The paperback has a list price of $20, although it’s currently $13.51 on Amazon. Penguin is selling the ebook version for $7.99, but since these are public domain titles, you can get them for free in the Kindle Store (A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations) or for .99 in the NOOK store. eBook versions of both are also available for free from Project Gutenberg.

So is this the best of Oprah’s picks or the worst? Will you be reading along with Oprah?

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Jonathan Franzen will also appear on the December 6 show to discuss Freedom. Apparently Franzen and Oprah have made up after the dustup that resulted in him being disinvited from her show back in 2001.

So now the big question—what book has Oprah chosen? The only clues we have so far are that Penguin publishes it and it’s a trade paperback (ISBN: 9780142196588). Amazon currently has the paperback priced at $13.60 and the Kindle version at $7.99. There were three books on her Favorite Things list, but none of those books seem to fit the clues. Anybody have a guess?

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Decoded by Jay-Z

From Oprah.com:
Oprah says Jay-Z’s book Decoded has given her a whole new perspective and context—and many aha! moments—about the culture of this music. Much more than a memoir, Decoded is a personal homage to hip-hop that includes a collection of lyrics and their meanings, as well as moving essays about topics ranging from Hurricane Katrina to the decline of the music industry. “If you know anybody who loves hip-hip, they are going to love this book,” Oprah says.

A Course in Weight Loss by Marianne Williamson

From Oprah.com:
What’s the connection between weight loss and spirituality? New York Times best-selling author Marianne Williamson answers that question in A Course in Weight Loss, featuring 21 spiritual lessons for surrendering your weight forever. The lessons in this book will help you shift your relationship with your body and focus not on how quickly you lose weight but on how holistically you lose weight. “We all know that it’s a spiritual issue to help you get your mind, body and spirit aligned,” Oprah says. Get ready to begin a new relationship with food…and with yourself.

UPDATE 11/22: Oprah did another favorite things show today, and another book made the list.

The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo

From Oprah.com:
The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo is a year’s supply of inspirational stories and beautifully written essays that the reader can reflect on in daily doses. “Mark Nepo is a poet,” Oprah says. “He’s an author and a philosopher and has been through two different cancers. So when he writes, he writes purely from the heart.”

Oprah was given The Book of Awakening as a birthday gift and says she does one lesson from the book every morning. “If we all do it together, we can begin to open our hearts, change the world and begin to have the life you want by being present to the life you have now,” Oprah says.

You can see Oprah’s entire list of Favorite Things on her website.

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JK Rowling was on Oprah today, and the very private author chatted about life after Harry Potter. One of the most surprising things she said was that she’s open to the idea of writing more Harry Potter books. Rowling said the characters “are all in my head still…I could definitely write an eight, ninth tenth…I’m not going to say I won’t. I don’t think I will. I loved writing those books…I feel I am done, but you never know.”

Rowling says she plans to write more and start a new phase in her writing career, but she doesn’t feel the need to top the phenomenon that was Harry Potter.

Rowling also addressed her critics and those that would ban the Harry Potter books because they contain magic (I wonder if Oprah aired this interview during Banned Books Week on purpose?). She says that idea that children’s books shouldn’t be about witches or wizards is “nonsensical.” She paraphrased a quotation she loves “‘In magic, man has to rely on himself’” and explained “so in religion, of course, you’re looking for outside support… but that’s the perennial appeal of magic—the idea that we ourselves have power and we can shape our world.”

She also said that there would be no Harry Potter if her mother hadn’t tragically died of multiple sclerosis. “Her death is on virtually every other page of the Harry Potter books…at least half of Harry’s journey is a journey to deal with death in its many forms, what it does to the living, what it means to die, what survives death. It’s there in every single volume.”

The most random revelation in the interview was that Michael Jackson wanted to make a Harry Potter musical, but Rowling said no. Ha! I think that’s hilarious.

So did you watch Oprah’s interview with JK Rowling? I thought it was fascinating and that Rowling revealed a lot of personal details. What did you think was the most interesting part of the interview?

P.S. If you missed it, check out the coverage on Oprah’s website.

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Fire up your DVRs, Harry Potter fans! J.K. Rowling will make her first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show this Friday, October 1st. Oprah says that the interview, which was already taped in Scotland, is one of the most interesting she’s ever done.

In this rare interview, Rowling speaks candidly with Oprah about her life and career as well as her journey to becoming one of the most recognizable writers of children’s literature today. Rowling also shares her thoughts on the possibility of ever writing another Harry Potter book in the future.

While talking with Oprah about the sudden success of the Harry Potter books, Rowling reveals the moment when she knew that her life had changed forever. It was while in the United States on her second book tour:

There was this enormous Barnes & Noble, and I thought, oh my God. And the queue snaked up the street, up the Barnes & Noble, up through four floors and they took me in the back entrance. They opened the door and they screamed. They screamed….That’s a real stand-out moment for me. I knew it was getting big in that there was press attention and so on, but at that point, that for me…was when it felt ‘Beatle-esque.’

Rowling also reveals to Oprah that coping with the pressures of sudden stardom was not easy: “You ask about the pressure. At that point, I kept saying to people, yeah I’m coping…but the truth was there were times when I was barely hanging on by a thread.”

Go here to find out when The Oprah Winfrey Show airs in your area.

(Read Scholastic’s full press release)

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It looks like Oprah and Jonathan Franzen have kissed and made up. Oprah announced on her show today that she’s selected his new book, Freedom, for her book club. She picked another of his books for the club in 2001, The Corrections, but, after Franzen made comments dissing Oprah and her viewers, he was uninvited from the show. Now, 9 years later, it seems like they’ve patched things up.

Freedom is about the trials and tribulations of a suburban Minnesota family. Franzen makes observations about the American middle class, the political divide in this country, and “the way we live now.”

The funny thing about Oprah picking Freedom is that it’s both surprising and predictable at the same time. Surprising because of their previous feud, but not surprising because Freedom is the current critics darling. Rave reviews in the New York Times, featured on the cover of Time magazine, given to President Obama while he was on vacation—Freedom has not suffered from a lack of publicity. So much so, in fact, that several prominent authors have cried foul. Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult have both taken exception to what they see as a double standard—when a man writes about family, it’s perceived as important; when a woman writes about family, it’s dismissed as chick-lit. Weiner does have a good sense of humor about it, though. She recently tweeted, “Daydream du jour: how awesome would it be if Franzen sat on Oprah’s couch and said he owes it all to THE SECRET?”

So what do you think about Oprah picking Freedom? Do you plan to participate in the book club?

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So tomorrow’s the big day! Oprah will announce her next book club pick live on tomorrow’s show. In anticipation, I thought I’d look at the leading contenders and rank them by the likelihood Oprah will pick them.

Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela

Why Oprah Will Pick It: Mandela and Oprah are close friends and the foreword is written by Friend of Oprah, President Obama. It’s too good for her to pass up.

Likelihood Oprah Picks It: Picking this book sets up dream interview with Mandela for Oprah’s last season, three Gayle Kings.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Why Oprah Will Pick It: Freedom has been the hot book among the literati this summer and may or may not have been read by the President during one of his summer vacations. Plus, no one disses Oprah twice…and lives.

Likelihood Oprah Picks It: Bad mouthing the Queen of daytime has its consequences, only two Gayle Kings.

Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shange & Ifa Bayeza

Why Oprah Will Pick It: It is a powerful book about one African American family’s history through seven generations, from emancipation to modern day. It speaks directly to Oprah’s focus in recent seasons on Africa and helping people there.

Likelihood Oprah Picks It: It’s a wonderful book, but has absolutely no connections to President Obama, only one Gayle King.

Oprah: A Biography by Kitty Kelley

Why Oprah Will Pick It: Seriously there’s no way she’s going to pick this book, but, man, it would be great if she did. Or at least challenged Kelley to a caged deathmatch.

Likelihood Oprah Picks It: Not a chance in hell, one sad James Frey.

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One week from today, on Friday, September 17th, Oprah will announce her next Book Club selection live on her show. Next week marks the beginning of the final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Oprah’s announcement will come 14 years to the day since she announced her first book club selection, Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean, on September 17, 1996. It has been almost a year since she announced her last choice, Uwem Akpan’s short story collection Say You’re One Of Them.

Of course, everyone is speculating about which book she will choose. The rumor is that it’s a Macmillan title, so that points to Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. That seems highly unlikely to me since Franzen thinks he’s too cool for Oprah and her viewers. Other possibilities include Nelson Mandela’s Conversations with Myself or Some Sing, Some Cry by Ntozake Shange & Ifa Bayeza.

What book do you think Oprah will pick? Do you think she’ll go with a classic or a new book?

(Source: Yahoo! News)

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Stephenie Meyer updated her website over the weekend to announce that she will be on Oprah this Friday, November 13, 2009. She says:

You know I’ve been doing the hermit thing this last year, in so far as media is concerned, and I’m not changing that now, but I am making an exception. I’m doing this for a good reason: I am so pleased and amazed and thrilled with what Chris Weitz has done with New Moon that I want to talk about it, and to show my support for him. And since I’m only doing one interview, better make it big. Really big. So….I will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday, November 13th. Check the local listings on Oprah’s website to find out what time it will be on where you live.
Of course, most of the questions for Oprah will be designed for a broader audience than just die-hard Twilight fans, and I imagine people who read this site and other fansites will already know most of the answers. To rectify this, I’m going to answer your more specific questions on-line. The official Twilight Saga website (www.TheTwilightSaga.com) will be taking any New Moon movie-related questions you might have for me, and then I’ll answer those most frequently asked. I’ll post the answers on the Twilight Saga website and also here on my own site. Questions can be submitted to TheTwilightSaga.com from noon (Eastern Standard Time) on Monday, November 9th through noon Tuesday, November 10th. The answers will be posted Monday, November 16th—or New Moon Premiere Day, as it is known around my house.