Oprah's First Ever Book Club Pick Is A Timeless Drama Thriller

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Since Oprah Winfrey launched her book club in September 1996, she's listed over 100 of her favorite reads, and her first pick, "The Deep End of the Ocean" by Jacquelyn Mitchard, remains one of the best thriller and mystery picks from Oprah's Book Club to this day. As described on Mitchard's website, the story follows Beth Cappadora, whose life changes after losing her three-year-old son Ben in a crowd. The tragic moment causes rifts within the family, who are all dealing with the loss of their loved one. Years later, Ben appears out of nowhere, and it's revealed that he had been kidnapped by Beth's former schoolmate. "My first novel, 'The Deep End of the Ocean,' was also the first pick for the Oprah Winfrey Book Club, and so catapulted me into a spotlight as a writer," explains Mitchard on her website. "That was an extraordinarily heady experience, but it set my compass for the kinds of books I would choose to write in the future."

Bookworms everywhere know that when Oprah endorses a book, it will instantly trend. The Los Angeles Times reported that Mitchard's book originally only had 100,000 copies of "The Deep End of the Ocean," but after Winfrey chose it as the inaugural novel of her book club, the number jumped up to over 600,000. The book became such a hit that it was made into a film in 1999 featuring A-list actors, and 11 years later, Mitchard released the sequel to "The Deep End of the Ocean" that captivated her fans just as much.

Even before Oprah chose "The Deep End of the Ocean" for the Oprah Winfrey Book Club, it caught the eye of Michelle Pfeiffer. The "One Fine Day" actor's film studio, Via Rosa and Mandalay Entertainment, purchased the rights to the book for $1 million in 1995, per Bomb Report. The 1999 movie featured Pfeiffer as Beth Cappadora, Treat Williams as her husband Pat Cappadora, and Whoopi Goldberg as Detective Candy Bliss.

In 2010, Jacquelyn Mitchard released the sequel to "The Deep End of the Ocean," titled "No Time to Wave Goodbye." This time, the popular thriller book centers around a grown-up Ben, who is now married with a baby. The author revealed on her website that she was initially hesitant about continuing the Cappadora family's story." I loved my story. But I was wary ... And I didn't know if I could actually write about the Cappadoras, thirteen years after I created them," she admitted. Fans of the first book also loved the sequel, and one wrote on Amazon, "I could not put this book down. I am the mother of 3 kids under 6, so I do not have a lot of time to read but still read this in less than 24 hours. That is how captivating it was."