Oprah's Book Club | featured news

It is a dream come true for a first-time novelist: a call from Oprah Winfrey with the news that your novel has been chosen for her book club. That dream recently came true for Ayana Mathis, the author of “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie” (Alfred A. Knopf). Ms. Winfrey announced Wednesday that she has chosen the novel for the book club famously associated with her former TV talk show. In response to the endorsement, the publishers increased the book’s first printing to 125,000 copies.

Oprah Winfrey — once an unrivaled force in selling books — is back. Her impact can be seen on USA TODAY's Best-Selling books list as Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild, the first title in Winfrey's relaunched club (announced June 1), rises from No. 92 to No. 14.

In a year when Borders went out of business and Oprah's Book Club disappeared, e-book sales surged and self-published authors got rich selling 99-cent digital books. But it also was a good year for an old print lion —Ernest Hemingway— and books about a famous 20th-century couple, Jack and Jackie. USA TODAY looks back at the rapidly changing world of books in 2011.

Novelist Jonathan Franzen is back in the world's largest book club.

Nine years after Franzen dissed Oprah Winfrey, the literary writer and talk-show queen have made up.