Here’s a complete list of all the books in Oprah’s Book Club books for 2022 in chronological order, with oldest picks at the top, and quick title links so you can easily read reviews or buy them on Amazon.
Oprah’s Book Club has become one of the most popular recommended reading book lists today. It originally began as a segment on the Oprah Winfrey TV show in 1996 where Oprah would choose a book or novel for book club members to discuss.
- Oprah’s book list started in 1996 on the Oprah Winfrey Show
- The first book chosen was “The Deep End of the Ocean“
- Popularity faded in 2012 but Oprah’s book club is back again
- Apple revived the Oprah Book Club on Apple TV in 2019
Oprah’s Book Club List 2022 (Amazon Links)
- The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard
- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
- The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton
- She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
- Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
- The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds
- The Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
- Songs in Ordinary Time by Mary McGarry Morris
- A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
- Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
- A Virtuous Woman by Kaye Gibbons
- The Meanest Thing to Say by Bill Cosby
- The Treasure Hunt by Bill Cosby
- The Best Way to Play by Bill Cosby
- Paradise by Toni Morrison
- Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman
- Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen
- Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat
- Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
- What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage
- Midwives by Chris Bohjalian
- Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
- Jewel by Bret Lott
- The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
- The Pilot’s Wife by Anita Shreve
- White Oleander by Janet Fitch
- Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes
- Tara Road by Maeve Binchy
- River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke
- Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
- A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton
- Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
- Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
- Back Roads by Tawni O’Dell
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
- Open House by Elizabeth Berg
- Drowning Ruth by Christina Schwarz
- House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
- Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
- Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
- Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir
- Cane River by Lalita Tademy
- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
- A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
- Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
- Sula by Toni Morrison
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
- Light in August by William Faulkner
- A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy
- Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
- A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
- The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
- Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan
- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
- Wild by Cheryl Strayed
- The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
- The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
- Ruby by Cynthia Bond
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton
- Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
- Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
- Deacon King Kong by James McBride
- Caste (Origins of our Discontents) by Isabel Wilkerson
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
- The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
- The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Oprah’s Book List FYI
Many of the books chosen for Oprah’s book list have become massive best sellers and launched the careers of some unknown authors. However, there has been some controversy surrounding a few of the books on the list.
Oprah’s book list has been criticized by some in the book industry such as Scott Stossel from The Atlantic who suggested that the nature of the book club was more about self-improvement therapy rather than discussion around serious literature. He said, “Literature should disturb the mind and derange the senses… not meant to be easy… soothing that Oprah would make it.”