Oprah Winfrey names Maria Semple’s ‘Go Gentle’ as latest book club pick

NEW YORK (AP):

Maria Semple’s Go Gentle, a comic novel about a Stoic philosopher and single mother in Manhattan who finds herself caught up in events that challenge her capacity for acceptance, is Oprah Winfrey’s new book club pick.

“For all those who crave a good page turner, this is one wild ride of a story that carries equal parts wit and wisdom,” Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday. “I learned so much about Stoicism – I laughed out loud for real. And underneath the humour there was always something tender … a quiet truth about relationships, identity, and what it means to find peace with yourself.”

Semple, whose new book was published this week, is best known for such bestsellers as Today Will Be Different and Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Her interview with Winfrey was taped for the Oprah Book Club Podcast, which can be seen through Winfrey’s YouTube channel.

“To authors, ‘to get the call’ means one thing: Oprah has phoned out of the blue and made you a book club pick,” Semple said in a statement. “Truth is, I should have been prepared, considering the countless hours I’d spent in fantasyland imagining it happening to me … before scolding myself that it was an honour bestowed on other, more serious writers. When, while tidying the kitchen, I heard her voice for the first time, I hit the ceiling in bewildered, grateful, joy. I’m still there.”