by Collection Management Librarian Dontaná McPherson-Joseph
Since Oprah’s first book club pick in 1996, we have been reading as the celebrities do, falling in love with, or hating, characters with our fellow book club readers. Book clubs offer an opportunity to be in community with others, even if we’re not together in person.
Other celebrities who love to read have started book clubs, to varying degrees of success. Enjoy these August picks from well-established and new celebrity book clubs.
Read with the stars
Please note: Many of these books are brand new releases. We've ordered extra copies, but if you're waiting on hold, be sure to check out the new materials shelves at the Maze and Dole branches and Hot Picks at the Main Library. These copies can't be placed on hold or renewed. If the title is listed as available in the catalog, head over and pick up your next read before someone snatches it up!
The Husbands by Chandler Baker
Who is reading it: Good Morning America Book Club
Description: When Nora meets a group of high-powered women whose husbands' are supportive unlike her own, she discovers that the women use an unorthodox method of couples' therapy that has transformed their lives—one that is worth killing for.
We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz
Who is reading it: Reese's Book Club from Reese Witherspoon
Description: After a backpacking trip in Chile with her best friend Kristen goes horribly wrong, Emily is forced to confront their violent past and wonders if she can outrun the secrets they share or if they will destroy her relationship, freedom, and even her life.
Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
Who is reading it: Audacious Book Club from Roxane Gay
Description: One of the prominent voices of her generation, the author presents this coming-of-age recollection of a childhood defined by the ever-looming absence of her incarcerated father and a traumatic event, revealing the threads between who you are and what you are born into
The Turnout by Megan Abbott
Who is reading it: Read with Jenna from Jenna Bush Hager
Description: When a suspicious accident occurs at their family-run ballet studio just at the onset of the annual performance of The Nutcracker, sisters Dara and Marie Durant find their delicate balance threatened by an interloper.
Immediate Family by Ashley Nelson Levy
Who is reading it: Goop Book Club from Gwyneth Paltrow
Description: A woman struggling to write a toast for her brother’s wedding reflects on their relationship from his adoption from Thailand when she was nine and explores the bonds and complexities of family, race, motherhood, and infertility.
Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
Who is reading it: Belletrist Book Club from Karah Preiss and Emma Roberts
Description: The fate of an unhappy woman who disappears in 2011 while living in Saigon is entwined with a teenager who gets lost in an abandoned rubber plantation in 1986 and a woman who captures a two-headed cobra in 2009.
The Removed by Brandon Hobson
Who is reading it: Gathering of Voices Book Club from Jesmyn Ward
Description: A Cherokee family takes in a remarkable foster child on the eve of the Cherokee National Holiday and the anniversary of a loved one’s death.
Wayward by Dana Spiotta
Who is reading it: Buzzfeed Book Club
Description: In 2016, 52-year-old Samantha Raymond, as her life begins to unravel, flees her suburban existence—and her family—as she struggles with how to be a wife, a mother, and a daughter in a country that is coming apart at the seams.
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Who is reading it: Between Two Books from Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine
Description: Set in contemporary Seoul, Korea, four young women make their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, after-hours room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania.
About Dontaná
Dontaná is a Collection Management Librarian who was born with an unending reading list. She is almost always reading two books simultaneously and is easily distracted by cool covers.
