Oprah and Me

Oprah Winfrey and I don’t usually agree when it comes to book recommendations. I tried; I really did, to read at least a dozen or more of the 70 books Oprah recommend­ed during the 15 years her Book Club segments aired on The Oprah Winfrey Show, but I just couldn’t force my­self to finish them.

You see, I read for plea­sure, entertainment and es­cape. Based on her book picks, I can only conclude that Oprah reads to be chal­lenged both intellectually and emotionally. I find the subject matter and story lines of Oprah books to be too depressing, dark and “deep” for my taste and limited in­tellectual capacity. And since I believe life is too short to waste time reading books I don’t love, I haven’t paid much attention to Oprah’s Book Club for several years.

That changed in June 2012 when Oprah launched her Book Club 2.0 with Wild by Cheryl Strayed. The Club 2.0 is strictly internet-based, incorporating various social media platforms and e-read­ers into the mix. After read­ing an interview with Strayed in Oprah magazine, I decided to give Oprah another shot at rocking my reading world. I’m glad I did.

“Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail”, by Cheryl Strayed

After losing her beloved mother to cancer, Strayed’s life be­comes a grief- fu­eled free fall into infidelity, divorce, drug addition and despair. She doesn’t know what to do or where to turn to escape the mire of her life until one day she picks up a book about the Pacific Crest Trail while waiting in line at an outdoor store.

The idea of hiking the 2,650 mile scenic trail that runs from the Mexican bor­der to Canada through Cali­fornia, Oregon and Wash­ington begins to take root almost immediately. In less than a year, she sets off from Mojave, California bound for Bridge of the Gods, Or­egon (on the Columbia River Gorge) quite unprepared for the mental and physical rig­ors she will encounter on the 1,100 mile portion of trail.

I typically don’t enjoy memoirs because they can easily degenerate into a bor­ing “then I did this, and then I did that” drone. But I found myself completely caught up in Strayed’s journey. I cringed when she describes her blistered and bleeding feet and I cried when she recounts her crushing loneli­ness night after night on the trail. Her resourcefulness and grit inspired me.

“The Twelve Tribes of Hattie”, by Ayana Mathis

Buoyed by my posi­tive experi­e nce with Wild, I decided to check out Oprah’s second pick, Ayana Mathis’ debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie. The book follows the life of Hat­tie Shepherd and her children beginning in 1923 when 15 year old Hattie leaves Geor­gia to settle in Philadelphia during the Great Migration.

Hattie’s life is one of dev­astating pain and disappoint­ment. Each chapter is a dis­tinct narrative thread focused on one of Hattie’s eleven children and one grandchild. The book spans nearly sixty years.

Mathis doesn’t sugar- coat anything and that made reading this novel difficult at times. I had to put it down for several weeks while I decided whether to finish it or not. (Remember, I like to read for entertainment and pleasure, not reality.) Ulti­mately, I decided that I cared about Hattie and wanted see the novel through to the end­ing which Oprah declares to be “the most perfect ever.” I’m not sure what I think about the ending, but I’ll be thinking about Hattie and her children for quite a while.