Oprah Gives Harper the Nod

by Charlotte Abbott, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 1/22/2007

It's been a full year since Oprah's smackdown with errant book club author James Frey, and the announcement of Elie Wiesel's Night as the club's last selection. But on Friday, January 26, the TV host will lift what has felt like a punishing moratorium for the industry with the announcement of a new book club selection. And guess what? It's not from Random House.

The $14.95 paperback is coming from HarperPerennial, according to numerous booksellers, who report that it was sold as a nonfiction title, and is also available in hardcover, audio and large print.

Though Harper is not the most trusted source of drop-in titles sold blind to stores, after O.J. Simpson's aborted memoir If I Did It and Chistopher Anderson's The Day Diana Died, most booksellers ordered the book in significant quantities. "In a post-Franzen Oprah book club, she's still doing pretty well," said Powell's Gerry Donaghy, "as long as she isn't trying to convince folks to read Faulkner."