When it comes to celebrity book clubs, Oprah is the GOAT.
I would compare her to Michael Jordan except that she also essentially invented the celebrity book club for the modern era, so Oprah Winfrey is more like James Naismith (the inventor of basketball) combined with Michael Jordan (the greatest player of all time).
Over the years, Winfrey has demonstrated the taste of a discerning reader who wants to feature books and authors that offer some challenges — Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, Colson Whitehead and Marilynne Robinson, for example — but also provide straight-up pleasure during the reading. For Oprah, books aren’t cultural medicine, they’re essential life sustenance.
Sure, she’s made some missteps (I’m thinking “American Dirt”), but even MJ missed some shots.
Since the end of her daily show, Winfrey now exists as a kind of emeritus figure, still weighing in with a new choice every so often, but not necessarily having the same cultural weight, and also not having nearly the same amount of juice to drive sales. Don’t get me wrong, if Winfrey anointed my book, I’d jump for joy higher than Jordan at the peak of his slam-dunk powers, but there was a time when she really could get an entire nation reading a book.
In her wake, two celebrity book club colossi have risen, Reese’s Book Club (Reese Witherspoon), and Read with Jenna (Jenna Bush Hager). I have taken it upon myself to tell you which one of them is the closest inheritor of the spirit of Oprah.
Reese’s Book Club kicked off in 2017, and similar to Oprah’s, primarily features fiction with the occasional memoir or self-help book (e.g., “Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone” by Brene Brown). Her Sept. 2018 pick, “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens, went on to sell more books than any other in the year 2019, and has sold more than 20 million copies, making it one of the most popular books of all time.
Multiple book club choices have been adapted for the screen through Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company, including Celeste Ng’s “Little Fires Everywhere” and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “Daisy Jones and the Six”, in addition to “Where the Crawdads Sing.”
That’s some Oprah-like power.
Read with Jenna started as a monthly feature on the Today Show in March 2019, and displays Bush Hager’s desire to frequently challenge the reader with some grittier literary reads, such as Elizabeth Wetmore’s “Valentine,” which is a powerful but wrenching emotional read about the aftermath of a brutal assault on a teen girl in a 1970s Texas oil field.
Bush Hager also occasionally elevates books without blockbuster expectations, such as Lee Cole’s “Groundskeeping,” a sweet coming-of-age novel about an adrift post-college kid. Another pick, “A Burning” by Megha Majumdar, was released as a paperback in the U.S., not the sign of a future bestseller.
Like Winfrey, Bush Hager also dips into classics like Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History.” Read with Jenna, more so than Reese’s Book Club, feels like the books are being chosen by a passionate and engaged reader with very specific tastes.
To me, that sounds like Oprah.
In the end, these two celebrity book clubs demonstrate the incredible legacy of Oprah’s original book club. Witherspoon is more likely to hit on something that connects with the popular zeitgeist and moves mega copies.
Bush Hager is modeling what it’s like to be a reader who wants to share their favorites and provide a varied reading experience.
In the end, which flavor you prefer is up to you, as it should be.
John Warner is the author of “Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities.”
Book recommendations from the Biblioracle
John Warner tells you what to read based on the last five books you’ve read.
1. “The 1619 Project” by Nikole Hannah-Jones
2. “Being Mortal” by Atul Gawande
3. “The Women” by Kristin Hannah
4. “The Lindbergh Nanny” by Mariah Fredericks
5. “The Silent Sisters” by Robert Dugoni
— Barb Z., South Bend, Indiana
I think Sue Miller’s “The Lake Shore Limited” has the kind of drama that Barb is looking for.
1. “Great Circle” by Maggie Shipstead
2. “The Wind Knows My Name” by Isabel Allende
3. “Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett
4. “Hello Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano
5. “American Royals” by Katharine McGee
— Geri D., Chicago
For Geri, I’m recommending one of my favorite books from the Read with Jenna selections, “Infinite Country” by Patricia Engel.
1. “The Sympathizer” by Viet Thanh Nguyen
2. “Dead Lions” by Mick Herron
3. “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles
4. “Isaac’s Storm” by Erik Larson
5. “The Bomber Mafia” by Malcolm Gladwell
— Dean T., Chicago
For Dean, a true classic of historical narrative storytelling, Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff.”
Get a reading from the Biblioracle
Send a list of the last five books you’ve read and your hometown to biblioracle@gmail.com.