The NYT is Nothing Compared to Oprah

  

It's true... brilliant book and brilliant book club pick or not ...

Since Jan 2005, Oprah has picked 14 books for her club

All of them have been by men! 

All of them for the last 5 years. 

If you go back, since 2003 she's picked 20 titles.

18 of them are by men. 

I'm not suggesting affirmative action here. I never am.I don't believe in it. I just continue and continue and continue to find it curious. Is it possible that in 5 years there has not been one title written by one woman that deserved to be an Oprah bookclub selection?

FYI: She has 2 million readers in her book club over 80% of them are women and  7-9 million viewers watch the show every week and the majority are overwhelmingly female. More than  80% say some searches.

Comments

[After Words]

But here's what's more interesting: since the book club began, she's had 63 titles (pre-Freedom). Thirty-sever are by female authors; 26 by men. What changed? When Franzen called the book club out as something that men ignore. Since then in 2001, she's chosen 16 men (including 2 works my Faulkner) and 4 women.

[James Austin]

It's probably a mix of personal taste and marketing. Oprah's preference and, I'm guessing, the overriding preference of her audience. Female readership may not necessarily prefer female authorship.