It all started when Oprah Winfrey urged her fans to pick up a copy of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean.
Now, more than 120 selections later, Oprah’s Book Club is celebrating its 30th anniversary, USA Today reports, and Winfrey is launching a month full of special programming to mark the milestone.
Winfrey made her first recommendation in September 1996 and went on to spotlight books by Toni Morrison, Jane Hamilton, and Wally Lamb, among others. The initial version of the club ended in 2010; Winfrey revived it as Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 in 2012. The club’s most recent pick is Sophie Chen Keller’s Little Wonder.
Winfrey will mark the club’s anniversary with “30 Books I Can’t Forget,” for which she will pick a book a day to be featured on Amazon; the first selection is Viola Davis’ memoir, Finding Me. At the end of the month, Winfrey will host a podcast featuring previously selected authors, including Davis, Elizabeth Strout, and Ocean Vuong.
Winfrey announced the book club’s anniversary on Instagram, writing, “We’re turning 30 and it’s time to celebrate! This September, we’ll be going down memory lane with @oprah’s favorite books from our book club. There will be giveaways, discussions, clips from The Oprah Show, and so much more.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
