Are you wondering what your favourite Celebrity Book Club is reading this month? Do you enjoy book communities as a way to read along with others? If so, each of these celebrity book clubs is internet-based and open to all who follow. So if you’re like me and always on the lookout for the next great read, you will now find these picks all in one spot – That Happy Reader’s blog! Without further adieu, let me introduce you to Celebrity Book Club Picks for December 2022.
Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club (Hello Sunshine)’s pick for December 2022:
Founded in 2017, Hello Sunshine always chooses books with women at the centre of the story. Their website notes “We make our choices thoughtfully and look for ways to deepen our connection to books, authors and ourselves”. This book club chose “The Marriage Portrait” by Maggie O’Farrell as their December 2022 pick.
From The Publisher:
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.
Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival.
Good Morning America’s Book Club’s pick for December 2022:
The GMA Book Club is officially called “Cover to Cover” and was started in the Fall of 2019. Their selections highlight diversity and books are chosen from both fiction and non-fiction genres. The book club chose “The Light Pirate” by Lily Brooks-Dalton as their December 2022 pick.
From The Publisher:
Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels gradually wreak havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker; his pregnant wife, Frida; and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds to search for them. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before.
As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature.
Told in four parts—power, water, light, and time—The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness.
Read With Jenna (Jenna Bush Hager)’s pick for December 2022:
From The Publisher:
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.
Oprah’s Book Club:
Oprah Winfrey started this book club in 1996 as a segment on her TV show. Many obscure titles have risen to bestseller status as a result of her picks. There have been no new picks since our November update.
That’s the Celebrity Book Club Picks for December 2022. Do any of these books appeal to you? Will your book club be selecting any of these books? Let me know in the comments. I hope you have an amazing day!
I'm All Booked Up
We really enjoyed The Secret History!
thathappyreader
That’s wonderful! Thanks for reading.
Her Digital Coffee
It’s always nice to see these book club picks! I’m very intrigued by The Secret History. I also love the cover for The Light Pirate and think it’s so cool that it’s told in four parts. Thank you for sharing Jodie! Have a lovely weekend!
thathappyreader
Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful weekend too.
Carla
I think this is the first time that none of these are on my TBR at this point.
thathappyreader
I thought it was interesting that they are all literary fiction Carla. Thanks for reading.
Wendy Williams
These all look very good and intense. I thing I would enjoy The Secret Society the most. Thanks Jodie!
thathappyreader
Thanks for reading Wendy!
Molly | Transatlantic Notes
I find celebrity book clubs so useful for finding interesting books. I don’t officially belong to one but I’ve seen Oprah on CBS News a few times where she has introduced her book choice and brought the author along too. It was during these segments a number of years ago that I discovered Ta-Nehisi Coates and have since read some of his amazing books. Thanks for this post; it’s a great rundown!
thathappyreader
Thanks for reading Molly! I agree that they choose some interesting books – often bringing them to my attention too!