Every Book Oprah Has Ever Selected For Her Book Club, All in 1 Place

Out of all the books Oprah has chosen for her book club (and there have been a lot), she calls Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents the "most essential." Isabel Wilkerson takes readers on an immersive journey through United States history and exposes a powerful yet hidden caste system that has and continues to influence civilization.

Set in the late 1960s, Deacon King Kong follows the trials and tribulations of a shooting in the projects of Brooklyn. From those who witness the shooting to local white neighbors and the cops to the victim and shooter himself, James McBride weaves an emotion-driven story.

Don and Mimi Galvin worked tirelessly to support and provide their 12 kids a normal happy life. However, when six of the children are diagnosed as schizophrenic, their family quickly becomes a medical goldmine for research. Based on a true story, Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family is one of Oprah's more recent picks.

American Dirt examines the lengths Lydia Quixano Pérez will go to protect her son when forced to flee their home, after her husband publishes a tell-all. A 2020 pick, this tome inspired backlash as Oprah admitted she was guilty of not looking for Latinx writers.

A sequel to Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, America's favorite teenager is back in Olive, Again. Olive is nothing but herself, and she really doesn't care who knows it. Taking place in Maine, Olive will humorously continue to question everyone and everything around her while also learning more about herself.

Growing up as a slave on a plantation in Virginia, Hiram Walker uncovers a special gift, and it isn't until a near-drowning incident that he understands just how powerful this gift is. In The Water Dancer: A Novel, Hiram embarks on a strenuous expedition to reunite his family.

As the first Black first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama made quite a mark. Her memoir, Becoming, gives an in-depth and personal look at everything she's accomplished in life thus far, including raising two daughters, supporting her husband during their time at the White House, encouraging Americans to go outside and be active, and advocating for change, especially for women and girls.

Told in his own words, Anthony Ray Hinton recalls the 30 years he spent on death row for two falsely charged counts of murder in his memoir, The Sun Does Shine. This is one of the few memoirs Oprah has selected for her book club.

Celestial and Roy's marriage is cut short when Roy is wrongfully convicted of a crime. Celestial is a strikingly independent woman but begins to struggle with the grief of her marriage and finds comfort in a childhood friend. After five years behind bars, Roy's conviction is overturned and An American Marriage quickly centers on a love triangle. Will the characters be able to forgive and accept the past in order to move on with their future?

Behold the Dreamers takes place in Harlem, New York. Cameroonian immigrants Jende and Neni Jonga are a prime example of the American dream. As the Jongas continue to take on bigger opportunities and climb up the social ladder of secrets and misfortunes, they begin to realize it's not as glamorous at the top as they might have thought.

You may be familiar with Glennon Doyle's most recent book, Untamed, but the author received the official Oprah Book Club sticker with her 2017 book, Love Warrior: A Memoir. She lays it all out there and redefines what it means to be your true, authentic self.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Underground Railroad: A Novel, Colson Whitehead weaves together the tale of Cora, a young woman trying to escape a cotton plantation. Oprah recalls, "' . . . with this book it was to the point of sometimes putting it down and saying, 'I can't read anymore. I don't want to turn the page. I want to know what happens, but I don't want to know what happens."

Ruby Bell did everything she could to escape her traumatizing hometown, but when she's asked to come back, she's forced to reopen doors and painful memories she had hoped to bury forever. Then there's Ephram Jennings, who's been in love with Ruby since she was little and must decide if he's going to lose her again or flee with her. Oprah selected Ruby by Cynthia Bond in 2015.

A historical fiction, The Invention of Wings follows Sarah Grimke, an 11-year-old who is given 10-year-old Hetty "Handful" Grimke, an urban slave, on her birthday. Over the course of 35 years, readers learn more and more about their complex relationship, which ultimately leads to aiding in abolition and the women's rights movements.

After losing her first two children to an illness that could have been prevented, Hattie Shepherd vows to raise her other children to expect disappointment and hardships. Wrapped up in the early 1920s and the Great Migration, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is a beautiful yet sorrowful story.

Now a film starring Reese Witherspoon, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is a true story of Cheryl Strayed's inner discovery as she hikes the Pacific Crest Trail.

This one's a twofer: Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities was an Oprah Book Club 2010 pick. Two Charles Dickens works of art wrapped up in one place!

Walter and Patty Berglund may seem like the perfect Midwest family, but it's far from the truth. Freedom will suck you in and leave you speechless until the last page.

A collection of short stories, Say You're One of Them depicts the lives of children all over Africa — Kenya, Rwanda, Nigeria, Ethiopia — and the obstacles they face.

After trying to save his once-idyllic family, Edgar Sawtelle, who was born mute, must return home to bring justice to his late father and prove what really happened all those years ago. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle is a captivating story of growth, survival, and the true meaning of family.

If you've been looking for a spiritual or mindful handbook to living a better life, read Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose.

A monk, an architect, and a woman of society. The Pillars of the Earth pulls back the curtain on three lives and the muddy ways they intertwine.

Love in the Time of Cholera is the iconic love story of a man who patiently waits 50 years, nine months, and four days for a second chance at love.

Calliope Stephanides goes on a journey of self-identity amid the unraveling of an American-Greek family in Middlesex: A Novel. This novel was an Oprah Book Club 2017 selection.

A true test of the bonds of a father-and-son relationship, The Road is unlike anything you've ever read. The book earned an Oprah Book Club 2007 selection and later went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Sidney Poitier looks back on his life and what he has done for the Black community in his book, The Measure of a Man: A Memoir. Poitier relives the past several decades detailing his journey to America when he didn't know how to read or write, his time at the theater in the 1940s, and his work for racial justice.

Denoted that it "should be required reading for all humanity" by Oprah herself, Night is a short but powerful read. The autobiography tells Elie Wiesel's personal story of surviving the Nazi concentration camps as a teenage boy.

Perhaps the Oprah's Book Club selection that has gotten the most publicity (and not in a good way) is A Million Little Pieces, an account of the six weeks James Frey spent in rehab due to an alcohol and crack addiction. However, after the veracity of some portions of the book were questioned, the publisher recategorized it as a semifictional novel.

Set in the South, three central characters are introduced and quickly connected through a series of dooming events. Light in August is one of three Faulkner classics Oprah selected in 2005.

Oprah's second Faulkner pick, The Sound and the Fury centers on the Compson family and the horrible events that await the group of five.

Told through multiple characters, As I Lay Dying tells the story of the Burden family and their journey across the South to bury their mother and wife Addie.

Throughout The Good Earth, readers cheer on Wang Lung and his rapidly growing family as they continue to face hardship after hardship. The Lung family will endure some of life's toughest obstacles (a famine, loss, unemployment, etc.) to then slowly rise to the top and live a prosperous life.

Set in Russia, Anna Karenina is married but in love with another man. Will Anna leave her husband and family for an unconventional life with Count Vronsky? This classic is such for a reason.

A story based on the racial discrepancies in the South, we meet John Singer, who is deaf and mute, and musician Mick Kelly, who illustrate that even when we are at our loneliest, we can find an ally. Carson McCullers wrote The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter at the age of 23 years old.

Go on a century-long journey with the Buendiá family in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Learn the fabled tales of Macondo, a city filled with prosperity and sadness, rebirth and downfall, and one very special family.

An Oprah Book Club 2013 selection, Cry, The Beloved Country is about Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom. A deep dive into the history of apartheid in South Africa (from both sides), this is an unforgettable read filled with courage, drive, and perseverance.

Nicknamed "the first book," East of Eden weaves the tale of two generational families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, which resemble the Biblical stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel.

Sula and Nel were best friends growing up in their small town in Ohio, but when Sula gets out and creates a life for herself, Nel stays behind and fits into the expected mold that was laid out for her. When Sula returns 10 years later, she realizes her old best friend may no longer be her most trusted ally. Sula was an Oprah Book Club 2002 pick.

A sisterly bond that can never be broken, Fall on Your Knees will push the Piper sisters to the brink of destruction, expose family secrets, question loyalty, and test forbidden love.

Set in 1975 in India, four strangers from different walks of life are cramped into one apartment during a state of emergency. A Fine Balance is a desperate and distraught story of the caste system.

The Lambert family has been through the wringer. Mr. Lambert is slowly losing himself to Parkinson's disease, the oldest son is in denial about his mental health, the middle child has lost his job, and the youngest daughter is having an illicit affair. Mrs. Lambert has been a mom and wife for almost half a century, and her one wish is for her family to be under one roof for Christmas. The Corrections will tug on your heartstrings and inspire you to pick up the phone and call your loved ones.

Elisabeth, Suzette, Philomene, Emily: four generations of steadfast Black women who fight for change and racial justice. Cane River will ignite a light in readers to fight for what's right.

At just 5 years old, Malika Oufkir was adopted by the King of Morocco. This is her story. The memoir Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail is an Oprah Book Club 2001 selection.

Throughout her young adult life, Icy knew something was different about her — and while teachers, classmates, and her community exiled her, she found friendship in Miss Emily, a character who also knows what it's like to be neglected by your peers. Icy Sparks was an Oprah Book Club 2001 pick.

The Mulvaneys were a picture-perfect family until Valentine's Day 1976. In We Were the Mulvaneys, the youngest child will take a dark trip down memory lane in hopes of really understanding what destroyed their previously glamorous life.

House of Sand and Fog follows three individuals — a Middle Eastern immigrant, a recovering alcoholic, and a cop — as they struggle to fight obstacles and find solace.

A spine-chilling psychological thriller, Drowning Ruth depicts the unfortunate events of one cold Wisconsin day in 1919 where Mathilda Neumann is found dead underneath an icy lake.

Samantha is broken after her divorce, but she has an 11-year-old son to provide for. Over the course of Open House, Samantha finds ways to make ends meet, but more importantly, she's on a quest to discover "who really is Samantha?"

Under the guidance of their evangelical Baptist father Nathan, four daughters and their mother move to Belgian Congo in 1959. Their faith and humanity will be tested over the 30 years they spend in Africa in The Poisonwood Bible.

In While I Was Gone, Jo Becker is a successful businesswoman, a wife, and mother of three, but her world is about to do a 180 after a former roommate pays Jo a visit, only to disrupt her present life and send her into a tailspin.

Toni Morrison's debut novel, The Bluest Eye, is the coming-of-age story of Pecola Breedlove, a young Black girl in Lorain, OH.

At just 19 years old, Harley Altmyer is forced into the role of both mother and father to his three younger sisters. While Harley is raising his siblings, he's also becoming a young man himself. Much more than just a coming-of-age story, Back Roads is painfully dark, provocative, and soul-searching.

In attempt for a better life, Eliza Sommers, an orphan from Chile, follows her lover — whose child she's carrying — to San Francisco. Daughter of Fortune centers on Eliza as she navigates this new world and finds comfort in a Chinese doctor, Tao Chi'en.

A vulnerable examination of a young marriage, Gap Creek focuses on Julie and Hank Harmon's new life in the valley, which is far from stress-free, exciting, or prolific.

Howard, a farmer, and Alice, a school nurse, are a solid family living on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Then one day, a 2-year-old girl is found dead in a pond while under Alice's watch. Their peaceful life is quickly pulled out from beneath them, Alice is incarcerated, there's rumors of sexual assault, and they're left lost and alone. A Map of the World was an Oprah Book Club 1999 selection.

Under stressful pretenses, Ellen Grier must pack up her old life including her family and move in with her in-laws on Vinegar Hill. However, Grandma and Grandpa's home isn't met with warm, fuzzy feelings for this family.

River, Cross My Heart is the tragic tale of 5-year-old Clare Bynum, who drowns in the Potomac River, and her family, who must face her death and their grief while trying to move on with their lives.

If you had the opportunity to switch lives and estates with someone for the summer, would you do it? In Tara Road, Ria and Marilyn swap homes in hopes of a sweet summer escape without realizing they'd have to adapt to one another's lifestyles, too.

Taking place in the late 1950s in rural Mississippi, Mother of Pearl brings attention to racism in the South and two characters on a journey to find the three things they're missing most in the world: love, family, and security.

Accused of and imprisoned for murder, Ingrid is forced to give up her daughter, Astrid. Through White Oleander, readers watch with a closed eye as young Astrid floats from foster home to foster home in LA.

Kathryn has grown into the role of being a pilot's wife and with it, the anxiety and fear of her husband not returning home. And one night the nightmare comes true and Kathryn is told her husband's plane has crashed. Kathryn quickly spirals out of control in The Pilot's Wife and goes into detective mode to uncover the secrets her husband had been keeping from her.

Michael Berg hasn't seen Hanna, his older lover, in almost 10 years — until he's in law school sitting in on a trial where she happens to be the defendant in a wrenching crime. Call it fate or a weird coincidence, but Hanna has some explaining to do in The Reader.

Jewel loves her life and loves her family even more, so when she gives birth to their sixth child, Brenda Kay, she's over-the-moon excited. But Brenda Kay isn't turning out to be like her older siblings. Jewel goes on a quest to figure out where she went wrong in raising her youngest daughter. Jewel was picked for Oprah's Book Club in 1999.

Novalee Nation is expecting in nearly two months and is left stranded at a Walmart in rural Oklahoma with less than $8 to her name. The people of this small Midwest town come together to help Novalee get back on her own two feet and build a life for her unborn child. Where the Heart Is is the timeless tale of friends being the family you choose.

Midwife Sibyl Danforth was just doing her job: delivering a healthy baby girl. But when the midwife's assistant comes forward stating Sibyl accidentally killed the mother during the birth, a trial quickly enfolds. Narrated by the midwife's daughter, Midwives is a spellbinding account.

It's been a decade since Ava Johnson was back in her rural hometown of northern Michigan. She's trading her fabulous city life for something a little more familiar and ordinary in What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day.

Now an HBO limited series, I Know This Much Is True centers on twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey. Thomas, who has schizophrenia and a history of self-harm, has to lean on Dominick for support. Meanwhile, Dominick is battling with his own inner demons, including suppressed anger and self-acceptance.

Sophie Caco, a preteen, has been through a lot, and to make matters worse, she's being sent to New York to stay with a mother she knows little to nothing about. Breath, Eyes, Memory was chosen in 1998.

Was it lust or was it love? For Fran and Bobby Benedetto, it was lust — and it was so powerful that despite the abuse, Fran stayed with Bobby. But one night Fran decides enough is enough and whisks her 10-year-old son away to Florida. Black and Blue will keep you on the edge of your seat, praying that Bobby never finds Fran or, worse, gets her back.

Almost two decades ago, March Murray traded her snow boots for sandals and uprooted everything she'd ever known for a life in California. Back home is Hollis, the boy who never stopped falling in love with March even when she moved thousands of miles away. In Here on Earth, March will have to confront Hollis when she moves back to her hometown and with it, her buried feelings for him that never went away.

Oprah's second book club pick by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison is Paradise, which closely follows two groups and the racial and gender relations that divide them.

Prior to his sexual assault conviction, Bill Cosby made Oprah's Book Club list for his Little Bill series, with the three books The Best Way to Play, The Treasure Hunt, and The Meanest Thing to Say.

A Virtuous Woman follows Ruby Pitt Woodrow and Blinking Jack Stokes, 20 years her senior, who become each other's lifeline.

Author Kaye Gibbons's first book, Ellen Foster, kick-starts with 11-year-old Ellen Foster as she plots her father's death.

A 1997 Oprah Book Club pick, A Lesson Before Dying tells the story of a Black man named Jefferson, the sole survivor of a shooting that killed a white store owner.

Maya Angelou's autobiography The Heart of a Woman details her move to New York with her son Guy. Throughout the book, readers meet influential individuals like Malcolm X and learn about her time at the Apollo Theatre and as Martin Luther King's northern coordinator.

Marie Fermoyle is the mother to three teenagers, all of whom are going through their own personal crises. Marie is lonely but also gullible, so when a conman comes along and fancies her, she's in a world of hurt in Songs in Ordinary Time.

In The Rapture of Canaan, Ninah is pregnant, and as the granddaughter of their church's leader, she's being chastised. However, Ninah's pregnancy journey unveils that maybe her preconceived notions of God aren't what they seem.

Taking place in Nazi Germany, Stones From the River centers on Trudi Montag, a character who begins to understand that being "different" is not so much a bad thing but rather a superpower.

Living off of potato chips and Pepsi, Dolores Price is a 13-year-old who allows her childhood to just float on by. As she approaches womanhood, Dolores is ready to grab life by the horns and prove her worth in She's Come Undone.

A close look at a woman's tepid relationship with her mother after coping with her father's death, The Book of Ruth is a 1989 PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award winner for best first novel.

A 1996 Oprah Book Club selection, Song of Solomon observes a full cast of characters but mainly focuses on Macon Dead Jr., also known as Milkman, who was born into a very wealthy Black family in the south.

In this highly suspenseful and heart-pounding novel, a family must come together after the disappearance of their child. The Deep End of the Ocean was Oprah's first book ever chosen for her esteemed book club and has gone on to be a nationwide bestseller and huge success.