Books I Loathed discussion
Oprah Books

I HATED DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE by Isabel Allende - just a gussied-up Catherine Cookson type novel where the heroine made ridiculous choices (for love!) and transforms into an unbelievable proto-feminist shacked up with her groovy Chinese doctor boyfriend (who himself undergoes a transformation from loving chicks with bound feet to finding the heroine "quite good looking for a white woman" or something like that). BLEAUGH!
I can't say I loved it (because it is so harrowing), but I am grateful that I read it because no work of fiction has affected me more deeply - "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

Here's a link to a list that purports to be the complete Oprah Book List:
http://www.neptunepubliclibrary.org/o...
The ones I've read:
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver
Ok, engaging narrative but 'meh'.
A Map Of The World
Jane Hamilton
Too emotional/dramatic, which is one Oprah hallmark. A slow read.
White Oleander
Janet Fitch
I actually liked this one.
I Know This Much Is True
Wally Lamb
As we know, I loved this one. lol
Black and Blue
Anna Quindlen
This was an interesting book. I have issues with any book that details domestic abuse, but she did okay with the topic and there was a creepy element of the husband being a cop...
Here On Earth
Alice Hoffman
From memory, this one was hard for me to get into, I didn't finish but I don't remember why.
The Heart of a Woman
Maya Angelou
I liked this one.
She's Come Undone
Wally Lamb
I liked this one, too, but not as much as the other.
So, all in all, fair-to-middling prose. Not mindblowing, but not as bad as some of the pulpy trash one can pick up in a supermarket check-out line, either.
I have mixed feeling about Oprah's book club, but in the end I give it a gentle thumbs up because I'm all for literacy, and anything that gets more people to read (even if I don't agree with their choice of reading material) is all good by me.

Brava, Xysea, brava!
Mine from the link you provided:
"Icy Sparks"
This was hard in some ways to read, but worth the struggle and a keeper for me.
"The Deep End of the Ocean"
Emotionally manipulative and with no redeeming qualities.
I've apparently managed to avoid everything else on the list.

I'll have to add to my list now:
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The Reader, Bernard Schlink
One Hundred Years of Solutide, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
All of which I enjoyed, for various reasons, immensely.
Did the edit out the one that was the faux memoir? I don't remember the name of it, the author was maybe James Frey or something? :)


In the end, I agree with Nick Hornby. Reading for pleasure is all we should be doing. To paraphrase, "If you don't read the classics, nothing bad will happen to you. More importantly, if you do read them it doesn't mean anything good will happen to you either."
No one should read a book just because someone told them to, unless a grade depends upon it. Or the fate of the world.
(Which ever comes first. ;) lol )
PS I just noticed the James Frey book is still on there. I must have missed it the first time. Oops! :) Oh, and Middlesex and The Road are on my 'to-read' list...

I don't know Oprah, and I don't watch her show. So, to me, her name on the cover is neither a deterrent nor an encouragement, but simply a marketing gimmick. It is up to me, the discerning reader, to decide what I think, O label or no O label. :)
And I agree with you further that some author is getting rich somewhere, as is some publicist and some graphic designer. Oprah's doing her bit, and it's a good bit, if I do say so myself.
In fact, I think I just did. lol

Anyway, my favorites on that list are:
White Oleander--This one simply crawled under my skin and haunted me for awhile. That sounds creepy, but it was almost cathartic--to mix metaphors.
Middlesex--Recently I heard an interview on NPR with the author, fascinating. This book was just completely riveting, in a tragic way. Wow!!
Poisonwood Bible--There are lines from this book that have woven themselves into my unconsciousness. However, I feel the basic flaw of the book was that the father was so unrelentingly unsympathetic. Were he just a bit more of a sympathetic character, the book would have been much more complicated and nuanced--in my opinion.
Tara Road--I felt this book was completely overrated!!
I've read many of the classics listed, but don't feel the need to comment here.

I haven't read Middlesex yet, but it comes highly recommended and the queue at the library says it's not my turn yet, lol, but I'm looking forward to it...
:)

I also think East of Eden is an awful, awful, awful book. I thought so when I first read it when I was 14 years old. A bunch of people with no formal education whatsoever sit around discussing the time they read the Old Testament in Hebrew, and tell us all how to live. Uh...right.
Of course, Oprah retracted her choice of The Corrections, which is arguably one of the two or three best books on the list, because Jonathan Franzen had the temerity to decline to stick his nose up her you-know-where far enough. Whatever.

So I've always been a bit mystified by all chorus of hosannas surrounding the Book Club. There's a lot of reason to dispute the common wisdom that Oprah has been such a big boon for reading and literacy, despite the fact that everyone sort of acts like that proposition is beyond cavil. The whole thing really calls to mind nothing so much as a bunch of hypnotized people sitting around and waiting for The Great One's next instruction.

Positives:
* some excellent selections
* a draw that gets people reading, some that might not otherwise
* a plethora of wide styles and topics that should be known about, discussed and otherwise given attention, including areas of life that incorporate those of less-fortune or downright maltreatment (for example, Middlesex)
* an honest opinion, and a demonstration for enthusiasm about literature, especially modern and contemporary literature
* an attitude that allows for people to leave behind the misconception that may exist about literature being antiquated, out of touch, and not worth understanding even if one could understand it
* discussions such as this
Negatives:
* some poor choices
* a draw that gets people forming opinions about good writing that are in actuality uninformed about what it takes to be proficient in writing, or in a given style
* the possibility of wielding mass popular authority, strictly to wield mass popular authority (a.k.a., the ever so pompass "more people like me so what I say is true" attitude)
* a non-literary scholar giving what many may see as a kind of "definitive" list for cultured reading
* one person, even an highly educated one, being seen as authoritative when giving what is in reality merely one perspective
* money-money-money making
* a chance (not always acted upon, of course) to reinforce to the masses those so-called tacit societal ideals of shameless publicity and brown-nosing (which, I admit, can be a draw back to even the most prestigious awards)
There you have it. Perhaps when I am older and more transient, my perspective my fluctuate.

A slightly related phenomenon that puzzles me is the prevalent antipathy to the "large chain bookstore phenomenon". Mention of Borders or Barnes and Noble is enough to cause several of my friends to start to foam at the mouth. But my impression is that the spread and success of these chains has raised the general level of service and book availability across the board. And it remains unclear to me why smaller "independent" booksellers, (who also get my business) should feel a particular sense of entitlement about being sheltered from the pressures of the marketplace. like it or not they are in the business of selling books, and cannot reasonably deserve to get a free pass, based on some vague sentimental notion that they are "different" and deserving of special treatment.
I like going to Borders or Barnes and Noble. Sure, sometimes I wish the staff were a little more clued in, but overall, I think the selection available to me now far exceeds that of, say, 15 years ago.

Where I currently live, Petaluma, we have a fantastic little bookstore called Copperfields that everyone loves - but it is possible that Borders is going to move in down the road. We are not a big enough town to sustain them both, and many people are terrified that it will kill Copperfields. It probably will.
While I have no problem with Borders or Barnes and Noble in general - it's great to have a bookstore in town - I hateany big chain killing off a small independent that has been a partof the community for years.

The things about mom-and-pops that are great:
1. personal service
2. a sense of community
3. rare books, unique or old books
4. used or out of print books
5. strong knowledge of literature/a true passion for books
I think any little independent bookstore could work within that market, though the advent of internet buying and selling has dropped a lot of overhead for certain retailers, too. I don't think there's any real competition with the internet in terms of locating a product (book), availability and low overhead.
The used book stores I frequent have booming business, pretty much most of the year. The summers are slow when the students are away, but generally we have enough academics, intellectuals and bookhounds who feed their habits with trade-ins etc.
I realized I was a true book slut when I had three dates in a row, with different men, each ending with me luring them to a bookstore and then -- surprise! them buying me whatever book either they thought I HAD to read or that I grabbed and clutched like it was some scarce sustenance. When I was broke that was one of the more awesome ways I managed to still aquire books.


To me, indie stores and chain stores tend to cater to different crowds. I go to both myself but have noticed that my friends who don't read much tend to shop the chain stores that focus more on customer service and my friends that are Book Sluts tend to go to the indies because they walk into the store knowing mostly what they want and don't need an employee to help them find the Lit Crit section.




A huge portion of our profits come from what we deem "sidelines." Sidelines are the non-book things: gifts, stickers, journals, cards, coffee mugs, action figures. Occasionally, I will ring out a customer who buys $500 worth of non-book merchandise. I truly, truly believe that if we did not carry this enormous collection of non-book flotsam the store would go under. Trust me, it makes me a million times happier to help someone find a new Oprah book than a box of designer band aids.
Tara, very interesting -- and depressing -- about non-book items at your indie store! I wonder what percent of profits are from that stuff at big chain stores selling only new books.


I've only read 6 all the way through, all of which I enjoyed in their own ways. None of them are ones I picked up because Oprah recommended them, however, considering I've never watched her show. There's a lot of stuff on the list that looks good, so I expect I'll actually pick some up off the list.
Light in August by William Faulkner
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
I'm currently reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and really enjoying it, after putting it off for a really long time. Again, this was my own interest and noticing people who I respect liked it.




Basically, I think Oprah recommends good books on the whole; I don't like all of them, but I wouldn't expect to enjoy every single book recommended by anyone.
As to the comment made questioning whether or not Oprah's recommendations affect sales, I think the fact that both Middlesex and Love in the Time of Cholera, her most recent picks, are both currently on the bestseller's lists (though I'm sure the movie is helping Cholera as well) proves that Oprah has an astonishing buying power. My Nora Roberts reading grandmother read Faulkner (or attempted to) with Oprah a few summers ago, there is no denying that Oprah is convincing droves of people to buy books. With regard to the authors' other books not selling equally well, did Oprah tell them to buy their other books? Nope, just the one.


I do like that she has pulled into her book club, classics, like Elie Wiesel's Night and Love in the Time of Cholera. I remember reading Night in high school, and loved it. She definitely has influence and I think a lot of people flock to the bookstores to read the books that are on her "list", whether those books are good or bad.
I am not the biggest Oprah fan, sometimes I get a bit tired of her talk show, but I do greatly admire the things she has done like her Angel Network and work in Africa. For a woman that rich and that powerful to put so much attention and finances into programs like the Angel Network and the school in Africa, says a lot and I do respect her for that. I just see her book club as another aspect of things she cares about: promoting reading.

I enjoyed them both, but while I'm all for promoting literacy, I think she's using her position to promote less-than-worthy books, and I think people are being sheep and reading the books only 'cause Oprah told them to.

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Night by Elie Wiesel
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
Sula by Toni Morrison
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Those are the ones I've read, and with the exception of Stones I liked them all.
I like this list. I even like that there is diversity in the quality of writing. I would not consider White Oleander or Here on Earth to be on the same level as One Hundred Years or Song of Solomon (one of my favorite books everever), but I still have recommended them both to someone. So I like that she promotes books that may be enjoyable to different people with different tastes. I would think she needs to in order to encourage reading on such a wide scale.
But I've been known to say "I saw it on Oprah!" sort of with my tongue in my cheek but not really. I like the lady.

There are some that I want to read, not because Oprah has it in her club, but because I like the author (Toni Morrison or Gabriel Garcia Marquez). I do want to read Sidney Poitier's autobiography though, not because it's an Oprah book, but because I really like Poitier. I think my favorite movie with him in it is one he did with Anne Bancroft where he is working his first night at a suicide hotline and she calls in. I can't remember the name of it, but I just thought he was fabulous! I want to know more about him.
Speaking of "I saw it on Ophrah", I worked at BBW (bath & body works) and we had a pumpkin face mask that came out and we were told to really try to push it with the customers, but it just wasn't walking out of the store. Suddenly, Oprah has her "Favorite Things" episode and tells her audience that she adores the pumpkin face masks and uses it when she's enjoying a bubble bath. Within 2 days of the airing of that episode, we sold out. We could not keep the pumpkin mask on our shelves and had a waiting list for it. Every customer who came in said the same thing: "Do you have that face mask that Oprah talked about on her show? I must have it!". I bet bookstore employees hear something similar.

I had to laugh when I read about the pumpkin face mask. I was picturing something like you'd wear on Halloween and finally realized that Tara was referring to a beauty product that ones puts on one's face. Sometimes I think my brain is leaking out the back of my head.
Anyone who influences people to read is a valuable person in my book (Ha! That's a pun).
Although Oprah may only suggest one book by an author, I hope that if people read that one they might consider searching for others by that author. That habit has led me to many fine books.
I am enjoying this discussion a lot. Thanks for all the interesting comments.


So is Franzen's book worth the read, given the whole incident that happened with Oprah? I also am wondering about A Million Little Pieces. I remember hearing about the fallout from that but don't really remember hearing much about the book or what people thought BEFORE the fallout on Oprah. If I'm not mistaken, it was not completely true? Is it worth reading at least?

I am always suprised when I hear that Oprah is that influential. I'll happen upon her show every now and then, hear something about poop (she loves that subject), and tell someone else about it, but I never think that so many people rush out to stores to buy products. Well. I guess it's not that bizarre. But, again, if people are rushing out to buy books it's fine by me.

Turns out, he embellished quite a bit (said he was in jail for months [i think] but it was less than a couple hours). Oprah invited him back on, and basically told him he suckered her and all of her readers, shame on him. Well, seems to me like a good story is a good story, whether or not Oprah approves (no offense to Oprah, I have some issues with her, but overall think she is a good enough person from my perspective). The real issue I feel is that the publishers mislabeled it, should have said "based on a true story" or something like that. We all embelish our little anecdotes from time to time, this guy just got rich doing it!
The book is still selling like hotcakes, even with his admission to his embellishment, but then again, if the story is about an addict, and much of his experiences were either under the influence or sobering up, then are we really surprised that it isn't 100% true to life? I haven't read the book myself, kinda sick of all the addicts coming clean, (great for them no doubt, but I have heard too many of those already, up close and personal) but if it sounded good before, I am sure it will still be an enjoyable read. On Oprah's website she published the transcript of the episode where Frey was invited back to discuss the issue of his honesty.


I know I embellish so that's why, when I attempt to write, I write fiction. LOL.
This isn't an Oprah book, but what is "A Million Little Lies"? A spoof?
So, this might sound shallow, but if I wrote a book and Oprah wanted to have it on her book club I don't think I would tell her "no". I would stand a good chance of ending up with a best seller on the New York Times list. Would I deserve it? Well, I don't know. I'm fairly critical of my own writing so I would probably tell her that I thought my book was crap when I read it in its final form and thought of a million things to do to improve on it even after the publisher and editor said it was fine. Hmm, that might be why I'm not a published author, it's not good to put down your own work as crap.
Books mentioned in this topic
A Million Little Lies (other topics)The Pillars of the Earth (other topics)
I loathed She's Come Undone.
I liked The Secret Life of Bees.