Oprah Winfrey says her milestone 100th book pick 'opened her' up

Since 1996, Oprah's Book Club has been the literary equivalent of a golden ticket.

With the book club coming up on three decades, Oprah Winfrey has reached a milestone this month: She selected her 100th book, "Hello Beautiful" by Ann Napolitano.

One of TODAY's most anticipated books of 2023, the novel hit the shelves on March 14. "Hello Beautiful" takes place over the course of multiple decades, following William Walter's life and the family of four sisters he marries into. You can read a preview here.

Speaking to TODAY.com, Napolitano described her newest release as a modern-day homage to “Little Women.”

“When the four Padavano sisters stepped into the story — each of them strong-willed and loving but so different from one another — I realized they were the heartbeat that would shape the rest of the novel. They became my homage to the fictional sisters I loved so much growing up: the four March girls in Louisa May Alcott’s 'Little Women,'” Napolitano told TODAY.

Winfrey also noted the similarities to the literary classic in an interview with the New York Times.

“Not since Jo and Meg and Amy and Beth have we seen sisters like this, with this kind of connection, and written so vividly that you feel like you’re in that home,” Winfrey said. “You’re experiencing life with them. I am telling you, the ending? I mourned. What an extraordinary writer Ann is."

The media mogul said she poured through "Hello Beautiful" on a rainy day in front of her fireplace with her dog and a blanket.

"I was like 30 pages in and said, 'OK, this is the book,'" Winfrey said. "You cannot read it without being opened. It just opens you in ways you didn’t know were closed.”

Winfrey created the book club in 1996, after frequent conversations with her producer, Alice McGee, about novels they liked. Her first selection, “The Deep End of the Ocean” by Jacquelyn Mitchard rode the wave of success selling more than 2 million copies, per the Associated Press.

The author's last novel, "Dear Edward," was chosen as a Read with Jenna pick in 2020 and has even been adapted into a 10-episode Apple TV+ series.

Jenna Bush Hager told TODAY she chose the bestseller because "it is a book about love and loss and finding your way after the unthinkable."

This article was originally published on TODAY.com