10 Favorite Picks from Oprah’s Book Club

Cheryl’s world is in shambles: her marriage is crumbling, and she is struggling with drugs and infidelity. Still not having moved on from her mother’s death four years earlier, Strayed decides to hike the Pacific Crest Trail — over one thousand miles of rough terrain — alone. This memoir-turned-movie (starring Reese Witherspoon) is gut-wrenchingly sad but ultimately uplifting, as Cheryl finds the physical and emotional strength to push forward, both on the trail and in her life.

Sometimes we read something so fundamentally stirring that we find ourselves speechless in the face of so many tumbling thoughts. Caste is one of those books. Isabel Wilkerson is one of those writers. She reminds us that “we are responsible for our own ignorance or, with time and openhearted enlightenment, our own wisdom.” In this magnificent work of history, narrative, social commentary, philosophy and inspired storytelling, she offers us a new frame, a deeper focal point and new language to help us toward a reckoning long overdue. Quite a gift.

James McBride wrote this novel with many little stories diving into each character, ensuring you will never want to put it down. The characters draw you in with their quirky nicknames and fascinating backstories, from romantic encounters to absolutely outrageous scenarios. Set in Brooklyn in 1969, Deacon King Kong tells the story of life in the projects, but it isn’t all serious! This book is quite hilarious. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’re guaranteed to love the dialogue throughout this book.

Author of the National Book Award-winning title Between the World and Me has exceeded expectations yet again with this beautifully written book. An eye-opening and vivid story about life as a slave, a history that should not be forgotten but rather used to create a more informed and united future. This book will captivate you with its engaging story, historical significance, and magical realism while leaving a lasting impression on aspects of your own life.

A memoir of the author’s experience surviving the Holocaust, Night is a simultaneously terrifying and uplifting story of what happens when the entire world is ripped out from beneath you, and the strength it takes to begin again after tragedy strikes. Elie was an almost 11-year-old in Romania when World War II began, and the encroaching Nazi threat began to destroy Jewish families’ way of life. Eventually, Elie and his family were taken to Auschwitz, where he lost his father, endured unspeakable atrocities, and questioned whether God existed. A book that forces the reader to confront the deepest evils of humanity, Night is haunting, beautiful and essential reading.

Moving on from fiction to self-help, this next Oprah book club pick is all about you unleashing your best self on the world. In Tolle’s view, the ego is humanity’s enemy. If we release our conscious attachments to our egos, we will live more fulfilling lives — and also end most of the conflict and suffering in the world. If you’re looking for a new start, this is the book for you.

A man and his young son wander a post-apocalyptic American wasteland, searching for survival on the coast — what awaits them there, they don’t know, but it can’t be worse than what they’ve left behind. The two are alone after the suicide of the boy’s mother, unable to live in the nuclear winter. Written in beautiful, minimalistic prose, The Road is mysterious, brutal, and ultimately hopeful, a treatise on the true love between a father and his son when the entire world around them has broken down.

This memoir is a must-read! It’s a glimpse into the life of one of the most iconic women in history, the first African American First Lady and an inspiring role model for girls of all ages. Despite all this, she remains humble, open, and honest about her upbringing, including successes and failures throughout her life. Both funny and serious, it’s written much like having a conversation with Michelle Obama over a cup of tea.

This fun sequel to Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Olive Kitteridge follows a series of characters with linked stories. Each relationship, struggle, success and loss is extremely relatable and deeply felt. The book will remind you that every person has a story to tell and that it’s important to connect with others during both good and bad times. A definite page-turner and novel that we didn’t want to end!

And finally, drumroll, please — Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead. Continuing the pattern of her previous picks, this novel deals with the intersection of race and gender against the cruelty and desperation of the Antebellum South. Cora, a slave, learns about the underground railroad from Caesar, a new arrival on the plantation where she labors. Together they decide to escape, encountering not just terror, pain, and the dogged pursuit of a slave hunter, but slipstream twists to the historical narrative, including the transformation of the metaphorical railroad into a literal one.