Celebrity book clubs are an amazing feature of our modern life. Celebrities going beyond their typical careers and talking about books by people from all over the world? There are lots of celebrity book clubs out there now, but it all started with Madame Oprah Winfrey, who is an extraordinaire. She seems to do it all. The books her book club picks are usually great, sell super well thanks to her support, and they provoke great literary conversation.
The Oprah Book Club started in 1996 and yes, Oprah chooses the books herself. They range from classics to self-help books to memoirs to literary fiction so if you like books, you’re going to like something she has recommended. There’s also a thriving online community around the Oprah Book Club, Twitter and Instagram and Goodreads and Facebook, and some people even meet up locally to talk about the selections since it’s seen as a universal thing–everyone knows Oprah.
Recently, with the announcement of her October 2019 book, The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coats, Oprah also announced a partnership with Apple TV. She’ll host a TV series called “Oprah’s Book Club” on Apple+ and release a new episode every two months featuring a discussion and author interviews. Plus, every book club selection sold by Apple Books will benefit the American Library Association.
Of the announcement, Oprah said, ““I am who I am today because of the experience of learning to read at an early age. Reading opened up a whole world for me beyond the red dirt road and my grandmother’s porch in Mississippi…I want to do that for everybody. And the opportunity to do this with Apple, to speak to people all over the world about the pleasures, the excitement, the tension, the drama that a good book can bring you … I don’t know what’s better than that.”
The first episode dropped November 1st.
Her most recent pick, The Water Dancer, is one of the most buzzed about books of the year. It’s by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a well-known and respected black writer who writes about his own experiences and is now taking on history with a book about a slave who uses magical powers to escape. Coates previously won the National Book Award for his non-fiction memoir.
Since 1996, Oprah has chosen approximately 80 books as her book club selections, interviewed the authors, promoted the stories, and engaged with readers about the books. Here’s a look at some of the best of her selection over the past two decades.
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Becoming by Michelle Obama
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An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
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The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
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Wild by Cheryl Strayed
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A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
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Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Night by Elie Wiesel
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Sula by Toni Morrison
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The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
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White Oleander by Janet Fitch
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Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen
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A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines
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The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
