic, but that’s exactly what happened to the L.A.-based singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers. After releasing her sophomore album, Punisher, in June, Bridgers watched from lockdown as it rose to pole position on Billboard’s Emerging Artists chart. Instead of touring, she was at home like everyone else, cooking and tweeting and practicing her yoga postures. Bridgers started playing guitar at the age of 13, and found her way into a punk band, Sloppy Jane, at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts that led to a series of spots in Apple ads (“minorly soul-sucking” she told The New Yorker) that featured in an Apple iPhone ad. Her debut album, “Stranger in the Alps,” was released in 2017 to widespread acclaim (“This is the arrival of a giant,” tweeted John Mayer) and was followed with a collaboration with Bright Eyes founder Conor Oberst recording under the name Better Oblivion Community Center. Like Elliott Smith, one of her musical heroes, Bridgers songs are intricate stories of heartache and loss, but spiked with humor and wry observations. They can be melancholy and brightly impish at the same time. Little surprise that equally impish writers like David Sedaris, Elif Batuman, and Maurice Sendak make her desert island reading list. (Photo: Frank Ockenfels) Below are Phoebe Bridgers' favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Phoebe Bridgers'S FAVORITE BOOKS

If the personal essay has never been more popular (and trust us, it hasn’t) could it spring from the tremor of recognition we find in other people’s experiences? In the hands of a writer like Samantha Irby, the essay becomes a common unifier, finding an echo in the knowing nods and laughs and gasps of readers. Drawing on her background in comedy, Irby mines pathos for humor in essays that are mordantly funny, self-deprecating, and profoundly human. To quote a laudatory New York Times review of her latest collection, Wow, No Thank You, "Read Irby because she understands the mutinies of the body. She understands suffering and uncertainty, and is wildly, seditiously funny on both.” Irby first came to prominence with her blog, bitches gotta eat, where she interrogated her everyday interactions in frank, unpretentious language, and invariably in the direction of a punchline. "I just started writing about all the dumb stuff that was happening to me every day, and then it kind of exploded," she told LitHub in 2017. It has not stopped exploding. Four books of essays followed, including Meaty, New Year, Same Trash, and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. Like one of her idols, David Sedaris, they revel in the absurdities of the human condition, a take we need now as much (if not more) than ever. Below are Samantha Irby's favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Samantha Irby'S FAVORITE BOOKS

David Gray is an award-winning creative and writer, living on the edge of his beloved Red Hook in Brooklyn. He cheerfully admits that the ever-changing dockside neighborhood plays a big part in his writing, from the backdrop to his cyberpunk short story, Huskers, to the setting for his debut novel, the post-Armageddon (lite) Moonflowers. The stories of the Scots-born writer have appeared on the venerable podcast, Starship Sofa, acclaimed online magazine, Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, upstart graphic imprint, Ahoy! Comics, and many more. In 2020 he plans to publish his contemporary Scottish fairy tale, Neverthere, and, distractions apart, complete the sequel to Moonflowers. He would like to be well-known enough to be considered reclusive. Below are David Gray's favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

David Gray'S FAVORITE BOOKS

Helen McCrory initially turned down the role of playing a gangster matriarch in Peaky Blinders, the cult drama series that is set in Birmingham between the wars. The era seemed too redolent of her grandparents’ childhoods in the slums of Glasgow. But when the creator suggested she think of it in terms of classic Westerns, she reconsidered. The show, which has had five seasons and counting, has made her name in the U.S., although she was a pitch-perfect Cherie Blair in The Queen, and a devilish Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise. “Both of my parents are bookworms, and even though my dad was a diplomat, and we moved from place to place, the two things we took everywhere with us were paintings and books,” she says. “I’m appalled to say I do not like a Kindle or an audiobook; I like a paper book.” Who are we to disagree? Below are Helen McCrory's favorite books, available to purchase individually or as a set.

Helen McCrory'S FAVORITE BOOKS