OK, Zoomer: There’s a new book club run by and for you.
Hello Sunshine, the media company co-founded by actor and book club maven Reese Witherspoon, has launched Sunnie Reads. In an Instagram post, the company says the book club is “a brand-new community backed by @ReesesBookClub founder @ReeseWitherspoon and powered by Gen Z readers.”
“Do you have kids out there in your life that you’re like, I wish they read more?” Witherspoon says in a video on the post. “Or are you a teenager or a young adult and you think, Gosh, I wish I could get off my phone and somebody would tell me a good book to read?” She says the club is “for the next generation of readers where reading is about community, it’s about conversation, it’s about the joy of stories.”
The first selection for the club is Katie Bernet’s Beth Is Dead, a young adult thriller published Tuesday by the new Simon & Schuster imprint Sarah Barley Books. The novel, inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, follows the sisters of Beth March, a murdered high school junior, as they try to figure out who killed her. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “a thrilling take on a beloved story that will keep readers riveted.”
On Instagram, Sunnie Reads announced the novel’s selection, writing, “This isn’t just our January read. It’s the start of a community, a routine, and a new way to discuss, dissect, and obsess over stories. It all starts with the first page. Let’s read it together.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
