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Reading with Oprah: The Book Club that Changed America, 2nd Edition
written by Kathleen Rooney
Studio : University of Arkansas Press
by University of Arkansas Press
Publisher : University of Arkansas Press
Released : 2008-04-01
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781557288738
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 5 reviews)
List Price : $17.95
Our Price : $7.99
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Product Description |
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Adored by its fans, deplored by its critics, Oprah's Book Club has been at the center of arguments about cultural authority and literary taste since it began in 1996. Reading with Oprah explores the club's revolutionary fusion of books, television, and commerce and tells the engaging and in-depth story of the OBC phenomenon. Kathleen Rooney combines extensive research with a dynamic voice to reveal the club's far-reaching cultural impact and its role as crucible for the clash between "high" and "low" literary taste. Comprehensive and up-to-date, the book covers the club from its inception in 1996, through the Jonathan Franzen contretemps, the surprising suspension in 2002, and, after the club's return in 2003, the progression from "great books" to memoir. New material includes an extensive look at the James Frey scandal and Oprah's turn to contemporary fiction. Through close examination of Winfrey's picks and personal interviews with book club authors and readers, Rooney demonstrates how the club that Barbara Kingsolver calls "one of the best possible uses of a television set" has, according to Wally Lamb, "gotten people of all ages to read, to read more, and to read widely." |
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A must for anyone interested in how the club has affected the reading habits of America as a whole. |
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Oprah's Book Club has inspired many people to read in the past several years. "Reading with Oprah: The Book Club That Changed America" is an examination of the book club and those who participate within it. Topics covered include the criticisms lobbied at Oprah's book club, the club's effects on the books it features, and Oprah's turn to contemporary fiction in recent years. The new second edition includes an expanded analysis of the James Frey scandal. "Reading with Oprah" is a must for anyone interested in how the club has affected the reading habits of America as a whole. |
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Entertaining, yet analytical, read |
not that those things are contradictory, but I really had no idea what to expect when picking up this book. In fact, the cover and the title don't do justice to the content or the writing inside.
Instead of being simple description of the book club, how it works, or a description of Oprah, the book is an analysis of media culture in the late twentieth, early twenty-first century, told through the clear-eyed view of Rooney. And it's not that her account is unbiased but that, as with much of the best non-fiction and critical analysis, she is aware of her biases and let's the audience know and evaluate them as well.
In short, the book is very thoughtful, well-written, researchful, and interessante. |
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If you read Oprah, read this |
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I definitely recommend Kathleen Rooney's book. What is especially compelling about her approach is how she mirrors the strengths and weaknesses of OBC in her own critique. Like Oprah, she dares to walk the dubious lines between the academy, mass media, and personal commentary, risking scrutiny on all fronts. And also like Oprah, she pulls it off with confidence and humor. I appreciate Rooney's struggle to be an authority and critique authority, which is why it's perfect that she includes a healthy dose of self disclosure and makes room for her own assessments of Oprah's picks. Most importantly, perhaps, Rooney makes the point that OBC is a woman-fronted effort and it's women readers who are changing the what, who, and how America reads. |
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Flawed but essential study of the Oprah Book Club |
Without a doubt this book fills a hole, exploring the Oprah Book Club (OBC) in its near totality. Although Rooney makes insightful points about the Club, including critical and popular reactions to it, unfortunately, she incorporates things that weaken her credibility and detract from the overall quality of her study. For example, many of her statements, though perceptive, are repeated too often, such as how Oprah fails to acknowledge her status as an intellectual, or how the TV host does not engage in the essential discussion over the high-low brow cultural divide.
Another drawback in the text is when Rooney creates a personal stratification of high to low literary quality. The exercise would have been very useful, if not for the lowest rung. In trying to save herself through the use of "it's-my-own-personal-opinion-and-many-will-likely-disagree-with-me", the author's credibility is compromised when she places comics and pornography there. The added statements that there are some good quality comics and `pornography' (I think she meant erotica?), don't remedy the inappropriateness of the choices. Comics (or graphic novels as they are more commonly called), today are not so much the cheap and pulpy mass-produced rags of yore and they've become a well-respected medium, especially in the library world.
In the section of `awful' and `unreadable' Oprah books, Rooney serves up the list of her most hated OBC selections, together with her most loved. While certainly entitled to her opinion, the point of the exercise is lost. Why bother throwing personal and subjective assessments in if they don't add anything to the study? It is unclear whether Rooney set out to write her personal adventures with the OBC, or an objective semi-academic treatise on the OBC phenomenon.
As a librarian, I wanted very badly to read this book and gain a better perspective on the book club that led to mile-long waiting lists and much buzz with my public. On many counts, despite the aforementioned criticisms, I got what I wanted. Rooney explores how television flattens discussion of books; how we can learn what the OBC taught us about taste; how the second configuration of the OBC that relies on classics addresses the criticism hurled at it from the first incarnation; how twitchy Oprah essentially made professional critics; Oprah's impact on authors, publishers and America's reading public; the whole `Franzen affair', and of course, who her readers are. The author clearly did her homework to answer all the questions any students of the Book Club would have. |
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Excellent discussion of TV media and lit criticism |
Kathleen Rooney's _Reading with Oprah_ frames Oprah Winfrey's "Oprah's Book Club" (OBC) within the omnipresent high/low critical dichotomy pervasive throughout the American literary landscape.
Rooney's examination of the first OBC's (Part I) "flattening" of fiction into easily digestible afternoon TV tidbits highlights the challenging translation of high lit criticism into empathic, commercial, "low" literary presentation. OBC Part I's overemphasis on author biography and viewers' emotional responses deadened further investigation of plot and characterization. Oprah's later attempt, OBC Part II, counterbalanced flattening with the "high" criticism of guest scholars and online study helps. OBC II's belated accentuation on literary criticism has only magnified talk show programming's bipolar relationship between serious reflection and TV ratings. Oprah tempers a sincere invitation to delve into her favorite works against her cultivated media persona and corporate capital.
_Reading with Oprah_ treads on sacrosanct assumptions concerning TV's delivery of elite literary culture into the hands of middle America. This wonderful first work forces consideration of new literary spheres of influence far removed from the conventional wisdom of recent years. |
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