The star has deposed Oprah Winfrey as queen of the online literary discussion groups – and plenty more A-listers are getting in on the act. Our reporter dives under the covers
Trusted voice … Witherspoon’s Instagram book club has 2.5m members.very novel I’ve ever read as part of a book club has involved a sprint to the finish. My latest group is no different, except for the possibility – at least as I understand it – of being publicly shamed by. Which is why I am speed-reading the new novel by Celeste Ng, an hour before I am due to discuss it with my fellow members of Reese’s Book Club.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman , Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason , Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur have all been helped to success by famous readers and their followers. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens has now sold nearly 1m copies in the UK, according to Nielsen BookData, the majority long before this year’s film adaptation – and many due to the Witherspoon effect.
She had no idea where to start. “I remember Fifty Shades of Grey being a big thing – and I read 10 pages and dropped it. Even when I went to bookstores, I didn’t know what I was looking for.” Witherspoon’s curation of female narratives and authors “was access to literature for me”, says Theumer – as well as to a reading community.
“Membership” is free, contingent only on downloading the official app, where Witherspoon announces each month’s selection and corrals the discussion through forums, polls and events. Tonight on Zoom, Ng is due to speak to us about Our Missing Hearts, praised by Witherspoon in a video as “deeply suspenseful” and “sublime” . But when I log on, our host is nowhere to be seen.
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