Oprah Winfrey reveals new book club pick in September '24

We are very excited this morning as Oprah's here to reveal her newest book club selection only on CBS Morning Senior. We love when that happens. I'm going to say it again, only on CBS this morning. Oprah, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Has the crew been looking at you? I don't, where's that coming from, Gail? Because you're Oprah, that's why. What does that mean? I don't know what that means. You've got jokes this morning. What does that mean? Don't look me in the eye. I don't understand. Do you know who Oprah is? It's a joke. Okay, what did you choose? Okay, it's called Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Stroud. Tell me everything. Tell me everything. I love that phrase. I love the title. Tell me everything brings together your beloved characters from previous novels. I know Oprah's loved you for a long time, including the Pulitzer Prize winning book Olive Kittredge, which I actually think Oprah is Olive, but that's a whole other story. The sequel to that book, Olive Again, was selected as Oprah's book club pick back in 2019. So Tell Me Everything follows a friendship between 90-year-old Olive, acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, and town lawyer Bob Burgess. Elizabeth, welcome, welcome. Thank you. And congratulations. It's just wonderful to be here. Thank you so much. It's one of my favorite things when authors are called. Where were you when Oprah called you, you think? Oh, I was in Italy. I was in Turin, Italy, and I got a call and she said she was Oprah. And I thought, okay. I got very flummoxed. I was very excited, but then I got flummoxed. I actually thought somebody might be pulling my leg. And so I was not certain how I should react. So I just kept saying, are you really Oprah? She said, of course I am. FaceTime. We've spoken together. Then I said, I'm going to FaceTime you so you know for sure. And then you FaceTimed her right away. And she was like, I'm so happy, happy, happy, happy. Yes. I love it when grown people can react like little kids. I do love that. Especially because we've, listen, since Amy and Isabel back in 1998, which I produced as a television movie, I have loved Elizabeth Stroud. And one of the reasons I do so much is because I am a sucker for a hometown story. If there is a deli, I love towns. If there's a deli and a bakery and a mart where everybody meets and they're just ordinary people with stories that are, as Olive says, unrecorded lives, I am pulled into that because I think that there is always the extraordinary and the ordinary. And that's what you do better than almost any author I know is take these ordinary people whom we all have met at some point in our lives. That we all know. Yes. And show that they're actually extraordinary. And what do you see in that, Elizabeth? Well, I just, you know, I have always found people to be fascinating. I mean, I'll walk down the street and I'll think, what is your story? And then, of course, I don't know. But so I have to make it up. But anyway, I just love the idea of most of us do have unrecorded lives. And yet they're amazing to me. And I don't think I'll ever meet a person whose life, if I knew it, wouldn't be extraordinary. You know, it's interesting. This is kind of a CBS thing as well with On the Road, Stories of Ordinary People, Eggnog's America, Stories of Ordinary People. We do a lot of M.O.S. I do M.O.S., Ordinary People. Man on the Street. I love that kind of stuff. Man on the Street. Yeah. But I'm curious, these two characters of yours, you get them in a room together and then you get them to start talking. Was one easier to write than the other or did they both just come naturally and pour out of you? Well, Olive Kittredge is always easier to write just because she's Olive. So the moment I write the word Olive, it's like something's going to happen because it just sort of snaps and crackles and pops. Just Olive itself. Lucy was a little more interesting for this book because I had to show her through other people's responses to her and she's a little more restrained. But she's a fabulous listener and she does have a great impact on everybody. So to put them in the same room together was just so fun. What's great is that all the characters, I'm sorry for stepping in, all the characters from your books come together in this Tell Me Everything novel and we get to revisit Isabel again, Olive taking care of her, reading to her. And what's so fascinating to me about this writer, because I always love the writing process, is you've never had writer's block. You've never had writer's block? No, I just write badly. I don't believe that, Elizabeth. Oh, I do. But Elizabeth, you just keep writing. Yeah, I just keep writing. I'm fascinated by the Olive character because she's blunt. She says exactly what she thinks, even though it may be offensive to some people. And I always say to Oprah, Oprah will say something sometimes that's so blunt about just in general conversation. I go, okay, Olive. These people who are just such blunt talkers but have good hearts. Yeah. How do you describe her? Her words have a lot of power. Yes, Olive is very, she's just Olive. What does that mean, she's just Olive? She is who she is and there's no veneer between her interior life and her exterior life. Sometimes I don't have a veneer that I need a veneer, so I am rightfully called Olive. The thing I loved in Olive Kidridge, and I think it was Olive again, she's at one of those baby showers that we all hate. And guys, you don't know this, where they pass the paper plate around and everybody's putting a darn ribbon in it. And Olive is the person that says the thing that you want to say about that person. Says the quiet part out loud. She says the quiet part out loud. Oprah, you mentioned how you love these stories about friendship. And I think we all do because we all identify with them. Yes. I think true friends can really hear us and see us like no one can. Yeah. Have you had experiences in your life where someone close to you has seen you and heard you more so than just you being Oprah on TV? Oh yeah, well Gail has been my therapist all these years. I've never had therapy, but every night when I was doing the show, I would sit down and call Gail or we'd have a conversation every single day of our lives. And so there is nothing that she doesn't know. No, and Oprah will say the things that you don't want to hear. So you go, I got to go. That's always a good way out. But you're honest with her though. Oh, very much so. You guys are honest with each other, which is great. She ain't got no veneer. Listen, I told her that that pie had been eaten. I said the same thing. 100%. Who doesn't know that darn pie was eaten? Teeth marks all over. Teeth marks. And also the crumb. I said to her, where's the crust? Anyway, this is from yesterday's show, sorry. I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about politics. There's so much to say. Because you gave a convention speech that is still, people are still talking about it, that you've dipped your toe into politics a little bit. I want to talk about why you decided to do that. And now your latest thing for Kamala Harris was just announced yesterday that you're going to do, you're calling it a unity call. Yes. What are you saying? It's united for America. It's united for America because when Jotika Eddy of the Black Women Win organization, which when they got 57,000 women on that phone call, I said, this is so great. What we need to do now is expand it to everybody. And how are you doing that? Unite everybody. So all there's like, Jotika and team have gotten 140 different organizations, white women, white dudes, comics for Kamala, cooks for Kamala, chefs for Kamala, pets for Kamala, everybody on one phone call. It's going to be the largest voting rally ever held. In Detroit. We're doing it in Michigan, right outside of Detroit. Will she be there? With an audience of 400 people, we're trying to see if that's going to happen. We're trying to see. Oh, you don't want to say? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you don't know? Okay. Okay. Elizabeth Oprah. So who will be there, Oprah, then? Yeah, are you going? No, I'll be here working. Oh, okay. Okay, yeah. I wish I could. But yeah, pretty sure she's going to be there. Okay. With an audience. Okay, with an audience. Thank you guys for joining us. Thank you. It's Tell Me Everything. Tell Me Everything is on sale now. Check out cbsmornings.com for a reader's guide and a free excerpt from the novel and head over to our Instagram page to find out how you can get more involved with Oprah's book club.