Reese Witherspoon’s latest book club pick is Allison King’s The Phoenix Pencil Company.
King’s debut novel, published Tuesday by William Morrow, follows Monica Tsai, a reclusive college freshman determined to help her grandmother reconnect with a long-lost cousin.
Witherspoon announced the book’s selection on Instagram, calling it “a stunning ode to stories, family, and human connection.”
People magazine reports that King is the first author to be selected for the book club who was a fellow in Witherspoon’s LitUp initiative, which mentors “unpublished, diverse women and nonbinary individuals.”
“I think it's so important as a writer to have a community of people that you trust to bounce ideas off of,” King told People. “I feel like the fellowship really cemented us as a group of friends who trust each other.”
King shared the news of her novel’s selection in an Instagram post featuring a picture of her dog and her book: “so honored that PPC is the June @reesesbookclub pick…doggo and I couldn’t be happier! thank you to everyone who worked so hard to get this book out into the world, to early readers and reviewers, and hopefully to many future readers too! thanks for believing in this magic pencil story.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
