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 February 2024. Click on the book’s cover to add it to your Goodreads shelf!
Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club (Hello Sunshine)’s pick for February 2024:
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 “Redwood Court” by DeLana R.A. Dameron as their February 2024 pick.
From The Publisher:
A breathtaking debut about one unforgettable Southern Black family, seen through the eyes of its youngest daughter as she comes of age in the 1990s.
“Mika, you sit at our feet all these hours and days, hearing us tell our tales. You have all these stories inside all the stories everyone in our family knows and all the stories everyone in our family tells. You write ’em in your books and show everyone who we are.”
So begins award-winning poet DéLana R. A. Dameron’s debut novel, Redwood Court. The baby of the family, Mika Tabor spends much of her time in the care of loved ones, listening to their stories and witnessing their struggles. On Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika learns important lessons from the people who raise her: her exhausted parents, who work long hours at multiple jobs while still making sure their kids experience the adventure of family vacations; her older sister, who in a house filled with Motown would rather listen to Alanis Morrisette; her retired grandparents, children of Jim Crow, who realized their own vision of success when they bought their house on the Court in the 1960s, imagining it filled with future generations; and the many neighbors who hold tight to the community they’ve built, committed to fostering joy and love in an America so insistent on seeing Black people stumble and fall.
With visceral clarity and powerful prose, Dameron reveals the devastation of being made to feel invisible and the transformative power of being seen. Redwood Court is a celebration of extraordinary, ordinary people striving to achieve their own American dreams.
Good Morning America’s Book Club’s pick:
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 “Come And Get It” by Kiley Reid as their February 2024 pick.
From The Publisher:
From the celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age comes a fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students.
It’s 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie’s starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardised by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks and illicit intrigue. A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior.
Read With Jenna (Jenna Bush Hager)’s pick:
Starting in March 2019, the former First Daughter announced her book club on the Today show. Each month she chooses a book that is sure to generate discussion. Jenna chose “Good Material” by Dolly Alderton as her February 2024 pick.
From The Publisher:
Andy’s story wasn’t meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends’ spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he’s ever truly loved.
As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group and the growing suspicion that, at 35, he really should have figured this all out by now.
Andy has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend’s side of the story.
Warm, wise, funny and achingly relatable, Dolly Alderton’s highly-anticipated second novel is about the mystery of what draws us together – and what pulls us apart – the pain of really growing up, and the stories we tell about our lives.
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. Oprah’s latest pick is “Let Us Descend” by Jesmyn Ward.
From The Publisher:
Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.
Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.
From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.
That’s the Celebrity Book Club Picks for February 2024. 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!
Other Recent Celebrity Book Club Selections:
Jody
I have not heard of any of these. Happy Friday, Jodie! ☕📚🐉🤗🫶
thathappyreader
Thanks for reading Jody!
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature)
Reese and Jenna’s picks sound good. And I do want to read something by the author of Oprah’s pick too some day. Thanks for sharing these!
thathappyreader
Thanks for reading Lisa!
Her Digital Coffee
All of these books sound so interesting! I always look forward to seeing which books these clubs are reading. Thanks for sharing!
thathappyreader
Thanks for reading Winnie!