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Oprah Says She Was Afraid To Turn The Page When Reading This Novel, And Reacts To Hillary Clinton’s Nomination

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 07:38 PST, Aug 7, 2016

Oprah offers a brand new list of book selections for Oprah’s Book Club, according to the Huffington Post. The 62-year-old talk show host offered her latest pick for the Book Club, which means readers around the world now have a new task to complete.

Fans of Oprah’s Book Club will now have to devote their free time to reading The Underground Railroad written by Colson Whitehead. The novel, based on true events, is centered on a female slave who struggles to escape captivity through a literal railway system.

Oprah admitted that she had her heart in her throat reading the novel late at night. In fact, she also added that it felt so brutally real that she was even afraid to turn the next page and read what was coming next.

Whitehead is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, who had published five fiction novels before The Underground Railroad, as well as two non-fiction books. Whitehead, who had never written about race and slavery before The Underground Railroad, admitted in his chat with Oprah that it took him 16 years to write that book because he aspired to “get it right.”

Oprah also described her experience reading the book, saying that it triggered not only deep inner turmoil but also a long multifaceted conversation with lots of questions.

“You are definitely going to want to talk about this with somebody once you read that last, heart-stopping page.”

Last month, Oprah supported Hillary Clinton’s nomination by saying the “glass ceiling cracked wide open.” The talk show host was referencing Clinton’s record-breaking presidential nomination of the Democratic party, as the former first lady became the first ever female presidential nominee of a U.S. political party.

Oprah wasn’t the only high-profile celebrity who reacted to the historic moment of the United States. Ellen DeGeneres took to Twitter to quote Clinton’s acceptance speech, saying that when there are no ceilings, “the sky is the limit.”

In other news, Oprah has finally signed on to star in and produce The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks, her own passion project, according to the Daily Mail. The talk show host took to Instagram to introduce her co-star Kee Simone.

Simone will star as a younger version of Oprah’s character, as revealed by Oprah herself in the caption to the photo taken after the two finished their first table read. The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks is an upcoming HBO biopic, which is based on Rebecca Skloot’s bestseller of the same name.

The HBO biopic is based on true events and tells the story of an African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks who makes several medical breakthroughs after her cervical cancer cells are used to create the immortal human cell line in the mid last century.

Henrietta Lacks is played by Renée Elise Goldsberry, while Oprah stars as the grown version of her daughter Deborah, and Simone plays a younger version of Oprah’s character. Oprah is also set to executive produce alongside Peter Macdissi (Banshee), Alan Ball (American Beauty, True Blood), Carla Gardini (Zack and Miri Make a Porno), and Lydia Dean Pilcher (The Talented Mr. Ripley).

In 2010, Oprah’s Harpo Films obtained the book rights and the project has been in the works for six years. According to reports, the media mogul is also set to play Mrs. Which in A Wrinkle In Time, a Disney adaptation directed by Ava DuVernay.

DuVernay and Oprah have previously worked together on Selma, which was nominated for the best picture at the Oscars 2014. Oprah starred in and produced the film.

[Photo by Dennis Van Tine/STAR MAX/IPx/AP Images]

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