The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb is Chosen as 115 Oprah’s Book Club Pick

On CBS Morning, Oprah appeared alongside author Wally Lamb to announce her latest pick for Oprah’s Book Club, The River Is Waiting.

This is the 115^th book selected for Oprah’s Book Club. Lamb has written bestsellers such as She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True.

“I know many of you might remember that Wally and I go way back because I picked his very first book in 1997 for my Book Club, and then I chose his second book the next year,” Oprah says. “And now, with The River Is Waiting, we’ve selected three novels by the same author, and that should tell you all you need to know about what I think of this truly masterful and beloved writer.”

As Oprah points out, she is a big fan of Lamb and this is her third book chosen by Lamb for her book club. Oprah and Lamb go back years and have connected because of Lamb’s books over the decades. 

“I was as shocked as ever last month when I answered the phone and heard Ms. Winfrey’s voice again, 27 years after the last time we had talked,” Lamb said.

She told me she had finished my just-published first novel, She’s Come Undone, and that when she reads a book she likes, she tries to track down the writer to say thanks. 

Of those four phone conversations with Oprah, I think my favorite may be the first one, before there was an Oprah’s Book Club, when I received a validating gift from an avid reader who just wanted to thank me for having written my book.”

Lamb is only the fourth author to be selected three times for the book club. With this pick, she joins Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, and William Faulkner. Morrison, Robinson, and Faulkner have all won Pulitzer Prizes, something Lamb has yet to achieve.

. “I’m not sure why I’ve been on the receiving end of such grace and good fortune, but I try to live each day expressing my gratitude in the way I treat others,” Lamb says about being chosen for the award. 

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