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 byOprah Winfrey Network
O: The Oprah Magazine
LocationWorldwide
Presented byOprah Winfrey
First awarded2012
WebsiteWebsite

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]

Controversies

On January 21, 2020 Oprah announced her next book club selection would be American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.[18] 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.[19]

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.[20][21][22] According to the Associated Press, "Reviewers who looked at both books saw no evidence of plagiarism."[23]

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. Shoichet, Catherine E. "Oprah's new book club pick is fueling a debate. It's not just about the story. It's who's telling it". Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  19. "Dear Oprah Winfrey: 142 Writers Ask You to Reconsider American Dirt". 2020-01-29. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
  20. Constance Grady (March 6, 2020). "Reading Lolita in the wake of the My Dark Vanessa controversy". Vox. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  21. Elisabeth Egan (April 2, 2020). "Oprah's Book Club Dropped Her Novel. It Still Became a Best Seller". The New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
  22. Fiona Sturges (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.
  23. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2020/03/05/oprahs-book-club-drops-my-dark-vanessa-controversy-american-dirt/4968416002/
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.