Books Recommended by Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is best known for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history for 24 consecutive seasons, since its debut in 1986.
Oprah went from being a child who lived in poverty to the richest African American of the 20th century and North America’s first black multi-billionaire.
Oprah was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother who was working as a maid. To say that Oprah had a difficult childhood and many obstacles in life is not enough. She was sexually abused and raped during her childhood and early teens, and became pregnant at 14 (her son was born prematurely and died in infancy).
While being a teenager, her mother sent her for the second time to live with her father, who made Oprah’s education a priority. While still being a high school student, she landed a job in radio. By 19, Winfrey was co-anchoring the local evening news. She was the youngest news anchor and first black female news anchor at Nashville’s WTFV.
In the following years. Oprah worked at several televisions and in ’83 she moved to Chicago, hosting a low-rated morning talk show. Few months after Winfrey took over, the show went from last place in the ratings to being the highest-rated talk show in Chicago.
Oprah not only revolutionized the tabloid talk show genre, but also broke the 20th century taboos and allowed LGBTQ people to enter mainstream through television appearances.
In the mid ‘90’s, Oprah was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. In the same period she reinvented her show, focusing on literature, self-improvement, mindfulness, and spirituality.
She also started a book club segment of her talk-show, Oprah’s Book Club. During its 15 years, 70 books were discussed. The club ended in 2011, together with Oprah’s show, and was relaunched online one year later.
Winfrey was ranked several times as one of America’s most influential women and in 2008 she delivered about 1 million votes to Barack Obama in the primary race through her support, some economists stating that Obama would have lost the nomination without her.
Books recommended by Oprah Winfrey:
15 books recommended by Oprah Winfrey
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
by Sheryl Sandberg, Nell Scovell
Honest and brave... The new manifesto for women in the workplace.
Everything Is Figureoutable
by Marie Forleo
Millions of young women look to Marie Forleo as their inspiration for empowerment and achievement.
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Brace yourselves—One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez is as steamy, dense and sensual as the jungle that surrounds the surreal town of Macondo!
East of Eden
It's the perfect summer read...a novel so rich and full of drama you won't be able to turn the pages fast enough!
Freedom
You don’t hear me say this word often, but this book is a masterpiece ... It’s an epic family saga—it’s got everything—sex and love, even rock n’ roll, and everything you want in a book.
The Pillars of the Earth
by Ken Follett
Nobody who reads it—nobody who reads it—looks at a church or a cathedral the same. I made me think about my own life differently, reading that book, the experience of reading that book. What a treasure.
The Corrections
The Correctionsis a grandly entertaining novel for the new century —a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. Richly realistic, darkly hilarious and deeply humane, it confirms that Jonathan Franzen is one of our most brilliant interpreters of American society and American soul
The Deep End of the Ocean
It's an intense tale that really is a mother's worst nightmare. A lot of you who are mothers think you can't read the book at first, but you really can — trust me.
The Good Earth
Reading Pearl Buck's writing feels like reading poetry to me. I just love the quiet rhythm of the words. They evoke the simple beauty of the characters and the harsh mystery of China's ancient culture.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
I love this book! I had heard about this book for years and then my dear friend Julia Roberts did an interview in O, The Oprah Magazine and she listed this as one of her favorite books of all times. The book I love so… Read the full quote
I love this book! I had heard about this book for years and then my dear friend Julia Roberts did an interview in O, The Oprah Magazine and she listed this as one of her favorite books of all times. The book I love so much—recommended to me by Julia—is The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. It's a great, great read and not hard at all.
The Measure of a Man
It's a beautifully crafted book, written like poetry. Because, just as [Poitier] speaks so eloquently, he also writes that way, too.
The Road
"It is so extraordinary," Winfrey said. "I promise you, you'll be thinking about it long after you finish the final page."
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
It's so engaging, so gripping, so epic, that I wanted absolutely everybody to share the joy of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle...I think that this is right up there with the greatest American novels ever written. Up there with Steinbeck and even Harper Lee.
We Were the Mulvaneys
I read this book over a year ago, but this family still haunts me.
White Oleander
by Janet Fitch
Page after page, I fell in love with a story that deeply moved me, and vivid passages that described the sky as the color of peaches and compared sorrow to the taste of a copper penny.