Culture Pick: Reese’s Book Club seeks to create “lovers of story” 

Zara Morgan, Contributing Writer

Reese Witherspoon is a woman of many talents, and acting is only one of them. In July 2017, Witherspoon started a book club for her and her fans called Reese’s Book Club. 

The book club is active on Goodreads, a social media platform for book lovers, Witherspoon’s own app named Reese’s Book Club, Instagram, Facebook and on her website

The club functions through Witherspoon choosing a new book each month “with a woman at the center of the story,” and then the club will read and comment on it together.

If you download the app, Witherspoon offers different livestreams and events discussing the book chapters, a “week’s highlights” section showcasing articles about books, and a place to track your reading. 

In addition to acting and running her book club, Witherspoon also owns a production company named Hello Sunshine. Through her production company, Witherspoon has started producing limited series based on books read in her club. 

One such example is “Little Fires Everywhere,” a limited series on Hulu starring Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. 

Hello Sunshine recently finished working on a book-to-screen adaptation of “Where the Crawdads Sing,” which came out in theaters on July 13 and is about a young girl in North Carolina named Kya who “opens herself to a new and startling world,” according to Ashland Theater. 

If you’re not looking to commit to reading a book with the club, Witherspoon also offers several different recommendations by showcasing past monthly reads with both adult and young adult options. 

An example of a book the club has read together is “You Have a Match” by Emma Lord, a young adult summer camp romance surrounding a young girl named Abby after she realizes she has a sister she never knew about. 

Another book the club covered is “Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid, an adult historical-fiction novel following the rise and fall of a band in the 1970s. The Bibliofile describes the book’s writing style as a “transcript of a MTV-Behind-the-Music-styled ‘oral history.” In September 2021, Hello Sunshine started working on adapting the book into a limited series on Hulu, which will be released in 2022.

Whether you just want a book recommendation or are ready to jump into the monthly book discussions, Witherspoon has several options for readers of any caliber.