From Reese to SJP, the rise of celeb book clubs
Fallon, Emma Roberts among those to follow in Oprah’s footsteps The Silph Road, a network of volunteer players, offers resources to members in West Tennessee, North Mississippi
NEW YORK – Jimmy Fallon remembers a summer a few years back when it seemed everybody was reading “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn.
“Everyone had that book. If we had people over, or went on vacation poolside, people had that book wrinkled and curled up. I read it with my wife and we read every chapter together and we’d be like, ‘(Gasps) This is great!’ It was the world’s smallest book club,” he laughed.
This summer, Fallon decided to expand his book club of two to include his late-night audience. In June, he launched “Tonight Show Summer Reads.”
Fallon presented five book options on his show and instructed viewers to go online and vote for their favorite. The results exceeded his expectations with 140,000 votes. The winner was “Children audience chose “Children of Blood and Bone” by Tomi Adeyemi for his first “Tonight Show Summer Reads” pick. of Blood and Bone” by Tomi Adeyemi.
“Any way to engage the audience and to do stuff with them is always more fun,” said Fallon.
He also enthusiastically tracked how the books performed on Amazon after a mention on his show. The company confirms he had an impact.
“When a celebrity decides to get behind a book, we generally see a lift in sales,” said Chris Schluep, an editor at Amazon. “For instance, ‘Children of Most everyone has heard of “Pokemon Go,” the online mobile game that has made $1.8 billion in revenue since its release two years ago. Lesser known is the Silph Road, the grass-roots network of volunteer “Pokemon Go” players who study, play and support each other’s efforts playing the game. Go” players, Silph Road resources are crucial to playing the game they love and in making the game a more social one. The not-forprofit organization has more than 300,000 members, with about 5,000 of them in West Tennessee and North Mississippi. Of those, about 150 to 200 players can be found in Olive Branch City Park each month on designated Community Days of “Pokemon Go.” Kerry Hanan is the Silph Road master guide for the West Tennessee/North Mississippi area. It’s her job to arrange community meetups, help players create Silph Road trainer cards and point people in the direction of the Silph Road’s many “Pokemon Go” resources. book club. Blood and Bone’ has been selling well this year. But the week after Jimmy Fallon selected it as the first ‘Tonight Show’ book club selection, it sold nearly three times the number of print, Kindle and Audible books that it had sold in the previous week at Amazon.”
Fallon isn’t the only celebrity to follow in Oprah Winfrey’s footsteps with a book club. Reese Witherspoon has made such a success of her monthly literary picks that publishers are now putting Reese stickers on her selections. For “Pokemon
Celeste Ng’s novel “Little Fires Everywhere” was selected by for her
picked “A Place for Us” by Fatima Farheen Mirza for her first imprint with publishing house Hogarth.
“It’s fantastic and we have a great experience,” said Witherspoon, who has bought the rights to many of her picks to adapt for film or television. One of her selections, “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng will be a limited series on Hulu starring Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.
The Oscar winner has also partnered with the audio producer-distributor Audible on audio recordings.
Emma Roberts has turned her lifelong love of reading into a pet project she calls Belletrist. A website and social media for Belletrist celebrate all things books. Each month they feature a new book to read and even an independent bookstore to check out.
“Belletrist is my baby,” said Roberts, who runs the site with her partner, Karah Preiss.
She says there is “no criteria” for books she features because her personal taste is so varied, but she does tend to learn toward female authors.
She wants to create a community for Belletrist followers to share thoughts and ideas about what they read.
Sarah Jessica Parker is so committed to reading that she’s partnered with the American Library Association to share her own suggestions. The goal, she says, is to not only get people to read but to also support their own local libraries.
When Parker was approached by publishing house Hogarth to start her own imprint, her respect for writing initially made her think it wasn’t a good idea.
“I didn’t think I had the experience and had too much respect for people who’ve been in publishing for a long time,” she said. But Parker then thought it could be a way to help champion works in the literary fiction space which isn’t always as commercial. The first novel printed by SJP for Hogarth, “A Place for Us” by Fatima Farheen Mirza, is a New York Times bestseller.
Parker said she also enjoys posting about books on social media because it’s a safe topic.
Books are the “one thing I can talk about on Instagram that’s not controversial,” she said. “Everybody wants to talk about their favorite books or their feelings about books and share title recommendations. I mean, it’s a huge exchange of information and enthusiasm and it’s really the easiest part of my relationship with social media, certainly.”
Like Witherspoon, Roberts and Parker are open to the idea of giving a book they like the Hollywood treatment.