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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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what's lit

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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what's lit

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.