Oprah Winfrey has selected Lara Love Hardin’s The Many Lives of Mama Love as the latest pick for her popular book club.
Hardin’s memoir, published last August by Simon & Schuster, tells the story of her imprisonment after being convicted of stealing credit cards to fund her opioid and heroin addictions. After her release, she became a writer and literary agent, co-authoring a previous Oprah’s Book Club pick, Anthony Ray Hinton’s The Sun Does Shine. A critic for Kirkus called The Many Lives of Mama Love “a courageous and inspiring memoir.”
Winfrey announced her latest pick on Instagram, calling the memoir an “incredible book about redemption, about joy, about hope, about reclaiming yourself and what you rightly deserve in life.”
In a video posted to Oprah Daily, Winfrey surprised Hardin with the news that her book had been selected for the club. The video opens with Hardin on a call with her publicist, Brianna Scharfenberg, telling Hardin that Simon & Schuster wanted to reach out to book clubs to feature her memoir.
Winfrey then joins the call, and Hardin looks stunned, covering her face with her hands and crying. “What do you do when the dream of your life is happening right in front of you?” she says. “I’m sorry. I’m just overwhelmed…I cannot believe it. I am freaking out…I’ve had the hardest 2024 so far, and this is amazing news.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
