Oprah's Latest Book Club Pick

[Troy]

Oprah is back with a book club selection.  I don't recall the last time she made one, and I have to believe it has been a couple of years since she has picked a Black book.  The last one I remember off the top of my head was Ayana Mathis' The Twelve Tribes of Hattie.  

The selection of Colson new book was The Underground Railroad will be a tremendous boon to the author.  A simple google search will reveal the incredible about of coverage of this book right on the pub date.  Of course the coverage is as much about Oprah's endorsement as it is about Colson's book.  It is almost like a competition to see who can cover the story the fastest.  The publications that focused on the book more than Oprah distinguished themselves in a positive way.

While the Oprah effect can't be ignored.  I often wonder what initiates it? I mean I've watched some of the videos of Oprah endorsing the book and it is great to see someone of her magnitude bring excitement to books.  I'm sure it is a very decent book. But what motivates her to aggressively promote this title; is it simply the sheer love of this one book... or is there something else happening behind the scenes? 

I know, I know it is too early to be so cynical, but part of me can't help but see this thing as being orchestrated--there is just too much money involved.

At any rate, I've jumped on the bandwagon, following the herd, like everyone and their mother feeding into the feenzy, and sharing information about Oprah's endorsement of a Black book that will go quite well.  I understand the initial print run is 200,000 copies--that is a lot of books.  Fail to make the New York Times list will be surprising.  It will be interesting to learn how it does on AALBC.com.  

There are other great books that pubbed this week, including one by Jesmyn Ward that pubbed the same day as Colson's new book (Aug 2, 2016), and Jesmyn actually won a National Book Award.  Al this attention paid to a single book actually hurts other books that deserve attention as well.  But I plan to email a newsletter today and I'll cover Jesmyn and the other books mainstream media overlook 

This book to my breath away. @ColsonWhitehead's "The Underground Railroad" is my newest #OprahsBookClub selectionhttps://t.co/es6zXvXBe9

— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) August 2, 2016