Oprah's Book Club: The Freedom Of Picking Books That Matter

chicagotribune.com:

Already a best-seller, "Freedom" is going to sell millions of copies. With Oprah's seal of approval, it may become the kudzu of the literary world, overrunning niches it was never meant to inhabit and killing less fortunate native species.

Read the whole story: chicagotribune.com

Comments

[dab1000]

09:50 AM on 09/29/2010

A Small way to Say Thank You to Oprah:
http://youtu.be/H9ATXxyOGGI

[amantedelibros]

08:55 AM on 09/27/2010

I didn't buy this book because Oprah chose it or gave it her seal of approval. I bought it because the writing school I've attended recommended it as the next great American novel -- an example of excellent writing. I've never bought a book because Oprah chose it, though I understand she's chosen some really good ones.

[Lev Raphael]

04:54 PM on 09/24/2010

I can sympathize with this POV since on a vastly smaller scale, that's what I do on a public radio station in mid-Michigan. The segment is called 'Under the Radar" and I pick books that for one reason or another might have escaped the audience's attention. Often it's because they're from smaller presses, indies or academic presses. Sometimes it's because a recent flurry of, say, biographies, might have left one in the shadow. There's always some logic behind the choice. Bottom line, the book has to tell a fascinating story no matter what the genre, and it has to be well-written. I just reviewed a re-issue of a 1942 memoir "The Mermaid and the Messerschmidt: War Through a Woman's Eye." It's a stirring, revelatory story by Rulka Laner, an American-educated Pole writing about her harrowing experiences during the Blitzkrieg. Her escape from Poland is worthy of an Alan Furst thriller.

[MilesLong]

09:34 PM on 09/23/2010

How many Black authors have graced Oprah's Book Club? (chuckle)

And what's with "honoring" those already on the NYT Best Sellers List? Isn't that kind of like saying you like chocolate?

I wonder if she'll ever pick someone none of us would have heard about? Maybe even a great self-published book that could really benefit from the exposure? After all, just from a purely egocentric standpoint, isn't it better to be a king maker than a bandwagon hopper?

Miles "Wasted Effort" Long

[ChelleAgain]

12:09 AM on 09/24/2010

How do you determine that? Whether or not we would have heard about some of these folks another way? She certainly introduced some writers to the public and made their careers, but there's no way to know if they would have found success anyhow.

[noladebby]

03:50 AM on 09/24/2010

she might have picked like 2 black authors.

[Bepa150]

06:40 PM on 09/23/2010

Isn't this the author who blew her off for Corrections?

[ChelleAgain]

07:24 PM on 09/23/2010

Yes.