Past Picks from Reese's Book Club Display
Are you looking for a book club best bet or some of the most popular titles in the last ten years? Look no further. Reese's Book Club is a celebrity book sales club by Reese Witherspoon that has been run under her media company, Hello Sunshine, since 2017. The club curates books, "that celebrate the stories and autonomy of women, championing voices and platforming authors too often overlooked." The books chosen to receive the iconic yellow and white sticker receive an incredible boost in sales and fly to the top of best seller lists. In fact, they outsell other fiction books by 700%! Many of these stories have also been optioned into movies by Hello Sunshine, such as Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Tiny Beautiful Things, and The Last Thing He Told Me. Since the March pick, Lady Tremaine, still has a sizeable holds list, check out some of these titles across from the circulation desk:
Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola was July 2022 book club pick. "Introducing internationally bestselling author Bolu Babalola's dazzling debut novel, full of passion, humor, and heart, that centers on a young Black British woman who has no interest in love and unexpectedly finds herself caught up in a fake relationship with the man she warned her girls about Sweet like plantain, hot like pepper. They taste the best when together... Sharp-tongued (and secretly soft-hearted) Kiki Banjo has just made a huge mistake. As an expert in relationship-evasion and the host of the popular student radio show Brown Sugar, she's made it her mission to make sure the women of the African-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University do not fall into the mess of "situationships", players, and heartbreak. But when the Queen of the Unbothered kisses Malakai Korede, the guy she just publicly denounced as "The Wastemen of Whitewell," in front of every Blackwellian on campus, she finds her show on the brink. They're soon embroiled in a fake relationship to try and salvage their reputations and save their futures. Kiki has never surrendered her heart before, and a player like Malakai won't be the one to change that, no matter how charming he is or how electric their connection feels. But surprisingly entertaining study sessions and intimate, late-night talks at old-fashioned diners force Kiki to look beyond her own presumptions. Is she ready to open herself up to something deeper?"
One of my favorite covers—although it's still on my to be read list—is Outlawed by Anna North. This book was chosen for Reese's Book Club in January of 2021. "The Crucible meets True Grit in this riveting adventure story of a fugitive girl, a mysterious gang of robbers, and their dangerous mission to transform the Wild West. In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw. The day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows. She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose, and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all. Featuring an irresistibly no-nonsense, courageous, and determined heroine, Outlawed dusts off the myth of the old West and reignites the glimmering promise of the frontier with an entirely new set of feminist stakes. Anna North has crafted a pulse-racing, page-turning saga about the search for hope in the wake of death, and for truth in a climate of small-mindedness and fear"
Although many authors are debut, others, like Maggie O'Farrell, are highly acclaimed. O'Farrell's novel The Marriage Portrait was picked for the club in December of 2022. "Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo - free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight - the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty - to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess's future hangs entirely in the balance."
You'll find these and other titles in our "Past Picks from Reese's Book Club" display. For additional title suggestions, see the lists below:
