Oprah is the type of anomaly that is an eternal source of inspiration: black, female, plus-size, from humble origins, and a beloved household name and self-made billionaire (three times over, at last estimate). Few of us can even hope to meet Oprah, let alone aspire to reach Oprah levels of success.
Suggested Reading
In fact, most of us feel moderately accomplished just having read all of the selections in Oprah’s Book Club (working on it). So when we heard that she’d given Gwyneth Paltrow (of all people) a curated list of her top nine books, we fired up the Amazon and got to work.
Now, granted, three of those nine books are written by the great and powerful O herself. The source of her current box-office hit, Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, also made the list. But well-known modern classics like Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple make us feel that Oprah-like wisdom may not be that far out of reach after all.
So how many books on Oprah’s top nine have you read? Are you equipped to launch the next media empire?
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.