“It’s fun work. It’s good work,” insists Lipa, who is content to disprove naysayers who think she just “holidays all the time.” “I’m having a good ti
“It’s fun work. It’s good work,” insists Lipa, who is content to disprove naysayers who think she just “holidays all the time.” “I’m having a good time, and I get all my work done, and I do what I want to do, and then I go on holiday, and I’m happy with that.” It’s what keeps her motivated: “Sometimes being underestimated gives me extra fire in my belly.”
In 2023, when Lipa launched her book club, which has racked up nearly 1 million Instagram followers, she joined the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Kaia Gerber, Dakota Johnson, Emma Roberts, and Jenna Bush Hager. But the saturation of the celebrity book club market gave her no hesitation. “If people feel a little bit inclined to just go and pick up a book and read something, we’re all doing our job,” she says. “I don’t care if someone’s going to go to this book club or the next one. As long as they’re reading, I’m happy.”
But Clement, author of Widow Basquiat, considers Service95 to be in a league of its own. “It is not simply curating individual titles; it is curating perspective,” she says. “Almost as if, taken together, the books themselves are forming an arc, a larger story unfolding through the choices.”
Lipa works closely with her book club director, Maria Padget, to select her monthly reads, guided not by what’s trending but instead, as Lee, the author of Pachinko who calls Lipa an “exemplary literary citizen,” puts it, by honoring “her intellectual curiosity,” often highlighting marginalized voices, and not absorbing literature through a strictly Western lens.
“When she looks at her readers, she doesn’t think what would be easiest for you to enjoy, or what would comfort you or challenge you the least,” says Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain. “Instead she signals, go on, you can read this, you should read this; read this challenging book, read this banned book, and see what they want to deny you, see what you can achieve and have access to what would make you more powerful!”
