Thank you for sharing this passion with me for the last 25 years-and for many more to come. Without you, there is no Oprah’s Book Club. So it’s you, dear readers, who have jazzed me up and kept me inspired. And when I read a sentence I’m over the moon about, or when something happens to a character I’ve come to care about, I’m always thrilled to see there are others out there who are experiencing the same. They’ll shed light on plot points or passages I’m having trouble decoding.

I love listening to and learning from their insights as we read a book together. When she suggested that we formally bring that kind of conversation to our show, I said, “Great idea!” I was thrilled to meet the writers whose books I was savoring, to find out more about their influences and creative processes, and to play a role in supporting them by exposing their work to a larger audience.īut what has been most meaningful to me all this time is the opportunity Oprah’s Book Club affords me to connect with fellow bibliophiles all over the world. I was inspired to start Oprah’s Book Club 25 years ago after a producer at The Oprah Winfrey Show-Alice McGee-and I began exchanging favorite books and discussing what we thought of them. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to all the brilliant minds over the decades who have led me to conclude: There is no best life without books. And then there are the writers who opened my eyes to new cultures or new ideas, like Eckhart Tolle, Isabel Wilkerson, and John Steinbeck. I can’t count the number of aha moments I’ve had while reading: Through authors who became my touchstones- Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, to start-I realized over and over again that I’m not alone, that others have gone through similar things to what I had. They’ve helped me see and understand the world and myself. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row - Anthony Ray Hinton. THE SUN DOES SHINE HOW I FOUND LIFE AND FREEDOM ON DEATH ROW by Anthony Ray Hinton & Lara Love Hardin RELEASE DATE: MaAn urgent, emotional memoir from one of the longest-serving condemned death row inmates to be found innocent in America.

From the time I was a little girl, books have guided me. You’ve heard me say many times that authors are my rock stars. This story is a member-exclusive for Oprah Daily Insiders.

The sun does shine author