Olivia Wilde seems to be unwinding after the bitter custody settlement with her former fiancé Jason Sudeikis. And what better way to do that than with a good book? The 39-year-old Booksmart and Don’t Worry, Darling film director glowingly endorsed New York Times best-selling author Jessica Knoll’s new novel Bright Young Women recently.
Knoll a former senior editor at Cosmopolitan magazine in the US, wrote 2015’s Luckiest Girl Alive, a title that was later adapted into a Netflix series starring Mila Kunis. Bright Young Women, a psychological suspense and true crime novel released on September 19, explores how two women from opposite sides of the country are brought together by the violent acts of the same man. That man was Ted Bundy.
“Read it on the plane and ate it up,” Wilde posted to her Instagram Stories on September 27. “Really interesting look at our deeply misogynistic media, legal system, and culture as a whole. A gripping true crime novelisation that doesn’t fetishise violence, and actually humanises victims.”
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll, $35 SHOP NOW
Wilde has recommended many books across the years, and truly who better than the woman who directed Booksmart? If you’re looking for inspiration this long weekend, here are a few the actress and director has read and loved.
Outside The Wire: Ten Lessons I’ve Learned Everyday, by Jason Kander
Unfollow, by Megan Phelps-Roper
The Power, by Naomi Alderman
The Day Crayons Quit, by Drew Daywalt
How To Change Your Mind, by Michael Pollan
The Dreamers, by Karen Thomson Walker
The Circle, by Dave Eggers
Find Me Unafraid, by Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner
No Is Not Enough, by Naomi Klein
The Girls, by Emma Cline
Educated, by Tara Westover
The Examined Life: How We Lose And Find Ourselves, by Stephen Grosz
Between The World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Happy reading!