How Romantic is Tembe Denton-Hurst's Bookstore Proposal?
Plus, the book and beauty writer recommends three page-turning books and the beautiful workhorse bag she carries them in.
Hi! How’s it going? Today, we’re thrilled to feature
, who writes the brilliant, book-obsessed newsletter . Love, Joannaxo*****
Hey, it’s Kaitlyn, the newsletter editor for Big Salad. I interviewed Tembe about her two great loves: beauty and books. She regularly covers those topics as a staff writer for The Strategist, which means she’s an expert on both makeup trends and sapphic relationships in contemporary literature (the subject of her master’s thesis).
In our interview, below, she recommends three books she couldn’t put down — which is exactly how I felt last summer when I read her debut novel Homebodies, about a young Black woman who loses her media job due to workplace racism and is propelled into a quarter-life crisis.
Tembe says that the full force of realizing a childhood dream of publishing a book hit her when she opened the box of hardcover copies: “I started crying. My fiancé started crying. We were all crying,” she says. She also had me tearing up over the story of how her fiancé proposed in a bookstore (see the photos below!).
Here, Tembe shares 12 things she’s into…
Dress: I wore pink and orange to match my book on tour. For the bookstore event in D.C., where I grew up, I wore a Mara Hoffman popcorn dress, and my mom and dad and stepmom came, so it was really special.
Bag: I carry only bags that can fit books. The best gift I ever received is a checkered Poppy Lissiman tote. It is massive, a workhorse, and I can fit everything — like three paperbacks, my laptop, and my gym shoes.
Celebrity encounter: Once, at a beauty event, Courteney Cox was like, “Who smells so good?” And I was like, “It’s me.” And she was like, “It is you!” The next day, her publicist told me that Courteney was still talking about my signature scent. It’s a combination of Armani Privé’s Santal Dān Shā and Nette’s Thé Vanille, and I get complimented on it all the time.
Workout: For so long, I was consumed with writing my book. Once it sold, I needed something else to focus on, so I started going to the gym. I just lock in and listen to gospel music while running on the treadmill and lifting weights. Old Navy activewear is the best in the game, period. I have a pair of their OG leggings that I’ll never get rid of — they don’t rip, they don’t pill, those things are sturdy.
