NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Oprah Winfrey welcomed her latest book club author, Tayari Jones, in a personal way.<\/p>\n
For decades, Winfrey has broken the news to her chosen authors by cold-calling them or popping up on video during Zoom meetings. For Jones and her novel \u201cKin,\u201d she decided to communicate more directly, showing up at the Penguin Random House offices in midtown Manhattan while Jones was speaking with her publisher.<\/p>\n
The two know each other well: Winfrey previously selected Jones’ acclaimed 2018 novel, \u201cAn American Marriage,\u201d for her club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m a two-fer!\u201d exclaimed Jones, who traded high-fives with Winfrey.<\/p>\n
\u201cKin,\u201d published Tuesday, is Jones’ fifth novel. With a narrative starting in the 1950s, it follows the lives of motherless girls from Honeysuckle, Louisiana, and how their stories diverge. In an announcement that included a video link to her visit, Winfrey likened \u201cKin\u201d to \u201ca trip back home, like a visit with my own \u2018kin\u2019 I hadn\u2019t seen in a long while.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is masterful and reminds us of the true bonds we share with family, whether biological or chosen,\u201d Winfrey said.<\/p>\n
Her interview with Jones can be seen on the Oprah YouTube channel and other podcast outlets.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be selected for Oprah\u2019s Book Club is a writer\u2019s dream, and to be chosen twice is a stunning gift,\u201d Jones, who has called the \u201cAn American Marriage\u201d endorsement a turning point in her career, said in a statement. \u201cOprah knows that our stories will heal us. For decades she has elevated the voices of the world \u2014 book by book. Like the old folks say, I\u2019m honored to be one in that number.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s announcement does not mention Winfrey’s partnership with Starbucks, its stores the setting for interviews since \u201cOprah\u2019s Book Club: Presented by Starbucks\u201d was launched in 2024. Spokespeople for Starbucks and Winfrey confirmed the partnership ended late in 2025, but declined comment on why. Winfrey previously had a multiyear deal with Apple TV+.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Oprah Winfrey welcomed her latest book club author, Tayari Jones, in a personal way.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-144699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-manhattan","9":"tag-manhattan-headlines","10":"tag-manhattan-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}