Angela Bassett, Mindy Kaling and Lena Waithe are a few of the celebrities who have shown support for Oprah Winfrey’s book club comeback through social media posts posing with the latest selection.
Oprah, who announced her new book club will be on Apple TV+ in March, has named author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer as her first pick on Instagram with the hashtag #ReadWithUs. Queen Sugar‘s Dawn-Lyen Gardner and Mixed-ish’s Tika Sumpter also shared photos of them casually reading the book.
Tuesday’s episode of The View, surrounded by co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Abby Huntsman, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin, and Meghan McCain, Ta-Nehisi discussed the premise of his novel.
“The story is about an enslaved man in antebellum Virginia by the name of Hiram Walker. His father, in fact, is the master of the plantation, his enslaver, who has sold off his mother who was enslaved obviously. It really is the story of Hiram wanting what all enslaved people wanted at the time: freedom, but coming to understand that freedom actually means a confronation with some past, really really horrible memories specifically what happened to his mother. He’s gifted with a preternatrual memory. He can remember everything except the things that are most intimate and most important to him, specifically what happend to this mother. His freedom, as it turns out, is actually tied to his memory.”
The last book to make Oprah’s club selection was Michelle Obama’s Becoming last November.