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 March 2024. Click on the book’s cover to add it to your Goodreads shelf!
Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club (Hello Sunshine)’s pick for March 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 “Anita de Monte Laughs Last” by Xóchitl González as their March 2024 pick.
From The Publisher:
1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten—certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.
But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.
Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.
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 “Listen For The Lie” by Amy Tintera as their March 2024 pick.
From The Publisher:
What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn’t matter?
After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer. Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all, and if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life.
But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast “Listen for the Lie,” and its too-good looking host Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one that did it.
Read With Jenna (Jenna Bush Hager)’s picks:
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. In celebration of her book club’s fifth anniversary Jenna chose two books for March 2024: “The Great Divide” by Cristina Henríquez and “The House On Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros.
From The Publisher:
An epic novel of the construction of the Panama Canal, casting light on the unsung people who lived, loved, and labored there, by Cristina Henríquez, acclaimed author of The Book of Unknown Americans
It is said that the canal will be the greatest feat of engineering in history. But first, it must be built. For Francisco, a local fisherman who resents the foreign powers clamoring for a slice of his country, nothing is more upsetting than the decision of his son, Omar, to work as a digger in the excavation zone. But for Omar, whose upbringing was quiet and lonely, this job offers a chance to finally find connection.
Ada Bunting is a bold sixteen-year-old from Barbados who arrives in Panama as a stowaway alongside thousands of other West Indians seeking work. Alone and with no resources, she is determined to find a job that will earn enough money for her ailing sister’s surgery. When she sees a young man—Omar—who has collapsed after a grueling shift, she is the only one who rushes to his aid.
John Oswald has dedicated his life to scientific research and has journeyed to Panama in single-minded pursuit of one goal: eliminating malaria. But now, his wife, Marian, has fallen ill herself, and when he witnesses Ada’s bravery and compassion, he hires her on the spot as a caregiver. This fateful decision sets in motion a sweeping tale of ambition, loyalty, and sacrifice.
Searing and empathetic, The Great Divide explores the intersecting lives of activists, fishmongers, laborers, journalists, neighbors, doctors, and soothsayers—those rarely acknowledged by history even as they carved out its course.
From The Publisher:
Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero.
Told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous–it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.
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 “The Many Lives of Mama Love” by Lara Love Hardin.
From The Publisher:
No one expects the police to knock on the million-dollar, two-story home of the perfect cul-de-sac housewife. But soccer mom Lara Love Hardin has been hiding a shady secret: She is funding her heroin addiction by stealing her neighbors’ credit cards.
Lara is convicted of thirty-two felonies and becomes inmate S32179. She learns jail is a class system with a power structure somewhere between an adolescent sleepover party and Lord of the Flies. Furniture is made from tampon boxes, and Snickers bars are currency. But Lara quickly finds the rules and brings love and healing to her fellow inmates as she climbs the social ladder to become the “shot caller,” showing that jailhouse politics aren’t that different from the PTA meetings she used to attend.
When she’s released, she reinvents herself as a ghostwriter. Now, she’s legally co-opting other people’s identities and getting to meet Oprah, meditate with The Dalai Lama, and have dinner with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. But the shadow of her past follows her. Shame is a poison worse than heroin—there is no way to detox. She must learn to forgive herself and others, navigate life as a felon on probation, prove to herself that she is more good than bad, and much more.
That’s the Celebrity Book Club Picks for March 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!
Jonetta | Blue Mood Café
I’ve got all but The Many Lives of Mama Love on my shelf, all on hold at the library.
thathappyreader
Good for you Jonetta!
Jody
I just ordered the hard copy of Listen For The Lie, I can’t wait to get it. Excellent book! Have a Happy Friday, my friend 🤗
thathappyreader
You too Jody! Thanks for reading!
ER LeVar
Amy Tintera is everywhere, and I’m so happy for that! I’ve always enjoyed Tintera’s work.
thathappyreader
I haven’t read any of her books yet ER so I appreciate hearing your thoughts!
Lux G.
Ooh. I haven’t read any of these yet. I tend to pick up books I feel like reading. So, I just randomly browse Kindle or the bookstore for my next read. Sometimes I also check out what I would see evrywhere on IG.
thathappyreader
I hope you enjoyed this post Lux!
Her Digital Coffee
I always love seeing book club picks. I’m especially intrigued by GMA’s choice, the cover is awesome! Thanks for sharing Jodie!
thathappyreader
Thanks for reading Winnie!
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature)
The first two on the list look like ones I might be interested in. Thanks for sharing!
https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2024/03/13/e-galley-review-that-thing-you-brew-the-coffee-loft-series-by-kerry-evelyn/
thathappyreader
Thanks for reading Lisa!
Carla @CarlaLovesToRead
I didn’t realize a couple of these were celebrity picks when I added them to my TBR. Thanks, for the info, Jodie.
thathappyreader
Thanks for reading Carla!