Reese Witherspoon's November Book Club Pick Is All About Ghosts Who Are 'Relentless Gossips'

Somehow, October flew by in the blink of an eye and we're staring down daylight savings, which happens this Sunday. (Great for all the late-night Halloween revelers.) If, however, you're like me, and your Halloween costume is your pajamas and your party is located under a fluffy comforter with a book and a snack, may I propose Reese's Book Club's November pick as your next fall read? This month, the Book-Lover-in-Chief has selected Shannon Sanders's novel, The Great Wherever.

"It's a wonderful novel about family and tradition," Witherspoon said in the video introducing the book. She also noted that the "dead people are relentless gossips," which called to mind her own grandmother, Dorothea, who once humorously spoke to the actress through a medium. "It’s a warm, atmospheric family saga about legacy, identity and how the past lives on in all of us," the book club team noted.

The plot follows Audrey Lamb, a gig worker in her early 30s who has just gone though a devastating breakup and the death of her father. With bills mounting, she returns to the family farm in Tennessee, where its potential sale may allow her, as a partial inheritor, to find financial freedom. Once she arrives, however, she must contend with the ghosts of her ancestors who still happily haunt the place, as well as a fractured family legacy that will also try to lay claim to her identity.

The Great Wherever is Sanders's debut novel. She previously authored the short story collection, Company, in 2023. It was the recipient of several awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes' Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing.