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October 27, 2024 at 2:10pm EDT
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It’s hard enough making the time to read regularly — if you also have to do the research to figure out which books you might be interested in reading, it can feel almost impossible. Enter: the book club. We rounded up the best celebrity book clubs you need to be following, and we promise that you’ll never be more well-read in your life. From A-list actresses to pro athletes, these are the stars who will populate your bookshelf with new reads every month.
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You probably know of a few celebrity book lists already — for example, Oprah’s Book Club, which arguably kicked off the whole trend. Oprah has changed many readers’ and writers’ lives with her book club; her ability to influence has been nicknamed the “Oprah Effect,” and books she recommends see their sales soar almost instantly.
Not only do they get you reading more, but they come with a built-in community of others who can discuss the book with you. It’s win-win, so what are you waiting for? Here are the best celeb book clubs to kick off your fall and winter reading list.
Below, check out the best celebrity book clubs:
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Oprah Winfrey: Oprah’s Book Club
Image Credit: Elizabeth Goodenough/Everett Collection
Oprah Winfrey started Oprah’s Book Club in 1996, picking a new book every month to recommend to readers everywhere. Past picks have included Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Michelle Obama’s Becoming, and Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections (after which Franzen famously insulted her other book club picks, and expressed discomfort with his volume being on that list. He was uninvited from appearing on her show).
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Emma Roberts: Belletrist
Image Credit: Kristin Callahan/Everett Collection
Actor Emma Roberts co-founded book club Belletrist in 2017 with close friend Karah Preiss, a producer. Talking to Elle in 2017, Roberts spoke about why she started Belletrist with Preiss: “We started recommending books to each other — her especially for me, she read more than I did. Every book she would recommend would become a new favorite book … Everybody loves to read more than people think. I started posting books on my Instagram and one day I was like, We should really do this for real. So Belletrist came to exist.”
The co-founders pick a new book every month and arrange a conversation or interview with the author that they share with followers.
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Reese Witherspoon: Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine
Image Credit: Priscilla Grant/Everett Collection
Reese Witherspoon’s wildly popular book club Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine releases a new book recommendation every month, and encourages the community to get involved via their social media pages (their Instagram currently has 1.2 million followers). Witherspoon posts her monthly picks along with a short blurb about why she chose it, and past picks have included Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown, and The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman.
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Jenna Bush Hager: Read with Jenna
Image Credit: Kristin Callahan/Everett Collection
TV host and author Jenna Bush Hager launched her book club Read with Jenna in March of 2019. The club is associated with Today, where Hager is a co-host, and features monthly picks (announced on the air) alongside discussion topics posted to the Today site. Jean Kwok, author of Hager’s June pick Searching for Sylvie Lee, described the effect of Hager’s influence to Buzzfeed as “like being hit by lightning.” Today‘s 4 million viewers have turned out in full force to buy and read whatever Hager recommends on the show, and Kwok’s book has been re-printed six times since June.
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Natalie Portman: Nat’s Book Club
Image Credit: Kristin Callahan/Everett Collection
You may not know this, but Natalie Portman has an Instagram-based book club called Nat’s Book Club, which she founded back in 2021. She talks about important books she recommends, and discusses the themes with the authors.
Other books Portman has given her stamp of approval to are Get the Picture by Bianca Bosker, Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, Parade by Rachel Cusk, and Swimming in Paris: A Life in Three Stories by Colombe Schneck, to name a few.
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Florence Welch: Between Two Books
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Singer Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine) founded the Between Two Books book club back in 2012. Recommendations are released every few months (either handpicked by Welch or a by a guest), and the community discusses each pick after. Between Two Books is currently taking a short hiatus while celebrating 7 years running, and they’ve posted a complete list of past reads to their Twitter.
Past picks include Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Nurston, The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides, and poetry collection salt. by nayyirah waheed.
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Dakota Johnson: TeaTime Book Club
Image Credit: Photo By: Kristin Callahan/Everett Collection
Dakota Johnson founded her book club, TeaTime Book Club, alongside Ro Donnelly back in 2023 as a part of her independent entertainment company called TeaTime Pictures.
“There are a lot of people who do things like I do, and they have book clubs, and I was always like, Oh, the way that I read books, it’s so different,” she said in an interview with Bustle, discussing how she wanted to pick unique reads. “I want to fall down the rabbit hole every time I read… to invest in the book, invest in the language, invest in the references. Like, Oh, what is that piece of art she’s talking about? Who’s that musician?”
Johnson has recommended Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang for May 2024, The Hearing Test by Eliza Barry Callahan for the April Pick, and Beutyland by Marie-Helene Bertino for March 2024.
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Kaia Gerber: Library Science
Image Credit: Photo By: JA/Everett Collection
Model Kaia Gerber and Alyssa Reeder co-founded a book club in 2020, but made it an official club called Library Science in March 2024. Per their website, “This book club has become the catalyst for dialogue over race, sex, loss, consent, motherhood, girlhood, queerness, addiction, abuse, climate change, and intersectionality among other topics.”
Past recommendations have been I Am Alien to Life by Djuna Barnes, Dear Dickhead by Virginie Despentes, and more.
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