3 books that inspired fashion icon and Canada Reads panellist Jeanne Beker
Jeanne Beker is a multi-hyphenate — journalist, entrepreneur and author— perhaps best known for her three-decade run as the host of Fashion Television. She has contributed to the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail and authored five books, including the 2010 autobiography Finding Myself in Fashion. In 2014, Beker was appointed to the Order of Canada. She is currently the style editor for the Shopping Channel.
Beker successfully defended Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto. The memoir was the winner of Canada Reads 2018.
Below, the fashion icon shares some of the inspiring books she came across throughout her life that have inspired her.
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
"Around the time that I moved to Paris, someone gave me a copy of A Moveable Feast. I fell in love with Hemingway and his style of writing. It was to the point, with short sentences. I just loved the pictures he painted. I became so intrigued with Paris."
The Energy of Slaves by Leonard Cohen
"This was the first of his books that I read. I fell in love with his way of writing about the world and his take on romance, lust and life."
Gods and Kings by Dana Thomas
"By the time I started covering fashion in the mid 1980s, felt compelled to read up on a lot of the great fashion designers. Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano was a brilliant book that talks about — as author Dana Thomas calls it — the golden era of fashion that I was lucky enough to cover and witness. It was brilliantly researched. Dana Thomas is a great writer."
Jeanne Beker's comments have been edited and condensed.