We suggest: Celebrity book picks, January 2022

by Collection Management Librarian Dontaná

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 picks from well-established and new celebrity book clubs.

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!

Read with the stars


Noor by Nnedi Okorafor

Who is reading it? The Audacious Book Club from Roxane Gay

Description: When everything goes wrong on a trip to the local market, AO, a woman with a ton of major and necessary body augmentations, must race against time across the deserts of Northern Nigeria with a Fulani herdsman named DNA in a world where everything is streamed.

Find it in the catalog »

Lot by Bryan Washington

Who is reading it? The Gathering of Voices book club from Jesmyn Ward

Description: In the city of Houston—a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America—the son of a Black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He's working at his family's restaurant, weathering his brother's blows, resenting his older sister's absence. And discovering he likes boys.

Find it in the catalog »

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Who is reading it? The Call In book club from Megan Rapinoe

Description: An Ivy League-educated DACA beneficiary reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans, from the volunteers recruited for the 9/11 Ground Zero cleanup to the homeopathy botanicas of Miami that provide limited health care to non-citizens.

Find it in the catalog »

Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

Who is reading it? The Fearless book club from Malala Yousafzai

Description: The presidential inaugural poet—and an unforgettable new voice in American poetry—presents a collection of poems that includes the stirring poem read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States.

Find it in the catalog »

Honor by Thrity Umrigar

Who is reading it: Reese's Book Club from Reese Witherspoon

Description: The story of two Indian women, one a victim of a brutal crime and the other an Americanized journalist returning to India to cover the story, and the courage they inspire in each other.

Find it in the catalog »

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

Who is reading it? Read With Jenna from Jenna Bush Hager

Description: Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. She can’t persuade her ex-husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet—their cherubic daughter—does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she is just enough...until Frida has a very bad day.

Find it in the catalog »

The Maid by Nita Prose

Who is reading it? Good Morning America Book Club

Description: A charmingly eccentric hotel maid discovers a guest murdered in his bed, turning her once orderly world upside down—and inspiring a motley crew of unexpected allies to band together to solve the mystery.

Find it in the catalog »

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

Who is reading it? Belletrist + BookClub from Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss

Description: A witty, warm, and irreverent book that traces the lives of two young Taiwanese American women as they navigate friendship, sexuality, identity, and heartbreak over two decades.

Find it in the catalog »

More book club resources

Dontana

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.