If you haven’t guessed by now, Reese Witherspoon is the Hollywood authority on good books. Not only is she the star of the upcoming film adaption of A WRINKLE IN TIME and the HBO miniseries BIG LITTLE LIES, but she’ll also be producing adaptations of LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE and TRULY MADLY GUILTY. When she’s not producing, acting, designing clothes, and winning in every facet of life, Reese is devouring books and recommending great reads for her RW Book Club. We’ve been able to keep up with her book recs on Instagram and can confirm these books are worth reading. Here are some of our favorite Reese-approved books.
The Alice Network
Reese’s July RW Book Club Pick, THE ALICE NETWORK, is an enthralling blend of historical fiction, engaging drama, and mystery. It’s the story of two women—a female spy recruited to the real-life Alice Network in France during World War I and an unconventional American socialite searching for her cousin in 1947—who are united in this fast-paced, breathtaking tale of courage and redemption.
The Alice Network
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Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Reese is crazy about Eleanor Oliphant, and so are we. Though she struggles with appropriate social skills, we love this out-of-the-ordinary heroine’s deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit. When the antisocial Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office, everything changes. Together they save Sammy, an elderly man who falls on the sidewalk, and the three become the type of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
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Are You Sleeping
Reese called Kathleen Barber’s inventive and twisty psychological thriller the perfect weekend read. And now she’s officially adapting it as a movie starring Octavia Spencer! This Serial-esque novel is about an investigative journalist’s breakout podcast that reopens a murder case—and threatens to expose the secrets of the victim’s daughter and her carefully constructed new life.
Are You Sleeping
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Do Not Become Alarmed
This RW selection and summer hit is hailed for its heart-racing suspense and beautiful imagery. To the delight of their husbands and children, Liv and Nora are taking their families on a holiday cruise. While the adults relax, the four children—ages six to eleven—enjoy the nonstop buffet and their newfound independence. But on an excursion ashore in Central America, a series of minor misfortunes and miscalculations erodes the safety they had experienced aboard the ship, when one minute the children are there, and the next they’re gone.
Do Not Become Alarmed
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Truly Madly Guilty
Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One small dog. It’s just a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong? In TRULY MADLY GUILTY, Liane Moriarty takes on the foundations of our lives: marriage, sex, parenthood, and friendship. She shows how guilt can expose the fault lines in the most seemingly strong relationships, how what we don’t say can be more powerful than what we do, and how sometimes it is the moments that appear most innocent that do the greatest harm. After earning a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Madeline Mackenzie on Big Little Lies, it’s clear Reese cannot get enough of Moriarty’s brilliant eye for seemingly perfect families.
Truly Madly Guilty
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All Is Not Forgotten
This dark, psychological thriller is another RW pick that’s being adapted for the big screen. In a small, affluent Connecticut town, Jenny Kramer attends a party during which she becomes the victim of an attack. She’s given a controversial drug to medically erase her memory of the violent assault. While she heals physically, she faces her raging emotional memory as her father seeks justice for her attacker and her mother copes with the reality of the attack. Wendy Walker’s shocking twists had Reese “guessing until the very end.”
Read the full review of ALL IS NOT FORGOTTEN.
All Is Not Forgotten
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Little Fires Everywhere
Reese made Celeste Ng’s LITTLE FIRES EVEYWHERE her September RW Book Club pick, saying, “Celeste Ng writes with stunning accuracy about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. And a fire that destroys it all.” Book clubs everywhere are raving about this novel!
Little Fires Everywhere
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The Rules of Magic
Last October, Reese Witherspoon made THE RULES OF MAGIC—Alice Hoffman’s prequel to PRACTICAL MAGIC—her RW Book Club pick for the month, which makes perfect sense because it has everything your book club could ever want: magic and family secrets. This novel tells the story of the two beautiful Owens sisters who will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in PRACTICAL MAGIC, a beloved read of all Alice Hoffman enthusiasts.
The Rules of Magic
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Commonwealth
When Reese made Ann Patchett’s THIS IS THE STORY OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE her November RW Book Club pick, it reminded us of another Patchett favorite. Spanning five decades, COMMONWEALTH explores how a chance encounter one Sunday afternoon reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, COMMONWEALTH is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories.
Commonwealth
Read with a Lime Spritzer
Citrus seems appropriate for a Southern California setting. At times funny and heart-wrenching, Patchett’s COMMONWEALTH covers a multigenerational saga that begins with a forbidden kiss. From there a road diverges for two families in very different ways. While Bert Cousins arrives at the fateful christening party with a bottle of gin, might we suggest a lime spritzer?
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The Lying Game
With IN A DARK, DARK WOOD; THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10; and now THE LYING GAME making appearances all over Reese’s Instagram, we think it’s safe to assume she’s a big fan of Ruth Ware. Ware’s latest thriller is an atmospheric, twisty novel about four friends whose past lies—and games—come back to haunt them. It will keep you on your toes until the last page.
The Lying Game
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