Oprah's Book Club 2.0

Oprah's Book Club 2.0 is a book club founded June 1, 2012, by Oprah Winfrey in a joint project between OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network and O: The Oprah Magazine.^[1] The club is a re-launch of the original Oprah's Book Club, which ran for 15 years and ended in 2011, but as the "2.0" name suggests, digital media is the new focus. It incorporates the use of various social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter) and e-readers that allow for the quoting and uploading of passages and notes for discussion, among other features.^[2]

Oprah's Book Club 2.0
Sponsored by	Oprah Winfrey Network O: The Oprah Magazine
Location	Worldwide
Presented by	Oprah Winfrey
First awarded	2012
Website	Website

On March 25, 2019, Apple Inc. and Oprah announced a revival of a video version of Oprah's Book Club that will air on Apple TV+.^[3][4]

History

The book club was announced June 1, 2012.^[2] Critics at the time pointed out that her online audience was not as large as it was previously with network television, and the new club would be a test if she still had the "Oprah Effect" with the reading public to create hits as before.^[1] As the New York Times Book Review reported a few months later, in the August 19 issue, Cheryl Strayed's Wild had dropped off the New York Times Best Seller List by May 20, but after its selection by Oprah in early June, it reached No. 1 Non-fiction by July 15, and stayed there for many weeks, thus, said the Times, confirming the "Oprah Effect" still worked.^[5]

Oprah's Book Club 2.0 selections

Date	Author	Title	Citation
June 2012	Cheryl Strayed	Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail	^[1]
December 2012	Ayana Mathis	The Twelve Tribes of Hattie	^[6]^[7]
January 2014	Sue Monk Kidd	The Invention of Wings	^[8]
February 2015	Cynthia Bond	Ruby	^[9]
August 2016	Colson Whitehead	The Underground Railroad	^[10]
September 2016	Glennon Doyle Melton	Love Warrior	^[11]
June 2017	Imbolo Mbue	Behold the Dreamers	^[12]
February 2018	Tayari Jones	An American Marriage	^[13]
June 2018	Anthony Ray Hinton	The Sun Does Shine	^[14]
November 2018	Michelle Obama	Becoming	^[15]
September 2019	Ta-Nehisi Coates	The Water Dancer	^[16]
November 2019	Elizabeth Strout	Olive, Again	^[17]
April 2020	Robert Kolker	Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family	^[18]
June 2020	James McBride	Deacon King Kong	^[19]
November 2020	Isabel Wilkerson	Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents	^[20]
March 2021	Marilynne Robinson	Gilead ; Home ; Lila ; Jack	^[21]
June 2021	Nathan Harris	The Sweetness of Water	^[22]
August 2021	Honorée Fanonne Jeffers	The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois	^[23]
September 2021	Richard Powers	Bewilderment	^[24]
February 2022	Martha Beck	The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self	^[25]
April 2022	Viola Davis	Finding Me	^[26]
June 2022	Leila Mottley	Nightcrawling	^[27]
September 2022	Jarvis Jay Masters	That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row	^[28]
October 2022	Barbara Kingsolver	Demon Copperhead	^[29]
February 2023	Susan Cain	Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole	^[30]
March 2023	Ann Napolitano	Hello Beautiful	^[31]
May 2023	Abraham Verghese	The Covenant of Water	^[32]
September 2023	Nathan Hill	Wellness	^[33]
October 2023	Jesmyn Ward	Let Us Descend	^[34]

Controversies

On January 21, 2020, Oprah announced her next book club selection would be American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.^[35] The novel, about a Mexican woman fleeing to America after being targeted by a drug cartel, came under scrutiny as Cummins was a white woman with no connection to Mexico and marketing for the book claimed she had a special connection to the material because her husband had at one point been an undocumented immigrant without ever revealing he was a white Irishman. 142 authors including R. O. Kwon, Tommy Orange and Valeria Luiselli penned an open letter asking Oprah to rescind her endorsement of the book.^[36]

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell was originally selected for March 2020, but dropped after Russell was accused, without evidence, of plagiarizing Wendy C. Ortiz's 2014 memoir Excavation.^[37][38][39] According to the Associated Press, "Reviewers who looked at both books saw no evidence of plagiarism."^[40]

References

1. "Winfrey launches 'Oprah's Book Club 2.0'". CBS News. Associated Press. June 1, 2012. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
2. "Sharing inspiration with modern readers: Oprah's Book Club 2.0 launches online Monday, June 4 with its first selection, "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed" (Press release). June 1, 2012. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
3. Hipes, Patrick (March 25, 2019). "Apple Shows Off Original Series For First Time With Sizzle Reel – Watch". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
4. Gartenberg, Chaim (March 25, 2019). "Oprah will release two documentaries on Apple TV Plus along with a new book club". The Verge. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
5. "Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail by Cheryl Strayed". New York Times Book Review. August 19, 2012. p. 20.
6. Lee, Felecia R. (December 5, 2012). "Novelist's Debut Is Newest Pick for Oprah's Book Club". The New York Times Artsbeat. Retrieved December 8, 2012.
7. Kennedy, Deborah (February 13, 2013). "An Interview with Ayana Mathis". The Lit Show. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
8. Oldenburg, Ann (December 10, 2013). "Oprah announces new Book Club 2.0 pick". USA Today. Retrieved December 10, 2013.
9. Italie, Hillel (February 10, 2015). "Oprah Winfrey selects Cynthia Bond's 'Ruby' for book club". Denver Post. Associated Press. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
10. Winfrey, Oprah. "Oprah Talks to The Underground Railroad Author Colson Whitehead". Oprah.com. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
11. "Oprah Announces the Newest Oprah's Book Club Selection". Oprah.com. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
12. "Oprah picks debut novel 'Behold the Dreamers' for book club". USA Today. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
13. "Oprah Winfrey reveals her next book club pick: 'An American Marriage' by Tayari Jones". USA Today. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
14. "First Look: Oprah's Book Vluc "Freedom After 30 Years on Death Row"". Oprah.com. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
15. "First Look: Oprah's New Book Club Pick: Becoming, by Michelle Obama". Oprah.com. November 12, 2018. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
16. "Oprah's New Book Club Pick: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates". Oprah.com. September 23, 2019. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
17. "Oprah reveals "Olive, Again" by Elizabeth Strout as new book club pick". CBS News. November 7, 2019. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
18. "Oprah's Book Club: The Complete List". Oprah.com. April 7, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
19. "Oprah Announces New Oprah's Book Club Pick: Deacon King Kong by James McBride". O Magazine. June 16, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
20. "Oprah Winfrey names "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" her most important Book Club selection ever". Apple.com. August 4, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
21. Italie, Hillel (March 15, 2021). "Oprah Winfrey chooses four Marilynne Robinson 'Gilead' novels for book club". USA Today. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
22. "Oprah Winfrey picks Emancipation-era novel 'The Sweetness of Water' for book club". Los Angeles Times. June 15, 2021. Retrieved July 22, 2021.
23. "Oprah's New Book Club Pick: The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers". Oprah.com. August 26, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
24. "Oprah Winfrey chooses Richard Powers' 'Bewilderment' for book club". The Indian Express. September 29, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
25. "Winfrey's New Book Club Pick is by Lifestyle Coach Beck". The Washington Post. February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
26. "Viola Davis' new memoir "Finding Me" selected as Oprah's new book club pick". CBS News. April 21, 2022. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
27. Oprah's New Book Club Pick Is Nightcrawling, by Leila Mottley
28. Oprah picks California death row inmate’s autobiography for book club
29. "Oprah's New Book Club Pick: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver". Oprah.com. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
30. Italie, Hillel (February 15, 2023). "Oprah chooses Susan Cain's 'Bittersweet' for book club". AP News. from the original on February 15, 2023.
31. "Oprah Winfrey says her milestone 100th book pick 'opened her' up". TODAY.com. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
32. "Oprah Announces the 101st Book Club Pick!". Oprah Daily. 2023-05-02. Retrieved 2023-05-02.
33. "Oprah Announces Her 102nd Book Club Pick!". Oprah Daily. 2023-05-02. Retrieved 2023-09-19.
34. "Oprah Announces Her 103rd Book Club Pick!". Oprah Daily. 2023-10-24. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
35. Shoichet, Catherine E. (January 24, 2020). "Oprah's new book club pick is fueling a debate. It's not just about the story. It's who's telling it". CNN. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
36. "Dear Oprah Winfrey: 142 Writers Ask You to Reconsider American Dirt". LitHub. January 29, 2020. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
37. Grady, Constance (March 6, 2020). "Reading Lolita in the wake of the My Dark Vanessa controversy". Vox. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
38. Egan, Elisabeth (April 2, 2020). "Oprah's Book Club Dropped Her Novel. It Still Became a Best Seller". The New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
39. Sturges, Fiona (March 13, 2020). "Is My Dark Vanessa the most controversial novel of the year? Author Kate Elizabeth Russell speaks out". The Guardian. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
40. "Oprah Winfrey dropped 'My Dark Vanessa' book club pick after online controversy". USA Today. Associated Press. March 5, 2020.

External links

• Oprah's Book Club 2.0, official website.
• "Oprah Announces Oprah's Book Club 2.0". Oprah.com. June 1, 2012. Video announcement.