O O Oprah Redux

Congratulations to Uwem Akpan whose short story collection Say You're One of Them has been picked by Oprah for her newest  book club pick.

I'm sure its a great pick but that's not the point of this post. 

Since Jan 2005, she's picked 13 books.

All of them have been by men. 

If you go back, since 2003 she's picked 19 titles.

 17 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. I

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

[L.J. Sellers]

It does seem a little strange that she prefers books by men. I wonder how her book club members feel about it? I wonder if Oprah thinks about it. She's too smart not to be aware of the pattern.

[Susan O'Doherty]

MJ, thanks for continuing to track this. And congratulations to Uwem Akpan!

[J. Copek]

Curious. Maybe we should sic the Sisters In Crime on Oprah. Wait! She doesn't do mysteries, does she?

Rats!

[Michelle Moran]

:[

[Mark Perkins]

Seems odd, but there's a definite pattern there. Could be just a coincidence. I never understood her criteria anyway, but then again, I'm a man and not in the intended audience.