Oprah Winfrey's latest book club pick, 'Culpability,' delves into AI ethics

Oprah Winfrey has selected Bruce Holsinger's novel "Culpability" as her latest book club pick

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey has chosen a novel with a timely theme for her latest book club pick. Bruce Holsinger's “Culpability” is a family drama that probes the morals and ethics of AI.

“I appreciated the prescience of this story,” Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday, the day of the novel's publication. “It’s where we are right now in our appreciation and dilemmas surrounding Artificial Intelligence, centered around an American family we can relate to. I was riveted until the very last shocking sentence!”

Holsinger, a professor of English at the University of Virginia, is the author of four previous novels and several works of nonfiction. He said in a statement that he had admired Winfrey's book club since its founding in 1996.

“Oprah Winfrey started her book club the same year I finished graduate school,” Holsinger said. “For nearly 30 years, as I’ve taught great books to college students in the classroom and the lecture hall, she has shared great books with the world. Her phone call was like a thunderbolt, and I’ll never forget it. I am deeply honored and profoundly grateful that she found ‘Culpability’ worthy of her time, praise, and recognition.”

Tuesday's announcement continues Winfrey's book club partnership with Starbucks. Her interview with Holsinger, held recently at a Starbucks in Seattle, can be seen on Winfrey's YouTube channel or through other podcast outlets.

June 2025: “The River is Waiting,” by Wally Lamb (Read AP's review.)

May 2025: “The Emperor of Gladness,” by Ocean Vuong (Read AP's review.)

April 2025: “Matriarch,” by Tina Knowles (Read and watch AP's interview with Knowles.)

March 2025: “The Tell,” by Amy Griffin

February 2025: “Dream State,” by Eric Puchner

January 2025: “A New Earth,” by Eckhart Tolles (Winfrey has picked this book twice.)

December 2024: “Small Things Like These,” by Claire Keegan (Read AP's review.)

October 2024: “From Here to the Great Unknown,” by Lisa Maria Presley and Riley Keough. (Read AP's story about how Keough completed the book.

September 2024: “Tell Me Everything,” by Elizabeth Strout (Read AP's review.)

June 2024: “Familiaris,” by David Wroblewski.