Brie Larson is clinging to the final strands of summertime the best way she knows how, and she wants to know if you’re doing the same.
The Marvels actress posted a bright, picturesque photo of herself lying on a lounge chair to her Instagram Story. Art is Life by Jerry Saltz rests closed on her bare legs and in the background still pool water reflects the lush green trees that pepper her backyard. Indeed, there’s nothing quite as relaxing as a good book on a sunny summer day, and Larson is soaking it all up.
But she’s not leaving the rest of us out in the cold. The 33-year-old Academy Award-winning actress wants to know what we’re reading too. As you know, there’s nothing like a good book recommendation.
“What have you been reading lately,” the prompt above her picturesque photo reads. Here Larson’s 7.1 million followers are given the opportunity to share their own current reads, and you can bet your bottom dollar at least one of hers was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
The New York Times bestselling book — which was a Good Morning America book club pick, the Goodreads winner for best Debut Book, and every BookTok reader’s go-to recommendation for the last year and a half (as well as this writer’s top pick of the year, I might add) — is the inspiration behind Apple TV’s upcoming series of the same name. In the show, Larson plays the main character Elizabeth Zott, a chemist in the 1960s who, against all odds, forges her own path in a world that still believes a woman’s place is in the home or behind a secretary’s desk. Like Larson in many ways, Elizabeth Zott doesn’t care what people say behind her back (or at least she doesn’t let on that she cares); her love of science — or in Larson’s case, acting — is her passion and she will do everything to cultivate it.
So, then, it makes sense why Larson is enjoying Art is Life on this glorious summer day. The book is written by Jerry Saltz, the New York Times senior art critic, and it espouses the importance of being a fearless artist and recognizing the ways life shapes art and, in return, art shapes life.
As devoted as Larson is to her craft, you better believe she’s feeling impending butterflies associated with releasing a major blockbuster (and the most anticipated movie of the fall) like the MCU’s The Marvels, out into the world on Nov. 10. She may not be able to promote the movie, or Lessons in Chemistry for that matter, due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, but that doesn’t mean she’s just lying by a pool and casting her worries aside or something.
Anyway, you go, Glen Coco — ahem, I mean Brie Larson — soak up that sun, read that book, and bask in your marvelousness.