Oprah's Book Club Returning

CHICAGO — The first week of the final season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will include a selection for Oprah's Book Club.

A Harpo spokeswoman said Thursday that Winfrey will announce her 64th and latest pick during a live episode airing on Sept. 17. That would be 14 years to the day that Winfrey announced her first book club selection – Jacquelyn Mitchard's "The Deep End of the Ocean" – on Sept. 17, 1996.

Winfrey's book club choices have vaulted to best-seller lists and instant fame. Her last choice was author Uwem Akpan's short story collection "Say You're One Of Them."

It's not known if Winfrey's latest pick will be her last on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," which is set to premiere its 25th and final season on Sept. 13.

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Online: http://www.oprah.com/book_club.html

Comments

[zest]

12:04 PM on 09/08/2010

I think it's a good thing. Reading is important and some don't know what they like to read and need a little nudge.

[giraf]

02:43 PM on 09/07/2010

Oprah has helped book sales just by having a book club, and lord knows publishing needs all the help it can get. I hope she will have a book review club on her new network that maybe includes a "the best of self published" section, because so many great authors are not getting read simply because the publishers do not have the $ to put behind a new author (real author, not a celebrity) and get a more cutting edge work out there...

http://barbidoesmiami.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/20-a-love-story/

[toocoldout]

06:12 PM on 09/07/2010

Not only has Oprah's club itself been such a powerful force, but it's also made it fashionable for women all over North America to start their own book clubs with their own selections And for a while the popular morning shows followed Oprah's example by starting book clubs of their own.

[jessicajuliette]

02:22 PM on 09/06/2010

Bibliophile that i am,

I too shied away from most of her selections, but for those that welcome her recommendations, good for them..

I do apprectiate Jonathan Franzen for not wanting her name on his book The Corrections,.great read..

he lost money initially, but gained a great deal of respect in some circles..(he's a eh//a good writer)

overall, her Book Club was a noble attempt to make a contribtion to literacy and civility in our society as a whole, and we are better for it...

[toocoldout]

02:51 PM on 09/06/2010

Franzen gained respect from elitists who secretly resent a black woman who entertains stay at home moms becoming the most powerful person in literature. I think it's very unfortunate that he responded in such an ungracious way and it caused me to think less of him. On the other hand maybe he was just trying to be honest about his conflicted feelings when asked by reporters and wasn't trying to be insulting. On the other hand maybe he was trying to be insulting. I would have to see his comments in full context and the questions he was asked.

[jessicajuliette]

03:00 PM on 09/06/2010

"Franzen gained respect from elitists who secretly resent a black woman who entertains stay at home moms becoming the most powerful person in literature."

perhaps..butt there have been authors, Pearl Cleage(african american) among them who have expressed some difficulty with Oprah's endorsement/patronage in the past, but then rethought the situation and cashed in later...

I think he just felt he wrote the bok, and wanted the book to find it's own way into the hearts and minds of the reader, not because Oprah TOLD them to buy it..

others may in fact share some of the motives you listed as well.

[jessicajuliette]

03:10 PM on 09/06/2010

actually, what i meant to say was that i respected his courage and what i perceive as integrity by not selling out if that is what he felt it was

takes ethics to forgo a huge payday to make a statement, if that is what it was

i don't mean i appreciate that he was in fact disrespecting Oprah, but that he was just somewhat ambivalent about the Book Club designation..

[Vic S]

06:20 PM on 09/05/2010

Oh, big whoop. So Oprah recommends a book. Since she doesn't know me and my tastes and preferences from atom, why should I care what she likes? I read vociferously and don't need her stamp of approval.

This lemming following for books that Oprah recommends continues to mystify me. Besides, her show comes on when I'm working. I can't recall the last time I saw an episode.

[ChelleAgain]

03:01 AM on 09/06/2010

Okay. So you see no use for book clubs, reviews, or blurb on the back of books written by other authors then?

I see no issue with a person who likes to read talking about books -- whether it's me, Oprah, or Marion the Librarian. I also don't feel obligated to buy a book because someone else liked it.

Also, might I suggest that the word you meant to use was voraciously?

[smit9187]

01:18 PM on 09/06/2010

Zing!

[cindyw]

01:44 PM on 09/06/2010

Well if she reads "vociferously", maybe she reads out loud, very loud, but who knows? I don't know her from "atom".

[berserk]

09:30 AM on 09/06/2010

you do not care.....yet you commented.

[backinstolaf]

12:41 PM on 09/05/2010

I must say, I do love Oprah though........she is that crazy aunt we all had when we grew up that all the kids loved and the parents just rolled their eyes......Love Her!

[toocoldout]

05:27 PM on 09/05/2010

I love her too. I've been watching her so long I feel like she raised me. I will cry hysterically when her show ends.

[backinstolaf]

12:40 PM on 09/05/2010

Let the hysteria, screaming and disattachment from reality begin and what a journey it will be. No, I am not talking about Tea Party Campaigns in the 2010 Election, I am talking about the FINALLLLL SEASSONNNNNN OF ORPAHHHHHHHH.........

[ChelleAgain]

03:03 AM on 09/06/2010

Orpahhhhhhhhh? Or paw? Ore-paw? There's a great name for a pet in there.

[smit9187]

01:20 PM on 09/06/2010

Your jealousy is showing, poor thing.

[AlPal3]

12:10 AM on 09/05/2010

Oprah has allowed a few dozen writers to give up their day jobs teaching. Good for her. I think she should pick my book next.

[Montaignelover]

09:46 PM on 09/04/2010

Please be Montaigne's Essays...please be Montaigne's Essays- fingers crossed.

[Koolmorning]

11:38 PM on 09/04/2010

Please be Residential Wiring Laboratory Manual....Please be Residential Wiring Laboratory Manual...

[mombabytiger]

04:18 AM on 09/05/2010

I have had a copy of Montaigne's Essays in my bookshelf for over 40 years. I carry it with me every time I move. Until you just posted that, I had forgotten about it. I've never actually read it, I just carry it around. Now - I'll read it.

[mark331blue]

10:56 AM on 09/05/2010

It is indeed good, but hardly the stuff for Oprah.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

07:17 PM on 09/04/2010

Oprah's book club needs more variety.

She should expand beyond the "Woman Learns Something About Life" genre.

[toocoldout]

07:28 PM on 09/04/2010

She picked Cormac McCarthy's "The Road", a brilliantly dark saga of a father and son struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where every tree in the world will soon fall and the few humans left are largely cannibals.

[mombabytiger]

04:20 AM on 09/05/2010

I tried reading that and couldn't get into it for some reason. Guess I'll try again.

[FiredUpRTG]

03:36 PM on 09/05/2010

The Road - one of the most disturbing, haunting books I've ever read… because it's a believable scenario of how humans could behave if pushed to the extremes. Of course, on a lighter note and being that it's Huffington Post… I can now picture the savages running the big horrible house would've been tea baggers…

[ChelleAgain]

10:18 PM on 09/04/2010

I'm not sure Cathy learned a whole lot in East of Eden. In fact, I don't even know if your description matches even 1 in 3 of her selections:
http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Complete-List-of-Oprahs-Book-Club-Books

I want to say she could go for man learns something, but maybe she's not a fan of science fiction ... that wouldn't be fair though. (Nor true.) :)

I think there are some books that are universal and I do think there are some books that appeal to women more than men -- and vice versa. Oprah does pick a wide variety of books, but there would be nothing wrong with a woman with a predominantly female audience picking books for geared for them.

But, as you can see from the list, she's been pretty eclectic.

[Parsifals]

12:39 PM on 09/06/2010

I just checked the list and agree it is a wide variety of themes, authors, with both some classics and newer works.

A pleasant surprise!

[Dots]

01:38 PM on 09/04/2010

I liked one of her picks in the August magazine.
"The Sisters From Hardscrabble Bay"

[MyTurn2020]

01:30 PM on 09/04/2010

Oprah Winfrey has done for the publishing industry what it could not do for itself. She's exposed millions of people to books and authors they may not have known about and that's HUGE! In fact, I am sad at the day the show ends and there will likely be no other major vehicle to promote great reading material.

[hilaritee]

11:15 AM on 09/04/2010

i do not follow oprah's book club regularly but i owe it, and her, thanks for introducing me to a book that became one of my all-time personal favorites: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

it is beautifully written and powerful; read it if you have a chance.

[darkday]

02:09 PM on 09/04/2010

Yes I remember when she had the author on to discuss that book. He's from India if I recall. Fascinating hour of television.

[darkday]

10:58 AM on 09/04/2010

Fantastic news. I've been increasingly nostalgic for her book club, and as a culture force it is wonderful. So many excellent selections too.

[bwright85]

10:18 AM on 09/04/2010

As an avid reader, I am very excited to hear this news. I never understood why she stopped doing it in the first place. She really put the importance of reading out there with this club and I loved reading her selections and having discussions about it with familyfriends. Kudos to Ms. O! :)

[darkday]

10:59 AM on 09/04/2010

I agree. It's fantastic.

[imsdal]

08:57 AM on 09/04/2010

I'm not extremely familiar with her book club selections, but Say You're One of Them is a book worthy of the additional exposure she brings. I doubt a book like that would have become as popular without her Oprah bump.