She’s an Oscar winning actress, a fashionable clothing designer, a prolific producer, and now she’s about to become your new book-loving bestie.
Since 2017, Reese Witherspoon has been curating an online book club through her Hello Sunshine website. In her own words, “I was inspired to create Hello Sunshine because of my deep passion for telling women’s stories and connecting women through storytelling. We discover and showcase female stories and storytellers from all across the country.”
Reese’s passion for reading shines through in every book her team selects for the book club. And just how successful are those picks? Publisher’s Weekly just announced that the bestselling book of 2019 so far is Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, which just happened to be Reese’s book choice last September.
How does the book club work? Each month, Reese announces a new selection via her website, Facebook, and Instagram pages, and her followers rapidly devour each recommendation. In order to make her selections readily accessible to such a large audience, Reese has partnered with Audible to ensure that all of her picks are available via the streaming platform. Readers are able to post their thoughts on the book on Hello Sunshine’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Reese also posts special author videos and interviews, and well as follow-ups from previous selections to give each reader the inside scoop.
Book club members feel like they’ve found a good friend in Reese. As one reviewer said, “Does anyone else see these posts and think, “Oh, there’s my good friend, Reese, recommending something good. I’ve been missing her!’’
Another reader stated, “I am so thrilled to have found the Hello Sunshine book club. Reese’s picks are always delightful, varied, accessible, and easy to read. I LOVE how her picks highlight and celebrate women authors. The language and writing in the choices thus far has been lyrical and beautiful.”
This post promised to be an honest review of the Reese Witherspoon Book Club, and there are a few things that seem to be lacking.
Hello Sunshine appears to be more of a book recommendation service than an actual book club. There is no pacing guide, and actual discussion of each book seems to be limited to “This book was great,” or “I can’t wait to read the next selection.” It would be nice to have actual discussion questions for readers to ponder and chat about. And while Reese gives an excellent introduction to each book and will pop in with a comment every now and then, I would like to be able to read more of her thoughts on each book.
All in all, if you are wanting to add in some diversity in your reading selections while connecting with readers from around the world, the Reese Witherspoon Book Club might be just the group you’ve been looking for.
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Originally published at https://mybookcave.com on September 5, 2019.
