Does Reese Witherspoon Really Read All Of Her Reese's Book Club Picks?

Since launching in 2017, Reese's Book Club has been a career-maker for dozens of writers, taking them from virtual obscurity to ultra-fame. Like Oprah's Book Club, which started in 1996, Reese Witherspoon wanted to share her love of the written word and get more people reading. Which is important, because according to a 2022 survey by the Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), only 48.5% of U.S. adults had read at least one book in the past year, a percentage that has continued to decrease over the last 10 years.

But while reading is, without a doubt, something more of us should be doing (your phone needs a break anyway), it begs the question: does Reese Witherspoon actually read all of her Reese's Book Club picks? After all, her plate is constantly full with projects, as both an actress and a producer, so it's hard to imagine Witherspoon has enough down time to curl up with not just one book, but several books over the course of the month. However, it turns out that, yes, every book that comes out of Reese's Book Club has been read by Witherspoon herself. With some help from her team, of course.

If Reese Witherspoon is the busy bee that she appears to be, exactly who's choosing these books? Apparently, it's Witherspoon. "We have a full-time bookworm, someone who's reading all the time for film and TV and book club," Hello Sunshine CEO, Sarah Harden, told Vox. "I read a ton of books as well, [but] Reese really picks the books."

According to Harden, any of the staff members at Hello Sunshine are more than welcome to recommend a book, but there's one caveat when it comes to books that will be suggested to Witherspoon: it must be centered on a woman and her story. As Harden explains, the book club isn't against books by men, but there must be a woman with agency at the center of the story, and not just a sidekick. That narrative must be driven by a woman. Hello Sunshine is also always on the lookout for books by women of color, as well as yet-to-be-discovered authors, giving new and upcoming writers a chance; it's huge for any writer to make Reese's Book Club list.

So when shopping for your next best beach read that made Reese's Book Club, take solace in knowing that, yes, Reese read it. And she loved it so much that she put it on her list so you could have the opportunity to love it too.