Since 1996, Oprah's Book Club has included meticulously selected books that often become bestsellers. The secret sauce? Each is chosen by Oprah herself. Now, with her new partnership with Apple, Oprah's Book Club is experiencing a new chapter, which began with the selection of Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Water Dancer, and continued with Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout and American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. Both works join esteemed memoirs like Michelle Obama's Becoming, Cheryl Strayed's Wild, and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. You'll never forget these enlightening stories—just ask Oprah.

1. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

"This story changed the way I see what it means to be a migrant in a whole new way," Oprah said of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, her latest Apple Book Club pick. The book follows the journey a woman and her young son take to the United States after their family is murdered in an act of cartel violence.

2. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Oprah selected Olive, Again as her Apple Book Club pick because she fell in love the with prickly protagonist "despite her flaws." The book is Elizabeth Strout's follow-up to her 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Olive Kitteridge.

3. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

For her first selection of the new chapter of Oprah's Book Club with Apple, Oprah selected Ta-Nehisi Coates' first novel, The Water Dancer. The odyssey follows the story of Hiram Walker, a young man born as a slave on a plantation in Virginia who has been gifted a mysterious, magical power that eventually saves his life when he nearly drowns in a river. "I have not felt this way about a book since Beloved," Oprah, said of the book, referring to the late Toni Morrison's celebrated novel. "I knew early on the book was going to cut me up. I ended up with my soul pierced.”

4. Becoming by Michelle Obama

"I want the whole world to read this book. I know everyone is already pre-ordering, and if you’re in a book club, you should read it together," Oprah said, announcing her December 2018 selection. "It is Michelle Obama’s story, of course, but I know it’s going to spark within you the desire to think about your own becoming."

5. The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton

"Over the years I've chosen many great novels, very few memoirs for my book club, but this story reads like an epic novel. And it is all true! Mr. Hinton was falsely convicted of murder and spent 30 years on death row before he was finally released," Oprah said in a 2018 Super Soul Sunday interview.

Read the full story here: The Complete List of All 83 Books in Oprah's Book Club

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