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New Year, Old Books

SHE LIT: New Year, Old Books 🥳

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Out of the 16 books below, I’ve only read seven 📚😬

Books with red covers by female authors on the shelit.com bookshelf.

Staying relevant as a book blogger by still reading new books, rediscovering old books

Happy 2023! Champagne clinks and literary links ushered in the new year. Innovating shelit.com for another year means thinking more about the blog’s future and purpose.

Like many readers, my library has expanded beyond its limits, multiplying on several shelves and already outgrowing those spaces. I love buying books from thrift stores, used bookstores, new bookstores, book festivals, library fairs, yard sales, garage sales, estate sales. Anywhere a book can be bought, I bought it.

The urge became more important when I noticed books by Black women on sale, sometimes a rare sight, a revelation I learned from The Free Black Women’s Library Los Angeles. Books by Black women are usually not uplifted online or in the bricks-and-mortar as much as they could be. Neither are books by women of Indigenous, Latine, and Asian descent.

Young adult author Kalynn Bayron shared her disdain for walking into a bookstore that promoted books by BookTokers and noticing only one out of the 10 books was by a non-Black author of color. Diversity is still a problem in the publishing industry in many aspects, especially when it comes to fewer marketing dollars being given to non-celebrity authors of color.

While I’ve been collecting gems by female authors, I also haven’t been reading as many books as I want. As a book blogger promoting new books for search engine optimization and overall audience boost, I ignored most of my books in favor of buying new books, getting new books from publishers, and checking new books out from the library.

Books were piling up like I hadn’t learned anything from Christine Platt’s The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living with Less where she offers the viewpoint of having too much stuff to meet a Eurocentric society’s desire for excess. Or when Nedra Glover Tawwab’s Set Boundaries, Find Peace advised on how to ask yourself what’s working and what’s not working and reflect on how to make things work for you. So, I have too many books that will take me years to read. And I need to refocus my love for books on forgotten treasures while still checking on the over-marketed new books, especially if they’re written by a woman of color. #PublishingPaidMe is still relevant today as it was in 2020.

I have read books in the last year that I want to share more with readers who may not have known about the book or maybe never had the chance to read it. One example is Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills, which I bought from Myopic Books in Chicago. Another is bell hooks’ Bone Black. Both had been on my bookshelf for a while, so it felt gratifying to finally read these great works by great authors and discuss those stories.

More bookish outlets are also trying to elevate older works like Belletrist’s 2021 book club selection with Tananarive Due’s The Between, which was originally published in 1995. That book is also on my bookshelf. Thanks to the Ladera Heights Goodwill Store in Los Angeles for that find.

Books from previous years and even decades still need our support and attention. The marketing problem is a historic problem, where books by women, particularly women of color, got lost in the mix among Harry Potter-type fantasies, mysteries by men, and celebrity memoirs, just to name a few. I look forward to sharing my library and love for curation this year by discovering works that deserve to be rediscovered.

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What we’re highlighting

2023 forecasted to be a rough year for books

The spike in book bans spreading from school libraries to big-box retailers over the debate of what’s appropriate in children’s literature is considered to be a major factor in the book sales slump, according to end-of-year media reports. Mostly works by non-White authors and LGBTQ+ authors are at the center of these book bans.

How the publishing industry markets books was one of the insider secrets the public received during last year’s blockbuster trial between the U.S. Department of Justice and Penguin Random House over the publisher’s proposed merger with Simon & Schuster. A federal judge blocked the merger in October. PRH’s global CEO stepped down. Authors and readers alike worried about the Big Five becoming the Big Four. Most of the books we tell you about are from Penguin Random House, as you will notice linked below in other news.

Publishing industry employees going on strike echoed all last year. The only major unionized publisher, HarperCollins, went on strike in November. Workers are still on strike, according to updates to the union’s Twitter feed. They claim that “untrained temps” will be hired to replace them to edit stories, design covers, and promote books. This week, the union asked the publisher’s CEO to return to the negotiation table to end the strike. The employees are demanding mostly fair wages to live in the publishing megalopolis of New York City.

Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry sold less than one quarter of the first week print sales of her 2018 memoir Becoming, the NPD Group found, as the Forever First Lady’s book had a massive book tour with rock concert audiences (and prices) and still became a No. 1 best-seller. The NPD Group also noted Marie Kondo’s Kurashi at Home by the global superstar organizer ranked as low as No. 4,742 on Amazon.com upon its release, as reported by The New York Times. The reason for the lower book sales: The industry is trying to rebound from the pandemic highs. And a recession is looming.

Ketanji Brown Jackson announces upcoming memoir

The first Black female Supreme Court justice will write about her journey to the highest court. Titled Lovely One for the translation of her West African name, Justice Jackson plans to discuss her upbringing in Miami and her advancement in Big Law as a mother, a wife, and a Black woman. Publisher Random House has not shared a release date.

“Mine has been an unlikely journey,” she said in a statement from Random House. “But the path was paved by courageous women and men in whose footsteps I placed my own, road warriors like my own parents, and also luminaries in the law, whose brilliance and fortitude lit my way.”

Celebrity-helmed book clubs select January picks

What we’re reviewing

From Scratch Episode Recaps

Luckiest Girl Alive Film Makes Character’s Traumas Leap Off the Page

What we’re watching

Kindred on FX Hulu

Octavia E. Butler’s debut novel Kindred has been adapted to the screen with an eight-episode series streaming now on Hulu via FX. The story follows a Black woman living in modern-day Los Angeles who keeps getting transported to antebellum Maryland. She ends up saving her White ancestor as a child and embarks on a journey of fighting for her freedom physically on the plantation and mentally in order to return to her present life. Our book review can be found here.

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Another Famous Author Complains About Diversity

SHE LIT: Another Famous Author Complains About Diversity 😒

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📚 Join the #shelitbookclub! The August book club pick will be announced in the next three days. Details can be found here.

Photo by ready made: https://www.pexels.com/photo/composed-books-on-white-marble-background-3847626/

Pity for White male authors continues as Joyce Carol Oates joins tone-deaf chorus

Famous White female author Joyce Carol Oates tweeted a weeks-old op-ed from The New York Times about the banned books movement. Like famous White male author James Patterson earlier this summer complaining about the lack of “52-year-old White male authors,” Joyce stuck her foot in her mouth by expressing the hardships young White male authors are dealing with now due to the social justice movement around banned books.

In her July 24 tweet that has an estimated 12,200 likes, Joyce says she’s been hearing from a literary agent friend that young White male authors are having a hard time getting their debut novels in front of editors. These editors, according to her tweet referring to one unnamed literary agent, are no longer interested in reading these works because of the writers’ race and gender.

It’s problematic having these very established authors express their opinions about diversity, equity, and inclusion in publishing based on what a friend, who most likely is also White, is telling them in confidence. Non-White authors have always had a more difficult time to even get to the first step of attaining a literary agent, so saying White authors are having issues getting their books published doesn’t sound believable.

For some of the most active women of color authors on Twitter, The 1619 Project creator and journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones ripped Joyce for using an anonymous source and wanting “to be oppressed so badly.” Romance novelist Courtney Milan reminded us that Joyce told fantasy YA author and publisher Dhonielle Clayton in 2017 “to start her own publishing company if she felt excluded” and added that Joyce is a “racist.”

Joyce doubled down in another tweet, saying, “This is what is most astonishing about writers like Rimbaud, Keats, Hemingway, Carson McCullers, John Cheever, John Updike–they began writing well so young, & some might argue that their strongest writing was their earliest.” So, she’s implying publishing overall is in trouble because in her opinion the industry is losing its brightest stars, which historically have been overwhelmingly White male.

All this hoopla is swirling as Netflix announced its film adaptation of Joyce’s 2000 biographical fiction book Blonde, based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. The press around the film, which is expected to be available for streaming later this year, seems to be unaffected by the #BookTwitter controversy.

Publishing her first novel in 1963, Joyce, now 84, has written 58 books with five of those, including Blonde, becoming finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Though she’s considered an industry treasure, her off-the-cuff remarks in relation to diversity, equity, and inclusion reached a height with this recent fiasco.

Banned books across the political and racial spectrum are causing concerns. The NYT op-ed that was referenced in Joyce’s Twitter argument mentions how books featuring and written by Black and queer authors are seeing bans across the country while former Vice President Mike Pence’s book deal saw protests from Simon & Schuster employees.

Dana Canedy, who recently stepped down as S&S publisher, stood her ground to support Pence’s book though she’s Black. As a journalist, she knew that the Trump administration official’s story as well as stories by Black nonfiction authors are needed to fight censorship.

While there is data on how people of color are largely underrepresented as publishing industry employees and as authors and illustrators, the data is not showing any issues with White male authors not being given book deals. If you look at most literary agencies where the majority of agents are usually White female, almost their entire clientele is White with other dominating identities such as cisgender, heterosexual, Christian or atheist.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion is an overarching problem; the only thing now is the underrepresented groups in publishing are louder in their fight for equality and balance thanks to social media. Bookstores may be prioritizing books by people of color and by LGBTQIA+ authors in the front of their windows now because they never had done that before. At the end of the day, it’s the publishing industry’s duty to make sure all stories, if well-balanced and fair, are published to represent all readers.

Saying you heard from your friend in the industry that an unproven trend is happening is not helpful to the discourse. At least, wait for the data to prove the trend, then we can have that conversation on censorship.

she lit editor + chief content creator

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What we’re highlighting

Hulu orders series based on publishing workplace drama novel

The Other Black Girl is one of the latest book-to-TV screen adaptation deals in Hollywood from Disney’s Onyx Collection. The best-selling 2021 novel by Zakiya Dalila Harris centers on Nella, who is exhausted being the only Black woman in her publishing house’s office until Hazel, another Black woman, arrives on the scene. Hazel becomes a rising star while Nella seems to fade more into the background. The series, which counts the author and Rashida Jones as executive producers, will stream on Hulu. The book is published by Atria Books imprint of Simon & Schuster.

Maison Valentino, 826LA reup support for writing program

The Children of Blood and Bone series fantasy young adult novelist Tomi Adeyemi, Italian fashion house Maison Valentino, and Los Angeles youth nonprofit 826LA are partnering to provide scholarships to 50 emerging authors. They had partnered in December 2020 to give 50 recipients scholarships who had applied on Instagram to attend The Writer’s Roadmap, the masterclass created by Tomi to help writers develop their skills.

“The opportunity to encourage the pursuit of culture, art and literature, supporting students from diverse backgrounds in making their voices heard, represents an important step on the brand’s path toward social sustainability,” Maison Valentino wrote in a press release.

Nic Stone reveals new YA novel focused on mental health

Best known for her 2017 social justice YA debut Dear Martin, Nic Stone announced on Instagram that her next book received a second chance. Technically her first novel, Nic says Chaos Theory, which centers on Black teens with “abnormal brain chemistry,” was the book she was trying to sell in 2015 as her debut. “It wasn’t the right time,” she wrote in the post. Nic’s newest release is slated for February 2023 and considered a triumph for other authors who had seen their earlier works receive rejections but are able to sell them later after establishing themselves in the marketplace.

August book club picks to add to your #TBR list:

What we’re reviewing

"Red Clocks" by Leni Zumas

Book Review: Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

What we’re reading

What we’re watching

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Two Books at a Time: August 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

More book clubs are selecting a second book for the month as some continue their promise of reading works by authors of color in the wake of the latest anti-racism protests.

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

“Jones is unflinching in his exploration of vengeance and justice, the realities of living and growing up Native today, as well as community and where tradition fits into the modern world,” Amerie wrote on the book club’s Instagram profile. “At turns poignant and difficult to digest, I found the story brimming with despair, anger, and, despite everything, hope.”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

Luster by Raven Leilani

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh

Actress Emma Roberts’ book club with Karah Preiss have taken the two-book route this month for the first time.

“Loving #luster 💖 are you?” Emma shared on Instagram in a selfie with the book.

GMA BOOK CLUB

The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis

“It’s set at the New York Public Library and it’s about a family that lives in an apartment deep inside the building, an apartment that actually existed,” the author told Good Morning America. “It’s about the magic of the written word and the power of women’s voices, and it’s dedicated to some of my favorite people: librarians.”

KAIA GERBER’S BOOK CLUB

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Teen supermodel Kaia Gerber selects several books throughout the month, and she has chosen a summer book club favorite. She also hosted author Brit Bennett on Instagram Live.

NONAME BOOK CLUB

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison

Indie rapper Noname is celebrating the first anniversary of her book club that focuses on social science books for readers of color. This month the book club made its two selections: The Vanishing Half from Noname and Playing in the Dark as the homie pick.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

“It explains why we are where we are in terms of racial injustice and inequality,” Oprah said on her book club website, “and it show us how to rebuild a world in which all are truly equal and free.”

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

The Comeback by Ella Berman

Here For It by R. Eric Thomas

Jenna Bush Hager, Today Show correspondent and presidential daughter, selected two books for August for the first time in the 2-year-old book club’s history.

“This beautifully written and compulsively readable book broke me from my pandemic blockage,” she said of The Comeback on Instagram.

Jenna partnered with Noelle Santos, the owner of The Bronx-based indie bookstore The Lit Bar, to pick Here For It.

“I just loved how she was bringing a new face to literature and I loved her passion for it,” Jenna said about Noelle in Today.

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Recently Emmy-nominated producer for the Hulu miniseries based on the novel Little Fires Everywhere, Reese Witherspoon named the latest short story collection by Edwidge Danticat as the monthly pick for her book club.

“#EverythingInside is a collection of short stories anchored in Haitian culture about love, love loss and love of country,” the book club posted on Instagram. “#EdwidgeDanticat encourages you to find rays of hope in each story and to take moments in between to let the narratives sink in.⁠”

Reese’s Book Club also announced last week its young adult version, which chose You Should See Me in a Crown as its inaugural selection. Now, the book club will choose a novel for adult readers and another novel for the YA audience each month.

“I’ve been reading so many incredible, diverse stories in the YA genre and can’t wait to share them with you each month as an additional pick,” Reese said in the announcement of Reese’s Book Club YA.

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Beach Reads, Memoirs Dominate the Summer: July 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

With the impact of the anti-Black racism protests last month, some of the celebrity-founded book clubs kept the focus on Black stories as others chose the top books of the summer including reads perfect for the beach (if it’s open) and texts exploring gender and sexual identity.

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

The debut novel features a Palestinian American girl who is yelled at by a group of men for showing her legs on a trip to Bethlehem. The experience eventually allows her to tell her mother she’s queer as she moves to different spaces to find her true self.

“I rooted for her and hurt for her as she tried to find her way through one bad decision after another,” Amerie wrote on Instagram. “The main character, whose name is never revealed, stayed with me long after I closed the book, as did her hope for yet another shot at love.”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

The Dragons, The Giant, The Women: A Memoir by Wayétu Moore

The author of She Would Be King and founder of nonprofit One Moore Book has a new memoir about her experience living through the civil war in Liberia. At five years old, she’s waiting to be reunited with her mother, who’s studying in New York, then her world is turned upside down with the war. Her family flees on foot from their home and get smuggled across the border of Sierra Leone, where they get a chance to fly to the U.S.

Belletrist, founded by actress Emma Roberts and producer Karah Preiss, also chose the Black woman-owned Semicolon Bookstore in Chicago as its indie bookstore of the month.

GMA BOOK CLUB

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

The Crazy Rich Asians series creator’s new book takes place on the island of Capri with a half-Chinese, half-White woman trying to fall for the well-off White man her family likes while avoiding another man, who is Chinese, she keeps suppressing her feelings for.

“It’s a summer escape full of travel, food, fun and fashion,” Kevin told Good Morning America. “The outrageous characters will make your crazy families seem almost normal.”

KAIA GERBER’S BOOK CLUB

Darling Days: A Memoir by iO Tillett Wright

Born female, the author comes of age in downtown New York with a young widowed mother and adopts the persona of a boy amid the 1980s “intersection of punk, poverty, heroin, and art.”
“In talking to him about his experience publishing this book, he taught me that writers who happen to be queer too often are dismissed as ‘queer writers’ and their books, regardless of the topics they cover, end up exclusively stocked on ‘LGBT author’ shelves,” Kaia wrote in an Instagram post. “Darling Days goes far beyond this—it is a story about neglect, creativity, internalized homophobia, and the beauty you can make out of pain. it is a New York story of growing up and out of the life you are born into.” 

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis

Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith

Rapper Noname picks Are Prisons Obsolete?, a book that calls for the abolition of prisons and how it will benefit society as a whole. The homie pick, Captive Genders, comes from Che Gossett. It studies trans and gender-queer people in prison with the most recent version including a foreword from CeCe MacDonald, who was imprisoned for killing a transphobic attacker, and an essay by Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army soldier who transitioned amid getting sentenced for espionage.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

This novel tells the story of a church deacon who shoots the neighborhood drug dealer point blank range in front of the community and the aftermath.

“In naming Deacon King Kong my latest Oprah’s Book Club selection, I am hoping readers will find in it what I did: sorrow, joy, resilience, humanity, and an understanding that while we struggle with pain and trauma, we can find shelter in one another—just as the characters in the Cause housing project in McBride’s Brooklyn do,” Oprah wrote in the Instagram announcement. 

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

Jenna Bush Hager’s book club via her Today Show gig is one of the hottest books of the season. The main character is a new mother who hires a college senior as a baby-sitter. As they grow close, the baby-sitter’s relationship with the mother’s father-in-law leads to a betrayal.

“I wanted to explore American life in the pre-Trump years and sort of how we got here,” the author said in an article introducing the book club pick. “The book very much digs into the gig economy, the shrinking safety net and the notion that privilege takes many different forms.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

After the book club delayed its selection announcement in June, actress Reese Witherspoon directed her book club to make two selections—a first to recognize current events. Both books will be read over June and July.

“Elevating women’s stories is at the core of Reese’s Book Club. I love how this community champions the narrative for women and we are just getting started,” the book club placed in a graphic on Instagram. “Unity and understanding through the lens of storytelling is how we will continue these meaningful conversations.”

Readers expressed their disappointment in the comments over the book club adding a book by a Black woman author last minute and not pushing back the book by a White woman author to another month.

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‘The Vanishing Half’ Dominates the Charts Amid #BlackStoriesMatter Movement

Brit Bennett’s long-awaited sophomore book sits in the number one spot on The New York Times Best Sellers list as several prominent book clubs make it a monthly selection.

The Vanishing Half explores racial identity among twin sisters who flee their Southern Black community and lead separate lives after one starts passing as White. Spanning generations from the South to the West between the 1950s to the 1990s, the themes in the novel may resonate more with readers as anti-racism awareness rises after the Memorial Day police killing of George Floyd.

In nonfiction, many Black authors are seeing their works soar on the best-selling lists as well, including So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad, and The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.

Brit’s novel, coming out four years after her memorable debut The Mothers, is the only piece of fiction touching on race in the list’s top 10.

On top of topping the charts, The Vanishing Half has been chosen for the following book clubs:

  • Barnes & Noble Book Club: The bookseller will offer a free live virtual event on its Facebook page with Brit in conversation with Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age, on Tuesday, July 7, at 7 p.m. EST.
  • Belletrist: The book club co-organized by actress Emma Roberts wrote in an Instagram post that Brit will contribute to a conversation. “Please stay tuned as we will have a more in depth conversation with Brit towards the end of the month, and look out for our weekly quotes, which are curated this month by this month’s author!”
  • GMA Book Club: Good Morning America asked its Instagram book club followers for questions that Brit could answer. The first post features Brit in a video sharing the book she was reading at the time, The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels.
  • Book of the Month: Now a two-time BOTM author, Brit starred in a virtual tour on the book subscription service’s Instagram. “Head to our IGTV to watch the episode, where Brit talks about her inspirations for the book, her favorite authors, and why NYC > LA.”
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May 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

Singer and author Amerie will read Deacon King Kong by James McBride with her book club.

“James McBride tackles trauma, the Black migration, community, racism (of both Southern and Northern variety), and the perils of Growing Up While Black with subtlety and humor,” she wrote in her Instagram announcement. “In his deft hands, the exploration of such themes within a premise in which a perpetually drunk deacon shoots a teen drug dealer is not depressing or gratuitous, but intimate, funny, and full of hope.”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

GMA BOOK CLUB

Emma Roberts, the actress and book connoisseur of Belletrist, and Good Morning America crowned The Book of V. by Anna Solomon as their monthly book club pick.

The book describes the intersecting story between a struggling writer in Brooklyn balancing motherhood and being a second wife, a  political wife who receives a humiliating favor from her husband, and an independent young woman in ancient Persia who may have become a sacrifice to the king in order to save her people.

“I think a lot of readers will find some part of themselves in this book,” the author tells GMA. Whether you relate most to the headstrong Esther, who does not want to become queen to Vivian Barr, a senator’s wife torn between following conventions and breaking free or to Lily, a contemporary mother of two struggling to figure out what she even wants, you’ll recognize and root for the characters in this book.”

KAIA GERBER’S BOOK CLUB

 

Rising teen supermodel and the daughter of legend Cindy Crawford, Kaia Gerber started a weekly book club in March. This week, she announced to her Instagram followers that she’s reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

She will discuss the book on Friday, May 15 with her mother on Instagram Live at 5 p.m. PST.

Since her book selection changes every week with Instagram Live interviews with authors and others in the literary realm, check out her social media channel to keep up with selections for the rest of the month.

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Busy revolutionizing the book club model, indie rapper Noname’s book club usually selects two books each month particularly for readers of color. She chooses a book, which this month has yet to be announced, and the homie pick, the classic black revolutionary memoir Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur, which comes from Blake and Delency, the founders of People’s Breakfast Oakland.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker is still Oprah Winfrey’s book club pick, which was named at the beginning of April.

The biography of a family where six out of 12 of the children were born with schizophrenia and became a major source of research for scientists working to understand the genetics behind the devastating mental illness.

“This is a riveting true story of an American family that reads like a medical detective journey,” Oprah announced in a video. “It reveals the shame, denial, shock, confusion and misunderstanding of mental illness at a time when no one was really sure what schizophrenia was or how to treat it.”

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

Through her Today Show correspondent gig, former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager chose All Adults Here by Emma Straub for her May selection.

“I loved it because I thought, on one hand, it was light and funny,” Jenna said in an article. “On the other, Emma Straub has the capability of writing in a way that explores these themes that are important and interesting.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

Actress and producer Reese Witherspoon picked The Henna Artist by Indian-born author Alka Joshi for her monthly book club.

This debut novel surrounds a teenager in India who escapes an abusive marriage and ends up in 1950s Jaipur where she rises as a prominent henna artist and confidante to the wealthy women of the upper class who could never know her secret.

“This vivid story is so rich and complex… reading about Lakshmi’s journey from escaping an abusive marriage to becoming one of the most sought-after henna artists in Jaipur captivated me from the first chapter to the final page,” Reese shared on her book club website.

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April 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Singer-turned-writer Amerie chose Kevin Wilson’s New York Times best-seller and former Read With Jenna book club pick for her April book.

“An outrageous yet grounded read that had me laughing out loud and tearing up in the same paragraph, Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here explores parenthood and found family, while also addressing the very frightening phenomena of spontaneous combustion, of which, like the author, I grew up scared to death,” Amerie wrote in her Instagram post announcing the book selection.

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

 

Actress Emma Roberts’ book club chose Lily King’s new novel. The book was also a March selection for the Today Show’s Read With Jenna book club.

 

In an Instagram post on her personal account, Emma said, “So excited to read along with you guys and discuss!”

 

GMA BOOK CLUB

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Good Morning America‘s book club named Margarita Montimore’s debut novel. In the U.K., the same book is titled The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart. Both have abstract covers of Oona’s face with the GMA book club reposting some of their favorites from readers.

“I’m so grateful ‘GMA’ has chosen my novel ‘Oona Out of Order’ as its latest book club pick,” Margarita told GMA in its story on the book club pick. “I know the whole world feels like it’s out of order right now, and social distancing is tough, but join ‘GMA’s’ Book Club and we’ll all feel less isolated as we get lost in this uplifting story.”

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Mean by Myriam Gurba

War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony by Nelson A. Denis

Indie rapper Noname’s book club usually selects two books each month, with Noname picking one and someone else naming the “homie pick.” Noname chose Mean by Myriam Gurba and Yahdon Israel, founder of Brooklyn-based @literaryswagbookclub, chose War Against All Puerto Ricans.

The book club says it stands in solidarity with the prisoners who participate in the book club over demanding more protection such as masks during the coronavirus COVID-19 forced quarantine. After announcing it had to cancel all in-person meetings due the pandemic, the book club recently started its own newspaper, Out of Print, for Patreon members.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker

After the controversy around her last book club pick American Dirt, Oprah Winfrey chose the biography of a family where six out of 12 of the children were born with schizophrenia and became a major source of research for scientists working to understand the genetics behind the devastating mental illness.

“This is a riveting true story of an American family that reads like a medical detective journey,” Oprah announced in a video. “It reveals the shame, denial, shock, confusion and misunderstanding of mental illness at a time when no one was really sure what schizophrenia was or how to treat it.”

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

Former first daughter and Today Show co-host Jenna Bush Hager picked Elizabeth Wetmore’s debut novel that publisher Harper Collins describes as “explores the lingering effects of a brutal crime on the women of one small Texas oil town in the 1970s.”

“Elizabeth really developed these characters that I felt like I knew,” Jenna said about the debut novel on Today’s website. “I found myself missing them when the story was over. The women are complicated. They are a lot of things at once.”

As a native Texan, Jenna added that Elizabeth portrays Texas life just right in Valentine.

“I spent a good portion of my childhood eavesdropping on my mother and her girlfriends as they sat out on the back porch after dinner, and I listened to them telling stories,” Elizabeth told Today. “They would sit out there with their cigarettes and mix drinks because it was the ’70s, and I listened to them rehashing their days.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Rising book club queen Reese Witherspoon, who’s currently starring in Little Fires Everywhere based on Celeste Ng’s novel, has chosen well-known memoirist Glennon Doyle’s latest book, Untamed.

 

“It’s an absolute joy to announce Glennon Doyle’s UNTAMED as my April book pick,” Reese wrote at the top of her Hello Sunshine announcement email. “This memoir is so packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today, what it means to be “good,” and what woman will do in order to be loved. I swear I highlighted something in EVERY chapter. This book really spoke to me in so many ways!”

 

Glennon also wrote an essay about her writing process on Hello Sunshine’s website.
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March 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

New Waves by Kevin Nguyen

R&B singer and author Amerie selected the debut novel that publisher Penguin Random House calls “wry and edgy” with a focus on “race and startup culture, secrecy and surveillance, social media and friendship.”

On Instagram, Amerie said, “New Waves had me questioning who we are, who we think we are, and what we leave behind. How do we grieve someone whose online footprint looms large? And really, can any of us live up to the terrifying hyper-optimism of tech culture (and this is coming from an extreme optimist)?”

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card

The book club helmed by actress Emma Roberts has chosen a novel being called one of the most anticipated debuts of the year. It’s also introducing the sale of the book via Bookshop.org, a new e-commerce outlet where proceeds go to indie bookstores.

GMA BOOK CLUB

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

In partnership with Fab Fit Fun’s book club, Good Morning America picked this novel its publisher Simon & Schuster categorized between Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You and David Nicholls’ One Day.

“Rebecca Serle’s novel is being hailed as a standout pick for spring,” the national morning program wrote in its article.

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Love WITH Accountability: Digging up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse edited by Aishah Shahidah Simmons

As Black As Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation by Zoé Samudzi and William C. Anderson

Keeping in line with choosing two books, Noname selected As Black As Resistance while her homie’s pick Love With Accountability came from Dawud, the facilitator for SCI Coal Township Prison Chapter. Both books were published by AK Press, which describes itself as a “worker-run collective that publishes and distributes radical books and other media to expand minds and change worlds.”

The up-and-coming rapper’s book club serving readers of color has grown exponentially since last summer, including the partnerships with black-owned bookstores, local libraries, and recently prison book clubs.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

The book club is finishing its latest controversial book, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. The media maven promised to hold a conversation in front of the cameras, which dropped March 6 at midnight on Apple TV as a two-part interview with the author and critics dissecting the book and its alleged divisiveness.

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Partnering with Book of the Month subscription service, Today Show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager said in an article that she never chosen a book like Writers & Lovers.

“I chose ‘Writers and Lovers’ because I don’t think I’ve chosen a book like this,” said Jenna. “Lily King really explores different themes that our book club hasn’t explored.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward

“Are you ready to set sail on a literary adventure, y’all? This month, I’m reading The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward! I love the sense of adventure in this story—it’s about a disconnected family that reunites on a cruise ship traveling through Europe,” actress and producer Reese Witherspoon wrote in the announcement to her book club. “If you’re packing for Spring Break, be sure to include a copy of this fun read and follow along with Reese’s Book Club!”

Like with each of her book club’s selections, the author wrote a companion essay.
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January 2020 Celebrity Book Club Picks

AMERIE’S BOOK CLUB

The Book of Lost Saints by Daniel Jose Older

“At times funny and at times somber, I couldn’t stop turning the pages, waiting to learn more about Marisol and Ramón’s intertwined past and present,” singer and literary influencer Amerie wrote in an Instagram post, adding that the author will join her for the end-of-the-month live chat.

BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB

Creatures by Crissy Van Meter

“On the eve of Evangeline’s wedding, on the shore of Winter Island, a dead whale is trapped in the harbor, the groom may be lost at sea, and Evie’s mostly absent mother has shown up out of the blue,” the book club co-founded by actress Emma Roberts posted on Instagram. “We can’t wait for you to read along!”

GMA BOOK CLUB

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

“‘Long Bright River’ is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate,” Good Morning America posted in its latest book announcement.

NONAME’S BOOK CLUB

Die Nigger Die! by H. Rap Brown

Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

The book club serving readers of color founded by rapper Noname announced on Twitter Noname chose Sabrina & Corina and the book club’s “homie pick” of Die Nigger Die! came from journalist Najma Sharif. The books can be found in the club’s partner bookstores or libraries.

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB

The book club is finishing its December book, Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout.

READ WITH JENNA – TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

“I choose ‘Dear Edward’ because it is a book about love and loss and finding your way after the unthinkable,” said Jenna Bush Hager on Today. “I thought to start our year off, even though hopefully nothing this dramatic happens in everyone’s life, we can all think about a new lease on life.”

REESE’S BOOK CLUB

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

“You’ll follow a young women’s journey of self-discovery after she’s wrongfully accused of kidnapping a child,” Reese Witherspoon and her book club wrote in Instagram posts. “This story is a beautiful conversation starter about race, privilege, work dynamics.”

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Celeb Bookwomen Announce Their June Book Club Picks

Reese Witherspoon / Hello Sunshine

Here’s a quick roundup of the celebrity-helmed book clubs and their June books:

Actress and producer Reese Witherspoon chooses The Cactus by Sarah Haywood for Hello Sunshine.

“Susan, our main character, navigates a love triangle, family drama, and being pregnant for the first time at 45. Hope y’all love Susan as much as I do!,” Reese said in the announcement.

 

Sarah also wrote an exclusive essay for Hello Sunshine about the themes resonating through her novel.

 

NBC correspondent and former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager chooses Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok for Today Show Book Club.

“It’s a mystery,” Jenna said in the announcement. “Sylvie Lee is the main character and she’s a golden child. She disappears. The story unfolds as her family copes and discovers all the secrets surrounding her life.” She added the team unveiled the book club pick later than usual because the book was released on June 4.

Belletrist, the book blog administered by actress Emma Roberts and producer Karah Preiss, also chose Searching for Sylvie Lee for June with its branded digestible interview with the author.

Actress Emma Roberts’ Our Shared Shelf on Goodreads is still reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, a book the bimonthly book club chose in May. The book also is a National Book Award Finalist and now available in paperback.

“Min Jin Lee is unabashedly a feminist and her resilient female characters propel this riveting story,” the book club wrote in its announcement. “Lee has written a moving, historical saga that is also a timeless masterpiece; almost 500 pages long, and we didn’t want it to end. This brilliant, eye-opening novel is about outsiders, minorities, the disenfranchised and yet somehow embraces us all.”

Indie rock pop band Florence + The Machine is reading three books for its Between Two Books club: Read and Riot by artist, activist, and Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova; My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter by Aja Monet; and The Terrible by Yrsa Daley-Ward.

 

“The title of Yrsa Daley-Ward’s book, ‘The Terrible,’ can mean different things to each reader. It can be a feeling you can’t quite word. It can describe depression. It can refer to the things you fear,” the book club tweeted June 6.

 

Side note: Florence + The Machine’s 2011 album Ceremonials is a wonderfully lyrical and musical album for a writing session.