Reese Witherspoon is the Hollywood golden girl with a gift for unearthing page-turners

Melanie Finn

Hollywood actress Reese Witherspoon has helped the careers of many authors by praising their work through her book club. Photo: PA

April 22 2021 02:30 AM

Move over Oprah and Sarah Jessica Parker – there’s a new celebrity book guru in town.

Reese Witherspoon first made her name playing a dizzy blonde aspiring lawyer in Legally Blonde. But just like her iconic character Elle, the 45-year-old has proved there’s much more to her than meets the eye and has now expanded her brief to become one of Hollywood’s most influential producers and storytellers.

In a world awash with celebrities trying to flog their followers everything from laxative-inducing ‘skinny teas’ to teeth-whitening pastes, Witherspoon’s eponymous book club is a breath of fresh air as she enters a new chapter in her career.

The Oscar-winning actress has her finger firmly on the pulse when it comes to predicting the rising stars on the international literary scene. She is now being lauded as having the ‘Midas touch’ for new books.

IRA spy story tipped to book Netflix deal after Reese Witherspoon's nod of approval

More importantly, when it comes to the issue of gender imbalance in storytelling, all of her book choices have had female characters at the centre of the narrative.

She also tries to champion releases by women of colour and international writers who aren’t already well known in America.

The actress picks many of the books herself, but staff members also pass on their recommendations to Witherspoon to read before she gives it her ultimate seal of approval, and her coveted yellow book-club sticker.

When she picked Flynn Berry’s Northern Spy as her book for April, it rocketed up the New York Times bestsellers’ list and is also tipped for a Netflix deal, produced by Witherspoon herself.

Set in Belfast and telling the tale of two sisters, Tessa and Marian, who become entangled with the IRA, Witherspoon was effusive in her praise of the novel.

In a post to her 25 million Instagram followers, she said: “This book builds to the most tremendous climax, heart-pounding action. You don’t know who to trust. I could not stop turning the pages. I think you guys are going to love it. Pick up a copy of Northern Spy.”

Although her book club has garnered lots of publicity of late, it has been running since 2017 after partnering with her production company, Hello Sunshine.

Literary sources say that all of her selections have shifted at least 10,000 copies after being featured, with a select few being chosen by her own production company to receive the big-screen treatment.

She has also starred in several projects that were all originally based on books, including the hit HBO series Big Little Lies.

She also produced the movie version of Gone Girl after picking up the rights to Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel in 2012.

Undoubtedly, one of the biggest successes to benefit from the Reese Witherspoon effect was the lockdown hit of 2020, Where the Crawdads Sing.

The book club choice for September 2018, the debut novel by previously unknown author Delia Owens has become the must-read book of the year.

The murder mystery set in 1960s South Carolina is currently being made into a movie by Witherspoon, starring Daisy Edgar-Jones of Normal People fame. The book has now sold more than 10 million copies.

Other top tips include Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, her very first choice for her book club in 2017. A quirky debut novel by Gail Honeyman, it went on to sell more than 2.5 million copies.

April 2017 saw her pick Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

Set in Ohio in the 1990s around the picture-perfect Richardson family, Witherspoon enjoyed this story so much that she made it into an eight-part Hulu series and took on the starring role.