Oprah taps Poitier memoir for book club

Oprah Winfrey hasturned to another bestselling memoir as her latest book club choice, shining her influential spotlight on acclaimed actor Sidney Poitier.

The talk-show host announced Friday that Poitier's The Measure of a Man is her latest book club title.

In The Measure of a Man, published in 2000,the Oscar winner mixes his memories from his childhood in the Caribbean to his turns in iconic plays and films with spiritual musings about topics like religion, racism and world leaders such as Nelson Mandela.

Poitier, who has appeared on Winfrey's daytime show and been interviewed by the host for her magazine, O, "writes really candidly and passionately about his childhood, his family, relationships and his extraordinary career," Winfrey said about the book on Friday.

"It's a beautifully crafted book, written like poetry. Because just as he speaks so eloquently, he also writes that way, too."

She added that she will host "a once-in-a-lifetime dinner party" with Poitier and members of her book club.

The Measure of a Man spent several weeks on the New York Times list of bestsellers when it was first published. An audio edition narrated by Poitier and released in conjunction with the original hardcover won a Grammy Award for best spoken word album in 2000.

Winfrey's decision is expected to vault The Measure of a Man back onto bestseller lists.

Winfrey's influence widespread

The monumentally popular talk-show host has significant power in the publishing community, with her book club choices consistently propelling the titles into bestseller status.

After plowing through a host of fiction titles, including Canadian picks Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall on Your Kneesand Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, Winfrey's book clubtook a bit of a break in 2002.

She relaunched the endeavour in June 2003 by picking John Steinbeck's East of Eden for the approximately 700,000 members registered for her book club. Within hours of the announcement, the 1952 novel shot up to number 14 on Amazon.com's bestseller list and publisher Penguin Books commissioned a special printing of 600,000 copies of the classic title.

Winfrey's last pick came about a year ago, when she selected Elie Wiesel's Night.

However, oneof 2006's major publishing controversies involved her previous choice, James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, which Winfrey chose in September 2005.

In January 2006, the Smoking Gun website revealed that Frey had fabricated large sections of his purported drug-addiction and recovery memoir.

While Winfrey initially defended the author, whom she had helpedbecomeatop-selling author andhousehold name, she later recanted and angrily berated the author when he appeared again on her show. Frey was eventually dropped by his literary agent and had a writing contract cancelled.