Reese Witherspoon

The star has deposed Oprah Winfrey as queen of the online literary discussion groups – and plenty more A-listers are getting in on the act.

One way the Obamas eased their transition from the political sphere to the cultural one was by sharing lists of their books of the year. [expressed misgivings](https://slate.com/transcripts/czR3bHBXVmVWQ1RRNDFIaFJUZmsrTVV2bUJsemgxMElFVTI5STZTU200RT0=) about Oprah’s Book Club selection of The Corrections. Compared with many of the trials of fame, talking about books you love is “probably quite nice”, suggests Carvalho. “You can see with the rise of #BookTok how hungry the reading public is for sincere recommendations from people they trust,” she says. For celebrities, books are a way of being visible on social media and engaging with their followers without drawing any attention to their A-lister privilege. That online engagement and desire for community has now become central to the reading experience, says Carvalho, whether through real-world book clubs that meet on Zoom, or the explosion of discussion on TikTok. I seem to be the only one drinking wine, but it is still early on the other side of the Atlantic. As members filter in from as far away as Canada and Pakistan, we are reminded of the house rules: listen “actively and attentively”; critique ideas, not people; and hang in through any wifi issues. Even when I went to bookstores, I didn’t know what I was looking for.” Witherspoon’s curation of female narratives and authors “was access to literature for me”, says Theumer – as well as to a reading community. Theumer started reading along with the actor in 2014, when she was a teenager in rural Germany and Witherspoon was just posting recommendations on her Instagram. “Crossover with film and media always has a positive impact,” she says, “and her conversations on social media raise that profile further. My latest group is no different, except for the possibility – at least as I understand it – of being publicly shamed by