Shelf Life: Phoebe Robinson

 

23
Sep

Welcome to Shelf Life, ELLE.com’s book column in which authors share their most memorable reads. Whether you’re looking for a book to comfort you, deeply move you, or make you laugh, consider recommendations from the writers in our series who, just like you (since while you’re here), claim the book. Perhaps one of their favorite titles will become one of yours, too.

What a birthday present: The publication of Phoebe Robinson’s first title in her Tiny Report, Please Don’t Sit on My Bed In Your Outside Clothes, comes out next week coming on September 28, the day she turns 37. (Here’s the playlist for the book.)

Cleveland-raised Brooklynite is the author of Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay and the NYT bestseller, You Can’t Touch My Hair, and the creator of the 2 Dope Queens podcast. She joins Comedy Central with the series Do Most with Phoebe Robinson (the first show of her production company Tiny Repages) and on HBO Max on October 14 with the comedy special Sorry, Harriet Tubman.

She can’t drive, has jumped parallel from a bridge above Victoria Falls in Zambia (although she’s afraid of heights), wants tattoos, likes to give advice (hence her podcast Black Frasier her), scriptwriter at Pratt, worked as a receptionist at New Line Cinema and executive assistant at IAC, campaigned in Madewell and Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You” video, also organized events for Michelle Obama’s Becoming tour and fulfilled Obama’s dream of being shortlisted for Christmas cards.

Likes: U2 (20 concerts across continents), late ’90s/early ’90s rock music, pussy bows, vintage, Lorraine West jewelry, Oaxaca Taqueria, Peloton and When Harry Met Sally. We will have what she is reading.

Overrated talent: What really separates world-class performers from everyone else by Geoff Colvin. We live in a world that likes easy explanations (i.e. this person is good at xyz because they were born that way), and I believe that synthesizing people and talents that way will be detrimental to everyone. people and actually prevents them from living up to their potential. or strive for something in the first place. All young people should read this book so that they really architect the life they want.

The Promised Land of Barack Obama. Listen, guys, it’s 730 pages long and in small font. And I know when the book came out, people on social media were talking about how they read it, and I was like, “…but are you really?” Some of them lied! Laugh out loud. Straight. They don’t read a book over 700 pages. My goal is to read it by Christmas when I am alone and not working for a few weeks.