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• Busy Betty (Reese Witherspoon (Author), Xindi Yan (Illustrator)) - 2022 Flamingo Books, New York, NY
• Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits - 2018 Atria Books, New York, NY

• From Publisher -

  Reese Witherspoon, award-winning actress and producer, has created the kinds of unforgettable characters that connect with critics and audiences alike. She won an Academy Award® for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line and was later nominated in that same category for Wild in 2014, which she also produced. Her role in Wild also garnered Golden Globes, SAG, Critics’ Choice, and BAFTA Awards nominations. Other film credits include Sweet Home Alabama, Legally Blonde, and Election. She has executive produced and starred in two seasons of HBO’s critically acclaimed Big Little Lies, with the first season winning eight Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes, four Critics’ Choice Awards, and two SAG Awards. In addition to her acting and producer roles, Witherspoon is an entrepreneur. In 2016, she established Hello Sunshine, a media brand and content company dedicated to female authorship and storytelling across all platforms. In 2015, she launched Draper James, a retail brand with a focus on fashion, accessories, and home décor inspired by the American South. She is an advocate and activist for women’s issues across the globe.

• Kasia Manolas - https://www.kasiamanolas.com/blog/reese-witherspoon-book-club

  How Does Reese Witherspoon Pick Books for Her Book Club
  how-does-reese-pick-books-for-her-bookclub.jpeg
  As a writer, I’m always trying to better understand the publishing industry and what makes a book sell. Celebrity book clubs definitely help sales, but how is Reese choosing each book? Is she paying attention to certain industry signals?

  Fortunately, there’s a database with insights called Publisher’s Marketplace. For $25/month, anyone in the world can access their data. They report hundreds of new deals each day. Using their search engine, I looked up all 51 adult books that Reese has selected and analyzed them. I used this list of her book club picks and excluded her Young Adult (YA) selections for the purpose of this article.

  You can access the data I pulled at the bottom of the article. First things first:

  Reese sold her book club for $900 million in August 2021
  As I was working on this project, I saw the news:

  Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine will be purchased by a new firm financed by private-equity company Blackstone. The terms of the deal weren’t announced, but a source told the WSJ the deal values Hello Sunshine at $900 million, with Blackstone spending over $500 million to buy out Hello Sunshine's outside investors, including AT&T and Emerson Collective. Witherspoon and some the company's executives and investors "will roll over the remaining equity into ownership stakes in the new company Blackstone is forming."

  Former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs will run the new entertainment company that is purchasing Hello Sunshine, with a focus on streaming content; Witherspoon and chief executive Sarah Harden will join the board, and continue to run Hello Sunshine. Witherspoon said, "I’m going to double down on that mission to hire more female creators from all walks of life and showcase their experiences. This is a meaningful move in the world because it really means that women’s stories matter."

  Continuing the investment theme we referred to yesterday, big sales for companies based on your content, Harden noted how, as the Journal put it, "the company's relationship with authors [through Reese's Book Club] helps when its executives are bidding for the rights to turn books into shows and movies. Harden said: "The advantage that we have is in tentpoling a book and putting a spotlight on it."

  —Publishers Marketplace

  Even though Reese’s Book Club has been sold to Blackstone, she’ll remain on the board. Whether she’ll continue selecting each book, I’m not sure. But even before this deal, we know Reese is picking up certain books for a reason. I believe the sale of the company will change some things, but I don’t think it will change the root of what I found in my research.

  How many copies does the average book sell when Reese endorses it?
  Reese is known as a tastemaker. According to Sarah Harden, the CEO of Hello Sunshine, Reese picks each book herself. To become a Reese pick, the narrative must center on a woman and it must give readers hope.

  Her most impactful selection is Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, which she picked up just a few weeks after its launch in August 2018. It’s gone on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide.

  In 2019, however, Reese’s book selections sold 18,500 copies on average. Their strongest pick that year was The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes, selling 34,000 copies. Their lowest pick of 2019 sold 5,000 copies.

  How does Reese Witherspoon choose books for her book club?
  I originally thought there were certain professionals in the industry that she had connections with. My goal was to write down the names of literary agents, editors, publicists, imprints, and publishing houses in hopes of spotting a trend. The process of researching all 51 books helped me see that there isn’t a simple answer. Each book has a different background. But I noticed a few things during my research:

  PRE-EMPTS
  At least 24% of Reese’s picks were books that sold in a pre-empt. According to Bookends Literary, “pre-empts happen when a publisher wants a book so bad they offer an amount high enough to convince the agent and author to cancel an auction. Or, really, not even go forward with it. In a pre-empt situation a determination will be made of how much the author would want to take the book off the table.”

  WORLD RIGHTS
  22% of Reese’s picks were books that sold World Rights. This entitles the publisher to print the book in any language.

  When a book is sold in a pre-empt and sells with World Rights, it signals the book is desirable. Plus, if a publisher invests in a book, it means they feel confident they can re-coup their money via sales. They’ll work harder to ensure they don’t lose money on that title. Authors with those deals are going to get marketing support from the publisher to ensure it. More than anything, it just means: it’s a really good book.

  SELECTED AHEAD OF TIME
  I compared the date Reese picked each book with their release date. Of the 51 books she’s picked so far, only 15 were selected after their release date. That means that 70% of her titles are selected before they even get released. This validates that Reese is looking at publishing deals in real time. She’s not waiting until they get to print.

  There’s also an overlap: the deals that she selects ahead of time also happen to be the deals that carry a large signal of success: six-figure deals, pre-empts, and books that sold their World Rights immediately.

  GENRE
  Here’s the distribution across genre:

  Screen Shot 2021-08-06 at 2.31.19 PM.png
  Reese primarily chooses thrillers, domestic fiction, romance, historical fiction, memoirs, and literary fiction. She’s also dabbled in western, fantasy, self help, and true crime.

  #OWN VOICES
  #OwnVoices is a term coined by writer Corinne Duyvis. It refers to authors from under-represented groups writing about their own experiences or from their own perspective. Reese has shown a strong commitment to supporting underrepresented and diverse voices. This is evident in the books she’s choosing.

  Reese also created a writing fellowship called LitUp to support unpublished and underrepresented writers. This is a new initiative, but I assume she’s going to select incredible writers into this fellowship, and down the road, they may even become Reese Book Club picks.

  COMMITTED STORYTELLERS
  One thing I loved about researching each author is going to their website and seeing how many books they’ve written. I started to take note of the number of books each author had published before becoming a Reese Witherspoon pick. It was clear that each author is a committed storyteller. They not only love writing, but most of them have a unique passion that shows up in their writing. For example, Kate Quinn is a historical fiction author who published eight books before her ninth book, The Alice Network, was selected. Her unique edge is that she’s a historical writer who heavily researches the time periods she writes in. You can see her work here.

  It was most common for authors to be debuts. A lot of these debut authors were getting large, pre-empt deals for their first book. Publishers and tastemakers like Reese want to be the one to discover a new popular voice. There was definitely a trend for quality over quantity.

  That being said, each author demonstrated dedication to their craft. Whether it was how many books they’ve written, their writing background, or just simply being subject matter experts about their book topics. They write what they know about and they know it well.

  Here’s the publishing history for each author in Reese’s book club:

  41% of the authors were debuts

  27% published 2-4 books

  22% published 5-9 books

  8% published 10-14 books

  2% published 15+ books

  FILM DEALS: THE QUEEN OF BOOK-TO-SCREEN
  We all know Reese selects books that her production company Hello Sunshine can turn into mega hits on the screen. This is evident with Little Fires Everywhere, and soon Where the Crawdads Sing and Daisy Jones & The Six.

  One thing that surprised me:

  Big Little Lies and Gone Girl weren’t Reese Book Club picks, according to the official list they published. Reese didn’t found her book club or Hello Sunshine until 2017, but she’s been turning books into movies since the early 2010s.

  There’s no official resource or list with all the books that Reese has made into movies. Safe to say, it’s a very long list.

  What can we take away from this research?
  Quality matters above all else. Very few authors will ever become a “Reese’s Pick”—it’s the equivalent of winning the publishing lottery. But looking at each author’s backstory helps solidify that quality matters.

  There’s also an art and science to book marketing. The publishing industry is a business like any other. The more we can pull the curtain back and look at what sells (ahem, being featured on @reeesebookclub), the more we can replicate it for ourselves. #Bookstagram is a popular book marketing resource for a reason. It works for Reese Witherspoon and it can work (on a smaller scale) for regular writers like us, too.

  I created an entire resource dedicated to book marketing here.

  Data is current as of August 2021

• Vox - https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/9/13/20802579/reese-witherspoon-reeses-book-club-oprah

  How Reese Witherspoon became the new high priestess of book clubs
  Oprah who?

  By Constance Grady@constancegrady Updated Sep 20, 2019, 8:42am EDT
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  The Highlight by Vox logo
  This summer, author Megan Miranda won the publishing lottery.

  Miranda, who writes thrillers and young-adult novels, is the kind of author that publishers usually call midlist. She’s well established, and one of her books has even been a New York Times bestseller, yet outside of her genre, she’s not exceptionally famous.

  But in June, Miranda published her 10th novel, The Last House Guest, about a murder in an exclusive Maine vacation town. In August, Reese Witherspoon selected it for her book club.

  “My editor called me up,” Miranda said by phone a week after the pick was announced, sounding still slightly dazed. “I had just gotten back from my first leg of the book tour when I found out, and I was so ecstatic.”

  Miranda was already well aware of Reese’s Book Club before her own anointing. (She “adored” Daisy Jones and the Six, Reese’s March pick, she says.) Writers or people who work in the publishing industry frequently are. Since Reese’s Book Club launched in 2017 in partnership with the actress’s media company, Hello Sunshine, it has become an industry phenomenon with the power to catapult titles to the top of the bestseller lists. And Witherspoon — of Legally Blonde and Big Little Lies and Wild and Cruel Intentions — has become, like Oprah Winfrey before her, one of a select few tastemakers who can launch a book into the stratosphere.

  Reese Witherspoon, second from right, with the cast of Big Little Lies celebrating their win during the 75th Golden Globe Awards in 2018. Frederic J. Brwon/AFP/Getty Images
  Last September, when Reese’s Book Club picked Where the Crawdads Sing, a debut novel by the unknown 70-year-old author Delia Owens, it pulled the book out of midlist obscurity and put it on the path toward megastardom. Where the Crawdads Sing’s first print run was 27,500 copies; industry tracker NPD BookScan reports that it has since sold over 1.4 million print units, not including ebooks. It has been at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for 52 weeks. Crawdad’s success has only continued in the wake of an article that linked it to a real-life murder, one that allegedly involved Owens’s husband and stepson. (The Reese’s Book Club brand, apparently, is strong enough to withstand a scandal.)

  Not every Reese’s Book Club book is a sensation on the level of Where the Crawdads Sing, but all of them are respectable successes. In publishing, a debut novel by an unknown author can sell as few as 3,000 copies and still be doing okay. But Bookscan reports that none of Reese’s Book Club’s 28 picks so far — each adorned with a cheery yellow book club sticker on the cover — has sold fewer than 10,000 print copies.

  “This is the equivalent of winning the lottery for these authors,” says Bookscan executive director Kristen McLean.

  It certainly was for Miranda. Miranda’s book had a strong start on sales, but by the end of July, the numbers had started to cool. In the week before Witherspoon announced on Instagram that it would be her book club pick for August, The Last House Guest sold just 892 print copies, according to Bookscan. The week after Witherspoon announced her pick, it sold 5,494.

  It helps that Reese’s Book Club is a natural extension of the brand of Reese Witherspoon, actress, producer, tastemaker. When Witherspoon tells the book club-loving women of the world that she thinks they’ll love a book, the chances are, they just might.

  That’s because Witherspoon has made books, and her own taste in them, fundamental to her image, while appealing to a precise powerful demographic that publishers and booksellers love. The Reese Witherspoon brand is Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods reading a law textbook on a stationary bike; it’s the actress turning Big Little Lies from a book into the 2017 Emmy winner for Best Drama and clutching her trophy with a white-knuckled grip. And it’s that of America’s smart and busy hot mom, casually posing with a book that the other smart and busy women of America will adore — and women, who are 13 percent more likely than men to have read a book in the past 12 months, are the people whose tastes drive publishing.

  “There were massive increases”
  Reese’s Book Club has a titanic foremother, a giant among book clubs that remains legendary for its ability to make and break authors’ careers: Oprah’s Book Club, which first emerged in 1996 to endorse Jacquelyn Mitchard’s Deep Edge of the Ocean.

  Picks for Oprah’s Book Club, announced by Oprah Winfrey on her hit show, regularly sold over a million copies. It helped to build the reputations of authors such as Wally Lamb and Jeffrey Eugenides, and resurfaced older, cherished works by Toni Morrison and William Faulkner for new audiences. She tended to pick books that were aspirational and books that were accessible: An Oprah’s Book Club pick could often be heavy and challenging, and it just as often could be fast-paced and fun to read. Whatever she chose, it soared: When she made Anna Karenina a pick, publishers announced that they were printing 800,000 additional copies.

  In publishing, tastemakers like Oprah and Witherspoon are a necessity, both for publishers and for readers. The sheer scale of the industry demands it. More books come out every year than anyone can count — UNESCO estimates that the number is around 2.2 million — so many that it’s easy for anyone trying to keep track of what’s new and worth reading to be buried under the massive weight of the new releases bearing down upon them.

  Enter celebrity book clubs.

  “It’s clear that Oprah was able to get people to read the book that she picked for her book club,” says economist Craig Garthwaite, who studied the effect of Oprah’s original book club on the industry in 2012. “There were massive increases in the sales of those books.”

  Oprah’s Book Club did not, however, convert non-readers. We know this because whenever Oprah announced a new pick, sales across publishing as a whole stayed stable: Exactly as many people bought books as were already going to buy books, no matter what Oprah said.

  And not everyone believed Oprah was using her powers for good. In 2001, Jonathan Franzen voiced some qualms when Oprah selected his novel The Corrections for her club, describing some of her previous picks as “schmaltzy” and “one-dimensional.”

  For celebrity book club skeptics, Franzen’s argument represents one of the dangers of influencers such as Oprah and Witherspoon. If those books aren’t very good, the argument goes, then Oprah and Witherspoon are leading their acolytes toward mindless pap and lowering the literacy of the American public. But Garthwaite says the numbers suggest that Oprah, at least, was actually pushing readers toward books more challenging than those they would have picked up on their own.

  Garthwaite notes that Oprah’s Book Club 2.0, which launched in 2012 with Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and continues today with infrequent updates, hasn’t been able to drive sales nearly as well as her original book club did. “Anything anyone else does, even anything Oprah does,” he says, “is a lot more muted than when Oprah was at her peak.”

  Witherspoon, a book influencer of the social media age, of course, is not Oprah. But she’s probably as close to being Oprah as anyone could be right now.

  “Nothing but a success”
  Witherspoon has been talking about books on her personal Instagram account for years, and her Reese’s Book Club Instagram has existed informally since 2015. But in June 2017, Witherspoon’s production company, Hello Sunshine, took over the club’s day-to-day operations and built a reliable monthly schedule of promotions, interviews, and giveaways. The first “Reese’s Book Club pick” was Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, a quirky debut novel about a neurotically controlled woman and her traumatic past.

  Witherspoon and Hello Sunshine had already optioned the film rights for Eleanor Oliphant by the time they announced that the title would be their first pick. And that one-two punch of film option and book club drummed up enormous early buzz for the book, says Lindsay Prevette, the executive director of publicity at Honeyman’s US publisher, Pamela Dorman Books.

  “That perfect storm really helped the book find its first early readers,” says Prevette. “We could go back to the media and say, ‘Look at how excited Reese is. She really loves this book.’ We could point to Reese’s support and the other books she’s helped over the years, like Big Little Lies.” (Witherspoon co-produced and stars in the HBO adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s 2014 novel.)

  Today, if you look at Eleanor Oliphant’s Amazon listing, you’ll see the words “A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick” at the very top of the page, in bold, and then a blurb from Witherspoon herself.

  “That book did not hit the bestseller list in hardcover,” Prevette points out. But Reese’s Book Club kept working to help it find readers even after Eleanor Oliphant had been out for months: “The book club kept talking about the book on Instagram, building this community of readers throughout the year, a community of fans speaking to each other,” she says. The result? When Eleanor Oliphant came out in paperback in May 2018, it debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times list.

  “We’re at over a million copies sold now in all formats,” says Prevette.

  The picks that followed — short stories to nonfiction to novels — haven’t all gotten quite that sort of bump, but each has more than a little in common with Honeyman’s hit. So what makes a book a Reese book?

  “A woman has to be driving the story”
  According to Hello Sunshine CEO Sarah Harden, all of the books selected for Reese’s Book Club are read and approved by Witherspoon herself. “We have a full-time bookworm, someone who’s reading all the time for film and TV and book club,” Harden says. “I read a ton of books as well,” but, she insists, “Reese really picks the books.”

  Staff members can pass their recommendations along to Witherspoon to read, or Witherspoon might just bring in the book herself. (While Hello Sunshine’s Harden spoke with Vox, Witherspoon herself declined to comment for this article.) “Our November book pick is something none of us had read,” says Harden. “Reese was like, ‘I just read our book pick,’ and we all then scurried to read it.”

  All of the selections are focused on women. “A woman has to be driving the story. They are driving the narrative, they have agency in the story, they are not the side character, they are the one determining how the narrative goes,” says Harden. Witherspoon and her team are not opposed to picking a book written by a male author, as long as the story is centered on a woman. “We just haven’t done it yet.”

  Harden says the book club also tries to spotlight works by women of color and international writers who aren’t already well known stateside — and books such as Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal, the pick for March 2018. Jaswal, says Harden, is “an incredible author, but only a couple of her books have been published in the US. So almost all of our book club readers were like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love this book, I want to go back and read her other books,’ but they hadn’t heard of her until we picked her.”

  “I think Reese really loves that,” Harden continues: “not always picking the book that everyone is already talking about.”

  Glancing through the complete list of the Book Club’s selections reveals another commonality: Like Oprah before her, Witherspoon’s picks are always broadly appealing, and they tend to walk the line between literary and commercial. They’re the kind of books that are well written but not too esoteric, fun to read but not so trashy that you might feel guilty about spending time on them. They’re long enough to be immersive, but they’re not doorstops, either.

  Publishers tend to even describe these as “book club books” because they feel designed to be read by smart and busy people who want to talk about a good book over a shared plate of hors d’oeuvres and don’t want their reading to feel like a chore.

  Once Witherspoon has chosen a book, promotion gets underway. The actress announces each month’s pick herself via her Instagram Stories on her personal account in the first week of every month. Then the book club’s official Instagram account picks up the charge, as does the official book club newsletter. There are author interviews and exclusive essays and giveaways, and readers are invited to share their thoughts about the book on their own Instagrams. But even after a book’s month in the sun is over, the book club isn’t done.

  Celeste Ng’s second novel Little Fires Everywhere was selected for September 2017, but it keeps popping up on the Reese’s Book Club Instagram. “We talked about that book when it sold a million copies, and then when the paperback came out. We continued to do giveaways,” Harden says. “That happened to be a book that we also optioned for television, and then we sold that to Hulu, and Kerry Washington and Reese announced they would be starring in it. The show will launch sometime next year on Hulu. So if you’re part of our book club, from September 2017 to sometime in 2020, we’ve had a two-and-a-half-year conversation with you already about that book.”

  That long-term approach is one of the benefits of using social media. Oprah orchestrated her book club first through her daytime TV show and later her monthly magazine, which made it impractical to periodically check in on old selections. (Oprah’s current book club is theoretically social media based. She announced earlier this year that she’ll be partnering with Apple to create a new version of her book club, although it remains to be seen exactly what it will look like.)

  But Reese’s Book Club is still young enough that it’s an open question whether its long-term partnerships might ever become a liability. When does the club start to look like a crass marketing tool for film and TV projects rather than a genuine expression of love for books? And what happens if a book gets caught in a controversy, as Where the Crawdads Sing did?

  Most celebrity book clubs eventually weather such a scandal: when Oprah’s Book Club author James Frey was revealed to have lied in his memoir A Million Little Pieces, Oprah brought him onto her show and made him apologize to her audience for deceiving them, a moment that became emblematic of Oprah’s moral righteousness and insistence that people should be able to trust her.

  Reese’s Book Club has yet to make a public statement on the Crawdads controversy, and representatives declined to comment on it for this article. By and large, the Book Club appears to have made the calculation that the best thing it can possibly do is to keep quiet on this issue and hope it will all blow over and that no matter what happens, the controversy won’t affect Witherspoon’s image.

  “I just started reading and reading and reading”
  The official Reese’s Book Club Instagram is littered with movie stills in which characters Witherspoon has played are seen reading: Annette from Cruel Intentions reading in Central Park; Cecily from The Importance of Being Earnest reading a tiny pocket-sized book while wearing an enormous gown. That’s because Reese Witherspoon nearly always plays driven, bookish women who we see reading onscreen, which is to say characters who we are meant to understand as smart.

  Witherspoon’s two most iconic characters are, in fact, iconic specifically for their smarts and their stick-to-it-iveness: Election’s Tracy Flick, who overachieves her way through high school, and Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods, who struts into Harvard Law chirping, “What, like it’s hard?” Witherspoon’s star image is based on the idea of Witherspoon as smart and driven and bookish — in a funny way, a likable way.

  And when Witherspoon’s acting career began to falter in the 2010s and she found herself pushed more and more into the mid-tier romantic comedy ghetto, she made books and her own taste as a reader central to her resurgence.

  Witherspoon produced the 2014 film adaptation of the novel Gone Girl and was central to the branding of the film: When the rights to the book sold to her production company, Witherspoon was in all the headlines. The same year, Witherspoon produced and starred in Wild, based on the memoir by Cheryl Strayed; the role earned her a second Oscar nomination for Best Actress and a bona fide comeback narrative.

  “I just got really inspired and started this production company, started reading voraciously, calling everybody, and material — all of this is born out of a time of great artistic curiosity for me,” Witherspoon said in a 2014 interview with IndieWire. She added, “I funded the whole company myself — purposely, because I didn’t want to be under anyone else’s mandate. I just started reading and reading and reading.”

  Reese Witherspoon’s career resurgence is rooted in her taste in books. It depends on her ability to find books about women that audiences will like and respond to, and then bring in trusted collaborators to translate those books for the screen. And audiences are ready to give her credit for that taste because we first fell in love with Witherspoon by watching her play likable smart girls who seemed as though they probably had good taste in books.

  It’s like having Elle Woods recommend a book to you. Who’s going to say no to that?

  Constance Grady covers books and culture for Vox.

• She Knows - https://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/2546334/reese-witherspoon-childrens-book-busy-betty/

  Reese Witherspoon’s ‘Busy Betty’ is an Endearing Kids’ Book With a Powerful Message

  by THEA GLASSMAN

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  OCTOBER 4, 2022 AT 12:45PM PM EDT
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  Reese Witherspoon
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  Reese Witherspoon is a producer, actress, founder, creator of delightful Instagram content — and now she’s adding children’s book author to that impressive list. Witherspoon penned Busy Betty, a picture book that, according to the description, encourages young readers to “celebrate what makes them unique and realize that anything is possible.”

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  Busy Betty — available now! — is actually based on Witherspoon’s own childhood. “During the past year, I’ve been thinking about the kind of kid I was: goofy, mischievous, creative and very BUSY,” Witherspoon explained in an Instagram post. “Oh boy, I made a lot of messes and mistakes and through many big fails, I learned who I was and what made me UNIQUE.”

  The pint-sized protagonist is much like Witherspoon as a child: “a girl with big glasses, her big brothers’ hand-me-downs, who loved Dolly Parton and horror movies … equally!”

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  Image: Flamingo Books
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  Busy Betty
  $16.98 on Amazon.com
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  25th Annual Critics' Choice Awards. Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, California. Pictured: Our Lady J. EVENT January 12, 2020. 12 Jan 2020 Pictured: Mandy Moore. Photo credit: AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN / MEGA TheMegaAgency.com +1 888 505 6342 (Mega Agency TagID: MEGA583910_127.jpg) [Photo via Mega Agency]
  RELATED STORY
  Mandy Moore Takes Her Sons to See the Lights in New York & They Are the Coziest Little Boys
  The book, officially released on October 4, follows Betty as she tries to give her smelly dog Frank a bath. That turns out to be a much trickier task than she expected — but with her friend’s help, she learns that she can “accomplish anything with perseverance, teamwork, and one great idea.” Witherspoon told PEOPLE that Betty represents an important type of girl missing from kids’ books.

  “I’ve been thinking about creating a children’s book with realistic young female characters since I had my daughter,” she explained.

  When you’re done introducing your kids to Betty, you can spend the evening diving into Witherspoon’s grown-up book, Whiskey in a Teacup, which breaks down all of her favorite Southern traditions, from the secret to hot rolling hair to midnight barn parties. (Pssst…it’s a #1 New York Times bestseller.)

• Wikipedia -

  Reese Witherspoon
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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  Reese Witherspoon
  Reese Witherspoon at TIFF 2014.jpg
  Witherspoon at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival
  Born Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon
  March 22, 1976 (age 46)
  New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
  Alma mater Stanford University
  Occupation
  Actressproducer
  Years active 1991–present
  Works Filmography
  Spouses
  Ryan Phillippe
  ​
  ​(m. 1999; div. 2007)​
  Jim Toth ​(m. 2011)​
  Children 3
  Awards Full list
  Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 and 2015, and Forbes listed her among the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2019 and 2021. In 2021, Forbes named her the world's richest actress with an estimated net worth of $400 million.[1]

  Witherspoon began her career as a teenager, making her screen debut in The Man in the Moon (1991). Her breakthrough came in 1999 with a supporting role in Cruel Intentions, and for her portrayal of Tracy Flick in the black comedy Election. She gained wider recognition for playing Elle Woods in the comedy Legally Blonde (2001) and its 2003 sequel, and for starring in the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama (2002). In 2005, she gained critical acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for portraying June Carter Cash in the musical biopic Walk the Line.

  Following a career downturn, during which her sole box-office success was the romantic drama Water for Elephants (2011), Witherspoon made a comeback by producing and starring as Cheryl Strayed in the drama Wild (2014), which earned her a second nomination for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. She has since worked primarily in television, producing and starring in several female-led literary adaptations under her company Hello Sunshine. These include the HBO drama series Big Little Lies (2017–2019), the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show (2019–present), and the Hulu miniseries Little Fires Everywhere (2020). For the first of these, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series. She has also produced the film adaptations Gone Girl (2014) and Where the Crawdads Sing (2022).

  Witherspoon also owns a clothing company, Draper James, and she is involved in children's and women's advocacy organizations. She serves on the board of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) and was named Global Ambassador of Avon Products in 2007, serving as honorary chair of the charitable Avon Foundation dedicated to women's causes.

  Contents
  1 Early life and education
  2 Career
  2.1 Early work and breakthrough (1991–2000)
  2.2 Worldwide recognition and critical success (2001–2006)
  2.3 Career fluctuations and romantic comedy films (2007–2012)
  2.4 Resurgence and career expansion (2012–2015)
  2.5 Television success (2016–present)
  2.5.1 Upcoming projects
  3 Other ventures
  3.1 Business and philanthropy
  3.2 Other work
  4 Public image
  5 Personal life
  5.1 Influences
  6 Filmography and accolades
  7 Bibliography
  8 References
  9 External links
  Early life and education
  Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon was born on March 22, 1976,[2] at Southern Baptist Hospital, in New Orleans, Louisiana, while her father, John Draper Witherspoon, was a student at Tulane University medical school.[3][4] Her father was born in Georgia and served as a lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve.[5][6] He was in private practice as an otolaryngologist until 2012.[7] Her mother, Mary Elizabeth "Betty" (née Reese) Witherspoon, is from Harriman, Tennessee. She was a professor of nursing at Vanderbilt University and had a PhD in pediatric nursing.[8][9]

  Reese Witherspoon has claimed descent from Scottish-born John Witherspoon, who signed the United States Declaration of Independence;[10][11] however, this claim has not been verified by the Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence genealogists.[12] Her parents are still legally married, although they separated in 1996.[13]

  Witherspoon was raised an Episcopalian, and has said she is proud of the "definitive Southern upbringing" she received. She has said it gave her "a sense of family and tradition" and taught her about "being conscientious about people's feelings, being polite, being responsible and never taking for granted what you have in your life".[14][15][16] At age seven, she was selected as a model for a florist's television advertisements, which motivated her to take acting lessons.[17] At age 11, she took first place in the Ten-State Talent Fair.[17] She received high grades in school,[17] loved reading, and considered herself "a big dork who read loads of books".[4] On mentioning her love for books, she said, "I get crazy in a bookstore. It makes my heart beat hard because I want to buy everything."[18] She has been described as a "multi-achiever" and was nicknamed "Little Type A" by her parents.[19][20] She attended middle school at Harding Academy and graduated from the all-girls' Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, during which time she was a cheerleader.[21][14] She later attended Stanford University as an English literature major,[22] but left prior to completing her studies to pursue an acting career.[14]

  Career
  Early work and breakthrough (1991–2000)
  Witherspoon attended an open casting call in 1991 for The Man in the Moon, intending to audition for a bit part;[14] but instead was cast for the lead role of Dani Trant, a 14-year-old country girl who falls in love for the first time with her 17-year-old neighbor. According to The Guardian, her performance made an early impression.[23] Film critic Roger Ebert commented, "Her first kiss is one of the most perfect little scenes I've ever seen in a movie."[17] For her role, Witherspoon was nominated for a Young Artist Award, in the category of Best Young Actress.[24] Later that year, she made her television debut role in Wildflower with Patricia Arquette.[5][10] In 1992, Witherspoon appeared in the television film Desperate Choices: To Save My Child, portraying a critically ill young girl.[5]

  In 1993, Witherspoon played a young wife, Nonnie Parker, in the CBS miniseries Return to Lonesome Dove, appeared in the Disney film A Far Off Place, and had a minor role in Jack the Bear, which garnered her the Young Artist Award for Best Youth Actress Co-star.[5][25] The next year, she had another leading role as Wendy Pfister in the 1994 film S.F.W., directed by Jefery Levy.[26] In 1996, Witherspoon starred in two major films: the thriller Fear alongside Mark Wahlberg,[27][28] as Nicole Walker, a teenager who starts dating a man with obsessive tendencies, and the black-comedy thriller Freeway, alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Brooke Shields, in which she played Vanessa Lutz;[29] a poor girl living in Los Angeles who encounters a serial killer on the way to her grandmother's home in Stockton.[14] The film received positive reviews from critics; San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle wrote, "Witherspoon, who does a Texas accent, is dazzling, utterly believable in one extreme situation after the other."[30] Witherspoon's performance won her the Best Actress Award at the Cognac Police Film Festival and helped establish her as a rising star.[14][31] The production of the film also gave her significant acting experience; she said "Once I overcame the hurdle of that movie – which scared me to death – I felt like I could try anything."[22]

  In 1998, Witherspoon had major roles in three films: Overnight Delivery, Pleasantville and Twilight.[10][32] In Pleasantville, she starred with Tobey Maguire in a tale about 1990s teenage siblings who are magically transported into the setting of a 1950s television series. She portrayed Jennifer, the sister of Maguire's character who is mainly concerned about appearances, relationships and popularity. Her performance earned her praise and garnered her the Young Hollywood Award for Best Female Breakthrough Performance.[33] Director Gary Ross applauded her efforts saying, "she commits to a character so completely and she understands comedy".[22]

  A year later, Witherspoon co-starred with Alessandro Nivola in the drama thriller Best Laid Plans; she played Lissa, a woman who schemes with her lover Nick to escape a small dead-end town.[5] Also in 1999, she co-starred with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe in the drama Cruel Intentions, a modern version of the 18th-century French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The critic for San Francisco Chronicle praised her performance as Annette Hargrove: "Witherspoon is especially good in the least flashy role, and even when called upon to make a series of cute devilish faces, she pulls it off."[34] She also appeared in a music video by Marcy Playground for the film's soundtrack. Next, she appeared in Election (1999) opposite Matthew Broderick, based on Tom Perrotta's novel of the same name.[5] For her portrayal of Tracy Flick, she earned acclaim and her first nominations in the Golden Globes and in the Independent Spirit Awards. She also won the Best Actress Award from the National Society of Film Critics and the Online Film Critics Society.[35][36] Witherspoon received a rank on the list of 100 Greatest Film Performances of All Time by Premiere.[37] Director Alexander Payne said "She's [Witherspoon] got that quality that men find attractive, while women would like to be her friend. But that's just the foundation. Nobody else is as funny or brings such charm to things. She can do anything."[15]

  Following the success of Election, Witherspoon struggled to find work due to typecasting.[38] "I think because the character I played was so extreme and sort of shrewish—people thought that was who I was, rather than me going in and creating a part. I would audition for things and I'd always be the second choice—studios never wanted to hire me and I wasn't losing the parts to big box office actresses but to ones who I guess people felt differently about", she said.[6] In 2000, Witherspoon had a supporting role in American Psycho as Patrick Bateman's trophy girlfriend, and made a cameo appearance in Little Nicky as the mother of the Antichrist.[32] She also made a guest appearance in the sixth season of Friends as Rachel Green's sister Jill.[39]

  Worldwide recognition and critical success (2001–2006)
  The 2001 film Legally Blonde marked a turning point in Witherspoon's career; she starred as Elle Woods, a fashion-merchandising major who decides to become a law student to follow her ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School. Witherspoon said about the role, "When I read Legally Blonde, I was like, 'She's from Beverly Hills, she's rich, she's in a sorority. She has a great boyfriend. Oh yeah, she gets dumped. Who cares? I still hate her.' So we had to make sure she was the kind of person you just can't hate."[15] Legally Blonde was a box-office hit, grossing US$96 million domestically.[40] Witherspoon's performance earned her praise from critics, and the press began to refer her as "the new Meg Ryan".[41] Roger Ebert commented, "Witherspoon effortlessly animated this material with sunshine and quick wit",[42] and the critic from Salon magazine wrote "she [Witherspoon] delineates Elle's character beautifully".[43] Meanwhile, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer concluded, "Witherspoon is a talented comedian who can perk up a scene just by marching in full of pep and drive and she powers this modest little comedy almost single-handedly."[44] The film earned her a second nomination for Best Actress at the Golden Globes, and an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance.[45]

  In 2002, Witherspoon starred in several features, such as Greta Wolfcastle in The Simpsons episode "The Bart Wants What It Wants", and as Cecily in the comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play in which she received a Teen Choice Award nomination.[46][47] Later that year, she starred with Josh Lucas and Patrick Dempsey in Andy Tennant's romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama, in which she played Melanie Carmichael, a young fashion designer who intends to marry a New York politician but must return to Alabama to divorce her childhood sweetheart, from whom she has been separated for seven years. Witherspoon regarded it as a "personal role" as it reminded her of the experience of moving from Nashville to Los Angeles.[48] The film became Witherspoon's biggest live-action box office hit, earning over $35 million in the opening weekend and grossing over $127 million in the U.S.[40][49] Despite the commercial success, critics gave Sweet Home Alabama negative reviews. The Miami Herald called it "a romantic comedy so rote, dull and predictable",[50] and the press opined that Witherspoon was the only reason the film attracted such a large audience.[51][52] The Christian Science Monitor wrote of her, "She is not the movie's main attraction, she is its only attraction."[53]

  The next year, Witherspoon followed up the success of Legally Blonde by starring in the sequel Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. Elle Woods has become a Harvard-educated lawyer who is determined to protect animals from cosmetics industry science tests. The sequel was not as financially successful as the first film and it generated mostly negative reviews. USA Today considered the movie "plodding, unfunny and almost cringe-worthy", but also wrote "Reese Witherspoon still does a fine job portraying the fair-haired lovable brainiac, but her top-notch comic timing is wasted on the humorless dialogue."[54] Meanwhile, Salon magazine concluded that the sequel "calcifies everything that was enjoyable about the first movie".[55] Despite being panned by critics, the sequel took in over $39 million in its first five days in the U.S. box office charts and eventually grossed $90 million in the US.[56] Witherspoon was paid $15 million for the role—a starting point which would make her consistently one of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses between 2002 and 2010.[15][57]

  In 2004, Witherspoon starred in Vanity Fair, adapted from the 19th-century classic novel Vanity Fair and directed by Mira Nair. Her character, Becky Sharp, is a poor woman with a ruthless determination to find fortune and establish herself a position in society. Witherspoon was carefully costumed to conceal her pregnancy during filming.[58] This pregnancy was not a hindrance to her work as Witherspoon believed the gestation had helped her portrayal of Sharp's character: "I love the luminosity that pregnancy brings, I love the fleshiness, I love the ample bosom—it gave me much more to play with", she said.[59][60] The film, and Witherspoon's performance received mixed reviews; The Hollywood Reporter wrote "Nair's cast is splendid. Witherspoon does justice to the juicy role by giving the part more buoyancy than naughtiness."[61] The Charlotte Observer called her work "an excellent performance that's soft around the edges", and the Los Angeles Times concluded that Becky is "a role Reese Witherspoon was born to play".[62][63] However, LA Weekly wrote "[Witherspoon] ends up conveying so little of what's at once appalling and perversely attractive about the would-be mistress of Vanity Fair" and states that it may have to do with Witherspoon's vanity, "with an Oscar-less young star's need to be loved more than anyone could conceivably love the "real" Becky Sharp.".[64] Some critics thought she was miscast.[65]

  Witherspoon attending the premiere of Walk the Line at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival
  In late 2004, Witherspoon starred alongside Mark Ruffalo in the romantic comedy Just Like Heaven. Her character, Elizabeth Masterson, is an ambitious young doctor who is involved in a car accident on her way to a blind date and is left in a coma; her spirit returns to her old apartment where she later finds true love.[66] Next, she was cast as June Carter Cash, the second wife of singer-songwriter Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix), in James Mangold's Walk the Line (2005). She never had the chance to meet Carter Cash, as Witherspoon was filming Vanity Fair at the time the singer died.[6] Witherspoon performed her own vocals in the film, and her songs had to be performed in front of a live audience; she was so worried about needing to perform that she asked her lawyer to terminate the film contract.[67] "That was the most challenging part of the role," she later recalled. "I'd never sung professionally."[68] Subsequently, she had to spend six months learning how to sing for the role, including from the help of vocal coach Roger Love.[67][69][70] Witherspoon's portrayal of Carter Cash was acclaimed by critics, with Roger Ebert stating that her performance added "boundless energy" to the film.[71] She won Best Actress at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, British Academy Film Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild award for her performance.[72][73][45]

  Witherspoon and Phoenix received a nomination for "collaborative video of the year" from the CMT Music Awards.[73][74] Witherspoon has expressed her passion for the film: "I really like in this film that it is realistic and portrays sort of a real marriage, a real relationship where there are forbidden thoughts and fallibility. And it is about compassion in the long haul, not just the short easy solutions to problems."[75] She also stated that she believed Carter Cash was a woman ahead of her time: "I think the really remarkable thing about her character is that she did all of these things that we sort of see as normal things in the 1950s when it wasn't really acceptable for a woman to be married and divorced twice and have two different children by two different husbands and travel around in a car full of very famous musicians all by herself. She didn't try to comply to social convention, so I think that makes her a very modern woman."[75] After the success of Walk the Line, Witherspoon starred in the fantasy Penelope, as Annie, the best friend of Penelope (Christina Ricci), a girl who has a curse in her family. The film was produced by her company Type A Films, and filming began in March 2006.[76] The film premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival,[67][77] but went unreleased until February 2008.[78][79]

  Career fluctuations and romantic comedy films (2007–2012)

  Witherspoon at the premiere of Monsters vs. Aliens in 2009
  Witherspoon admits to spending several years "kind of floundering career-wise". Reflecting on this period of time in a December 2014 interview, Witherspoon attributed it to the split from her first husband in October 2006 and their subsequent divorce, stating that she spent "a few years just trying to feel better. You know, you can't really be very creative when you feel like your brain is scrambled eggs." She claims that she "wasn't making things I was passionate about. I was just kind of working, you know. And it was really clear that audiences weren't responding to anything I was putting out there."[80]

  Witherspoon appeared in the thriller Rendition, in which she played Isabella El-Ibrahim, the pregnant wife of a bombing suspect. The film was released in October 2007 and it was her first film appearance since the 2005's Walk the Line.[81] The film received mostly mixed reviews and was deemed a major disappointment at the Toronto International Film Festival.[82] Witherspoon's performance was also criticized; writing for USA Today, Claudia Puig wrote "Reese Witherspoon is surprisingly lifeless [...] She customarily injects energy and spirit into her parts, but here, her performance feels tamped down."[83] In 2008, Witherspoon starred with Vince Vaughn in the comedy Four Christmases, a story about a couple who must spend their Christmas Day trying to visit all four of their divorced parents.[84] Despite negative reviews from critics, the film was a box office success, earning more than $120 million domestically and $157 million worldwide.[85] In 2009, Witherspoon voiced Susan Murphy, the lead character in the DreamWorks Animation Monsters vs. Aliens, released in March, which grossed $381 million worldwide.[86][87] She also co-produced the Legally Blonde spin-off Legally Blondes, starring Milly and Becky Rosso.[88] However, Witherspoon did not appear in a live-action film for two years after Four Christmases. She told Entertainment Weekly that the "break" was unplanned, stating that, "I just didn't read anything I liked... There are a lot of really, really, really big movies about robots and things—and there's not a part for a 34-year-old woman in a robot movie."[89]

  Witherspoon at the premiere of Water for Elephants in 2011
  Witherspoon returned with three romances released in 2010, 2011 and 2012, all starring her as a woman caught in a love triangle between two men. In the first, she was cast in James L. Brooks' How Do You Know,[90][91][92] in which she played a former national softball player who struggles to choose between a baseball-star boyfriend (Owen Wilson) and a business executive being investigated for white-collar crime (Paul Rudd). Filming took place in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. during the summer and fall of 2009[93][94][95] and it was released on December 17, 2010. The film was critically and commercially unsuccessful; with a budget of more than $100 million, the film only earned $48.7 million worldwide, leading the Los Angeles Times to call it "one of the year's biggest flops".[96] The film received mainly unfavorable reviews, with an approval rating of 35% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 111 reviews as of December 2010.[97]

  Witherspoon's second love-triangle film was the drama Water for Elephants, an adaptation of Sara Gruen's novel of the same name. She began circus training in March 2010 for her role as Marlena, a glamorous performer stuck in a marriage to a volatile husband (Christoph Waltz) but intrigued by the circus' new veterinarian (Robert Pattinson).[98] Principal photography began between May and early August 2010[99][100] in various locations in Tennessee, Georgia, and California. It was released on April 22, 2011, and received mixed critical reviews.[101][102] Her last love-triangle film began production in Vancouver in September 2010. Directed by McG and released by 20th Century Fox, This Means War, saw Witherspoon's character at the center of a battle between best friends (played by Chris Pine and Tom Hardy), who are both in love with her. The film had a "sneak-peek" release on Valentine's Day, before fully opening on February 17, 2012.[103][104][105] The film was panned by critics, with a 25% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[106] and fared poorly at the box office, taking fifth place on its opening weekend with sales of $17.6 million. The New York Times remarked that this "extended the box office cold streak for the Oscar-winning Ms. Witherspoon".[107] In a 2012 interview with MTV, Witherspoon jokingly referred that 2010–12 was her "love triangle period".[108]

  Resurgence and career expansion (2012–2015)
  In September 2011, a year after beginning work on This Means War, she filmed a small role in Jeff Nichols's coming-of-age drama Mud in Arkansas, playing Juniper, the former girlfriend of a fugitive (Matthew McConaughey), who enlists two local boys to help him evade capture and rekindle his romance with her.[109][110] Mud premiered in May 2012 in competition for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, but did not win.[111][112] Following its American debut at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2013,[113] the film had a limited release in selected North American theaters on April 26, 2013.[114][115]

  Witherspoon at the premiere of Mud at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival
  Witherspoon attending the premiere of Mud at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival
  Witherspoon next starred in Devil's Knot, which was directed by Atom Egoyan, and based on the true crime book of the same name, examining the controversial case of the West Memphis Three. Like Mud, the film is set in Arkansas. She played Pam Hobbs, the mother of one of three young murder victims. In an interview subsequent to her casting in the film, Egoyan noted that although the role requires "an emotionally loaded journey," he "met with Reese, and... talked at length about the project, and she's eager to take on the challenge."[116] Filming took place in Georgia in June and July 2012,[117][118][119] and Witherspoon was pregnant with her third child during filming.[120][121] The film premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival,[122][123] followed by a release in selected American theaters on May 9, 2014.[124] Although the film received mainly negative reviews; London's Evening Standard thought Witherspoon was "the strongest, most involving character".[125]

  In 2012, Witherspoon founded production company Pacific Standard (now part of Hello Sunshine). Her goal was to produce projects with "strong" female lead characters, as she felt this was lacking in Hollywood. Through the company, Witherspoon served as a producer for Gone Girl (2014), an adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel of the same name.[126][127][128] She also produced and starred in the biographical adventure Wild (2014), based on Cheryl Strayed's memoir of the same name.[129] She portrayed Strayed on her 1,000-mile (1,600 km) hike along the Pacific Crest Trail.[130] Wild was released in December 2014 to critical acclaim;[131] Michael Phillips of Chicago Tribune wrote in his review, "Witherspoon does the least acting of her career, and it works. Calmly yet restlessly, she brings to life Strayed's longings, her states of grief and desire and her wary optimism."[132] Wild was considered as Witherspoon's "comeback" role following her previous career slump,[133][134] and she earned a second Academy Award nomination for her performance.[135]

  Witherspoon appeared in Philippe Falardeau's drama The Good Lie, based on a true story about an employment counselor assigned to help four young Sudanese refugees, known as Lost Boys of Sudan, who win a lottery for relocation to the U.S.[136][137] It was released on October 3, 2014.[138] The film was mostly well-received; The Hollywood Reporter critic praised the touching story and performances of the cast, writing that Witherspoon does not "upstage" her colleagues.[139] Next, she appeared in Inherent Vice (2014), an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's novel of the same name.[140][141] In May 2014, Witherspoon began production in Louisiana on Hot Pursuit, a comedy in which she plays a police officer trying to protect a drug lord's widow (Sofía Vergara).[142] The feature was released on May 8, 2015.[143]

  Television success (2016–present)

  Witherspoon attending the premiere of Sing at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival
  In 2016, Witherspoon had a voice role in the animated musical comedy film Sing, and served as a performer to the film's soundtrack. Sing became Witherspoon's biggest commercial success, being the first of her films to make over $200 million domestically and $600 million worldwide.[144] That same year, Witherspoon began filming her first television project since 1993's Return To Lonesome Dove, the seven-part miniseries adaptation of the Liane Moriarty bestseller, Big Little Lies. She co-produced the miniseries along with co-star Nicole Kidman and director Jean-Marc Vallée, her second project under his direction. The series premiered on February 19, 2017, on HBO and finished on April 2.[145][146] Witherspoon garnered critical acclaim for her performance, with TV Line proclaiming her as "Performer of the Week" in the weeks of February 26 – March 4 in 2017 and June 23–29 in 2019.[147][148] The Washington Post compared her performance to her roles in Election and Legally Blonde.[149] In December 2017, HBO renewed Big Little Lies for a second season, which premiered in June 2019.[150] Witherspoon also starred in the romantic comedy Home Again, the directorial debut of filmmaker Nancy Meyers' daughter, Hallie Meyers-Shyer, which was released on September 8, 2017.[151]

  In 2018, she starred in Disney's A Wrinkle in Time, a film adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's novel of the same name, in which she plays Mrs. Whatsit. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the feature co-stars Oprah Winfrey and Mindy Kaling, and was released in March 2018.[152] Four months later, Witherspoon began hosting the talk show Shine On with Reese on DirecTV, in which she interviews female guests, focusing on how they achieved their ambitions. The show marks Witherspoon's first unscripted role in television.[153]

  Witherspoon currently produces and stars in the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show alongside Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell.[154] The Morning Show has received a two-season order from Apple with the first season premiering in November 2019.[155] Witherspoon was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series for her work in the series.[156] Season two of The Morning Show was set to premiere in 2020 before the production shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.[157] The first two episodes were in the final stages of being shot before the production shutdown. During the production shutdown, scripts were rewritten to reflect the pandemic. Production on season two of The Morning Show restarted on October 19, 2020 and premiered on Apple TV in September 2021[158].[159] Witherspoon also serves as an executive producer for the Apple TV+ series Truth Be Told starring Octavia Spencer which premiered in December 2019; it was renewed for a second season in March 2020.[160][161][162]

  In 2020, Witherspoon produced and starred in the Hulu drama miniseries Little Fires Everywhere opposite Kerry Washington, the televised adaptation of Celeste Ng's 2017 novel of the same name.[163][164] In that same year, Witherspoon narrated the Quibi nature documentary series Fierce Queens which focuses on female animals in the animal kingdom.[165]

  Upcoming projects
  In addition to starring and producing television shows for her own, Witherspoon will serve as an executive producer for six television series, for different streaming services and networks including Apple TV+,[166] Amazon Prime Video, ABC,[167][168] Starz and Netflix.[169][170][171]

  Witherspoon will produce and star in three Netflix films; first, Pyros, a science fiction drama directed by Simon Kinberg, secondly, two romantic comedies on Netflix.[172][173] Witherspoon will produce two films including A White Lie set to star Zendaya, and a documentary about Martina Navratilova.[174][175] Witherspoon will also reprise the role of Elle Woods by starring in and producing Legally Blonde 3; the script will be written by Dan Goor and Mindy Kaling. The film will be the fourth collaboration between Kaling and Witherspoon after A Wrinkle in Time, The Mindy Project and The Morning Show.[176] In 2015, it was reported that Witherspoon had signed on to star and produce in a live-action film about Tinker Bell for Disney.[177] Six years later, the project re-entered development as a part of Gary Marsh's overall deal with Disney and Witherspoon still attached as a producer.[178][179]

  Other ventures
  Business and philanthropy

  Witherspoon at the Oval Office in 2009
  Witherspoon owned a production company called Type A Films, which the media believed was a nickname from her childhood, "Little Miss Type A".[19][180] However, when asked about the company by Interview magazine, she clarified the name's origin: "... people think I named it after myself... It was actually an in-joke with my family because at [age] 7 I understood complicated medical terms, such as the difference between type A and type B personalities. But I just wished I'd named the company Dogfood Films or Fork or something. You carry that baggage all your life."[6] In March 2012, Witherspoon merged Type A Films with Bruna Papandrea's "Make Movies" banner to form a new production company called Pacific Standard.[181] In 2016, Witherspoon and Papandrea parted ways, and Witherspoon gained full control of the company.[182] Pacific Standard has since become a subsidiary of Hello Sunshine, a firm co-owned by Witherspoon and Otter Media, focused on telling female-oriented stories through film, television and digital channels.[183] Witherspoon also runs the Hello Sunshine book club, where she makes book recommendations.[184]

  In May 2015, Witherspoon launched Draper James, a retail brand focusing on fashion and home décor inspired by the American South. It is named after her grandparents, Dorothea Draper and William James Witherspoon, who are said to be her greatest influences. Some of the products are being manufactured and designed in-house, and the brand was launched online before opening its first retail outlet in 2015 in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.[185] In March 2017, Witherspoon became the chief storyteller for Elizabeth Arden, Inc., helping the company to shape the brand's narrative through advertising campaigns and marketing programs. Witherspoon stated that she was "excited to work as a creative partner alongside the Elizabeth Arden team, producing content that celebrates the spirit of the brand, highlighting female-centric stories that illustrate women's true life experiences which unite us all".[186]

  Witherspoon is involved in children and women's rights advocacy. She is a longtime supporter of Save the Children, an organization that helps provide children around the world with education, healthcare and emergency aid.[187] She also serves on the board of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), a child advocacy and research group.[187] In 2006, she was among a group of actresses who went to New Orleans, Louisiana in a CDF project to publicize the needs of Hurricane Katrina victims.[188] During this trip, she helped open the city's first Freedom School, as she met and talked with the children.[189] Witherspoon later called this an experience that she would never forget.[189]

  In 2007, Witherspoon made her first move into endorsements, and she signed a multi-year agreement to serve as the first Global Ambassador for cosmetics firm Avon Products.[187][190] She acts as a spokeswoman for Avon and serves as the honorary chair of the Avon Foundation, a charitable organization that supports women and focuses on breast cancer research and the prevention of domestic violence.[191][192] She is also committed to the development of cosmetic products and making appearances in commercials.[191] Explaining her motives for joining the foundation, she said, "As a woman and a mother I care deeply about the well being of other women and children throughout the world and through the years, I have always looked for opportunities to make a difference."[191]

  In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Witherspoon announced the "Draper James Loves Teachers" initiative, offering free dresses from the clothing collection to teachers.[193]

  Other work
  In 2013, Witherspoon recorded a cover of the classic Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra duet, "Somethin' Stupid" with Michael Bublé for his 2013 album, To Be Loved.[194] In September 2018, she published her first book, Whiskey in a Teacup, which is a lifestyle publication inspired by her southern upbringing.[195] In 2018, she joined approximately 300 other actors, agents, writers and entertainment employees in creating the Time's Up initiative, which seeks to counteract sexual harassment in the workplace.[196]

  In 2017, Witherspoon started Reese's Book Club.[197] The club was born out of her Instagram account, where she posted photos of books she read. Each month she picks books she loves with a woman at the center of the story, with variety of genres, from women's fiction to thrillers to romance. Since 2017, the club's most influential pick has been Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Chosen for the club in September 2018, it was adapted into a 2022 feature film by Witherspoon's production company Hello Sunshine, and was a box office hit that summer.[198]

  Public image

  Witherspoon signing autographs for fans at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival
  Witherspoon hosted Saturday Night Live on September 29, 2001, the first episode to air after the September 11 attacks.[199] In 2005, she was ranked No. 5 in Teen People magazine's list of most powerful young Hollywood actors.[200] In 2006, she was listed among the Time 100.[201] Her featured article was written by Luke Wilson.[202] That year, she was selected one of the "100 Sexiest Women In The World" by the readers of FHM.[203] Witherspoon has been featured four times in the annual "100 Most Beautiful" issues of People magazine.[204] She has appeared on the annual Celebrity 100 list by Forbes magazine in 2006 and 2007, at No. 75 and No. 80, respectively.[205][206] Forbes also put her on the top ten Trustworthy Celebrities list.[207]

  In 2007, she was selected by People and the entertainment news program Access Hollywood as one of the year's best-dressed female stars.[208][209] The yellow dress she wore to that year's Golden Globe Awards was widely acclaimed.[210] A study conducted by E-Poll Market Research showed that Witherspoon was the most likable female celebrity of 2007.[211] That same year, she established herself as the highest-paid actress in the American film industry, earning $15 to $20 million per film.[212][213] The following years, her appearance in many commercially unsuccessful films caused her to lose this status, and she was noted as one of the most overpaid actors in Hollywood in 2011, 2012 and 2013.[214][215][216] In April 2011, she ranked No. 3 on the 22nd annual People's Most Beautiful issue.[217]

  In June 2013, Witherspoon filed a lawsuit against Marketing Advantages International Inc., claiming they extensively used her name and image in jewelry advertising without permission in the U.S. and internationally. In December 2015, Witherspoon's trademark claims to her name were rejected on the grounds that she had not established secondary meaning to her full name, did not claim "emotional distress", and that the "photos and facts were generally known by the public and the photos were taken in public with Plaintiff's consent". However, the court ruled that she could proceed with her right of publicity claims against many defendants.[218][219][220] Two months later, she withdrew her lawsuit, having "come to private agreements with the various defendants, including Centerbrook Sales, Fragrance Hut, Gemvara, and others".[221] In October 2017, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal, Witherspoon revealed that she had been sexually assaulted at age 16 by a director and had had "multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault" throughout her career.[222]

  In 2015, Witherspoon made her second appearance on the Time 100 list, with her featured article written by Mindy Kaling.[223] That year, she was awarded, by the committee's unanimous vote, the American Cinematheque for being "a perfect example of an actress flourishing in today's world" and "an active and successful movie producer who is moving her career forward both behind and in front of the camera".[224][225][226] In 2017, Forbes reported her career earnings were in excess of $198 million, making her the highest-paid primetime Emmy nominee in 2017.[227] In 2019, Forbes listed her among the World's 100 Most Powerful Women.[228]

  Personal life
  Witherspoon met actor Ryan Phillippe at her 21st birthday party in March 1997.[229] They became engaged in December 1998[230] and married on June 5, 1999, at Old Wide Awake Plantation in Hollywood, South Carolina.[231][232][233] They have two children together, daughter Ava Elizabeth Phillippe, born on September 9, 1999;[234][235] and son Deacon Reese Phillippe, born on October 23, 2003.[231] On October 30, 2006, Witherspoon and Phillippe announced their separation.[236] She filed for divorce on November 8, 2006, citing irreconcilable differences.[237] In light of their lack of a prenuptial agreement, she requested that the court refuse to grant spousal support to Phillippe, and asked for joint legal custody and sole physical custody of their two children. Phillippe filed for joint physical custody on May 15, 2007, and did not seek any spousal support.[238] The marriage officially ended on October 5, 2007, with final divorce arrangements settled on June 13, 2008, according to court documents. Phillippe and Witherspoon share joint custody of their children.[239]

  Witherspoon dated her Rendition co-star Jake Gyllenhaal from 2007 until 2009.[240][241] In February 2010, she was reported to be dating Jim Toth,[242][243][244] a talent agent and co-head of motion picture talent at Creative Artists Agency, where she is a client.[245] They announced their engagement that December,[246] and married on March 26, 2011 in Ojai, California, at Libbey Ranch,[247] Witherspoon's country estate, which she later sold.[248][249] They have a son together, Tennessee James Toth, born on September 27, 2012.[250] On April 19, 2013, Witherspoon was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after Toth was stopped for suspicion of driving under the influence. She pleaded no-contest to obstruction of an officer and was required to pay court costs.[251]

  Influences
  Witherspoon has cited Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Holly Hunter, Susan Sarandon, Frances McDormand, Debra Winger, Diane Ladd, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Aniston, Goldie Hawn, Sally Field, Sigourney Weaver, Lucille Ball, Carole Lombard, Judy Holliday, Gena Rowlands, Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, and Michael Keaton as influences to her acting career and work.[17][18][252][253][254][255] Her favorite films include Splendor in the Grass, Waiting for Guffman, Broadcast News, Raising Arizona, and Overboard.[253][256][257][258]

  Filmography and accolades
  Main articles: Reese Witherspoon filmography and awards and nominations
  Witherspoon's most acclaimed and highest-grossing films, according to the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, include Election (1999), Legally Blonde (2001), Walk the Line (2005), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), Mud (2013), Wild (2014), and Sing (2016).[259] Witherspoon has been nominated for two Academy Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards,[45] four Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG Awards), and two British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs). She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as June Carter in the film Walk the Line (2005).[73][72] In 2010, Witherspoon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[260]

  Bibliography
  Witherspoon, Reese (2018). Whiskey in a Teacup. Touchstone. ISBN 978-1501166273.

• Parade - https://parade.com/books/reese-witherspoon-busy-betty-childrens-book

  Reese Witherspoon Says This 1 Children's Book Character Was a 'Huge Inspiration' for Her
  You've probably been inspired by the same character!
  MEGAN O'NEILL MELLESEP 30, 2022
  If you were a spirited kid filled with big ideas (or if you raised one), you’ll delight in Busy Betty (Oct. 4, Flamingo Books), written by Oscar-winning actress and favorite book club host Reese Witherspoon about a silly, bright and busy young girl who finds connection and creativity in chaos. “Instead of writing about the perfect little girl with the pink bows and tennis shoes, I wanted to write about that busybody who wears her brother's hand-me-downs and is really creative,” Witherspoon says.

  busy betty
  “She's a whirling dervish of energy, but it takes teamwork to get constructive around her ideas. I hadn't read a character like that for a young girl, and I thought, What if we can talk about executive function and concepts of business at a very young age? Parade.com spoke with Witherspoon about her inspiration for Busy Betty.

  Related: Want to Join Reese Witherspoon's Book Club? Here's What You Need to Know

  What was a young Reese like?

  I was a very outgoing and busy child who was sometimes overwhelming to my mom and my teachers. And I definitely had to be separated from other kids for talking too much. I was always very spirited—I was talking a lot and singing and dancing and making up games and stories and hopping around. First grade, I started making up businesses. My brother and I, we would do magic shows around the neighborhood and charge for tickets. One of my first businesses was building customized barrettes out of my desk in the second grade, and I got in a lot of trouble and had to stay after school for spilling the paint all over the desks. But it didn't stop my entrepreneurial spirit. I thought it'd be really fun to write about a little girl who has that busy energy and a lot of great ideas.

  Related: Chelsea Clinton, Hilary Duff, Meena Harris and More Reflect on the Value of Children's Books

  Hello Sunshine and Reese’s Book Club celebrate women's stories and diversity. How is your new children’s book an extension of that?

  My mission to highlight female authorship started 10 or so years ago when I looked around the media landscape and saw a lack of female voices being amplified. And subsequently, their stories were very muted and not really reflective of the diversity of women and the complications women face. Women are very dynamic. And so it's been a passion of mine to read more books, highlight female authors and also hire more female filmmakers to turn these books into movies and television shows. I started thinking, How can I bring that mission to a younger audience and start reflecting a spectrum of little girls’ experiences?

  Are there books or characters that have stayed with you over the years?

  Ramona Quimby was a huge inspiration for me. I love [Ian Falconer’s character] Olivia the Pig. I also love the Elephant and Piggie series [by Mo Willems], which is something that I've read to my children. Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s books were really inspiring for all of my children. I love humor and great characters, and I find it's easier to relate to stories that have a great central character.

  ramona quimby
  mo willems
  yes day

  How do you view the importance of children's books in childhood development?

  Well, my grandmother was a first-grade teacher and she was my caregiver after school because my mother worked. She taught me to read at a very, very young age, like 4 or 5, by doing all the different voices and making reading really engaging. I remember also she had these records that would play and read the stories while I read along. But I think it's just incredible how expansive kids’ vocabulary becomes, how they feel a sense of accomplishment, how their ideas about the world and culture and other people just expand. So it’s a real kind of empathy tool as well.

  Related: Seth Meyers Reveals His Favorite Children's Books

  What excites you right now about the world of children's literature?

  It's great to see the feedback that parents and caregivers are giving—they want more diverse stories, they want more complex stories, they want stories that help enhance and create constructive conversation with their children. It's really encouraging. I just read my son's summer reading book with him, and we talked about different themes inside the book and what it means to make the right decisions or be honorable, even if it's a complex situation. Talking to your kids about these books afterwards creates a great relationship tool, an opportunity to connect.

  What are you currently reading?

  Oh, gosh. I've been reading all of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books. We just turned Daisy Jones & the Six into a television show for Amazon. It's just so wonderful and beautiful. And I read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo over the summer. But her work is just so character-driven and profound, and I think she just understands and creates these worlds that you want to walk into and exist inside of. So that's what I recently read.

Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me about Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits.

By Reese Witherspoon.

Sept. 2018. 304p. illus. Touchstone, $35 (9781501166273); e-book (9781501166280). 306.0975.

It is hard not to respond to actor-producer-writer-entrepreneur Witherspoon's southern cooking and lifestyle guide, presented with warmth and no small amount of wit. Many features attract, such as sidebars on everything from valuable tips for hosting to the specifics of hot-rolling hair. Nearly 50 recipes and 8-plus menus will suit almost any celebration, gathering, and occasion, such as a southern dinner party (mud pie trifle and shrimp and grits), the Kentucky Derby (Kentucky hot brown bites), and condolence calls (Witherspoon's chicken potpie casserole fits well here). Not to mention Witherspoon's memorable sayings that define southern life: "The best things in life are not things." "No one is depressed when they see a cake plate." There are even road-trip ideas and holiday playlists to occupy eyes, hands, and ears. Connecting it all is Witherspoon's very hospitable narrative, sharing stories of growing up, family, and traditions that many will relate to. Just don't call her the southern Martha Stewart.--Barbara Jacobs

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Jacobs, Barbara. "Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me about Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits." Booklist, vol. 114, no. 22, 1 Aug. 2018, p. 10. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A550613039/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a85c6c17. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022.

Whiskey in a Tea Cup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits

Reese Witherspoon. Touchstone, $35 (304p) ISBN 978-1-50116-627-3

Actress and book club host Witherspoon pays tribute to her Southern roots in this charming collection of recipes, how-to's, and personal stories. She draws heavily on life lessons learned from her grandmother, including how to be a good hostess ("Serve dinner about one hour after the start time on the invitation") and guest ("When in doubt about how fancy it is, dress up"). Recipes are grouped by events with suggestions for what to serve at, say, a book club meeting (red and white wine, baked brie, hot spinach-artichoke dip, olive medley, cheese and fruit) or a pre-concert gathering (smoked pecans, crab puffs, champagne and ginger ale cocktail). Almost without exception, recipes are emblematic of country fare and feature classics including fried okra, creamy gravy, and shrimp and grits. Fried chicken, ribs (in her brother's Tennessee barbecue sauce), and pulled pork sliders with bourbon sauce are highlights among the many enticing dishes. The book's scope is wide and ranges from Southern expressions ("madder than a wet hen") and must reads by Southern authors (Walker Percy's The Moviegoer) to Witherspoon's love of Dolly Parton and monograms. Readers looking to make a foray into Southern cooking and etiquette will find Witherspoon an enthusiastic guide. (Sept.)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"Whiskey in a Tea Cup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits." Publishers Weekly, vol. 265, no. 32, 6 Aug. 2018, pp. 67+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A550547711/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=acd296ae. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022.

Witherspoon, Reese BUSY BETTY Flamingo Books (Children's None) $18.99 10, 4 ISBN: 978-0-593-46588-2

Actor and author Witherspoon makes her picture-book debut.

Betty, a light-skinned, bespectacled child with blond pigtails, was born busy. Constantly in motion, Betty builds big block towers, cartwheels around the house (underfoot, of course), and plays with the family's "fantabulous" dog, Frank, who is stinky and dirty. That leads to a big, busy, bright idea that, predictably, caroms toward calamity yet drags along enough hilarity to be entertaining. With a little help from best friend Mae (light-skinned with dark hair), the catastrophe turns into a lucrative dog-washing business. Busy Betty is once again ready to rush off to the next big thing. Yan uses vivid, pastel colors for a spread of a group of diverse kids bringing their dogs to be washed, helping out, and having fun, while the grown-ups are muted and relegated to the background. Extreme angles in several of the illustrations effectively convey a sense of perpetual motion and heighten the story's tension, drawing readers in. An especially effective, glitter-strewn spread portrays Frank looming large and seemingly running off the page while Betty looks on, stricken at the ensuing mess. Though it's a familiar and easily resolved story, Witherspoon's rollicking text never holds back, replete with amusing phrases such as "sweet cinnamon biscuits," "bouncing biscuits," and "busted biscuits." As Betty says, "Being busy is a great way to be." Young readers are sure to agree. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An entertaining, if light, addition to the growing shelf of celebrity-authored picture books. (Picture book. 4-7)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
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"Witherspoon, Reese: BUSY BETTY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A711906332/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=57a90e6c. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022.

Busy Betty

Reese Witherspoon, illus. by Xindi Yan.

Flamingo, $19.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-5934-6588-2 An impetuous child's enthusiasm finds a worthy channel in this peppy picture book by Witherspoon (Whiskey in a Teacup, for adults), whose heroine's boundless, big-cartwheel energy is both adorable and a little unnerving. "Sweet cinnamon biscuits, I love being busy!" proclaims young Betty, who enjoys "DOING things and MAKING things and playing ALL day long!" In polished cartooning by Yan(The Wishing Tree), Betty--portrayed with blond pigtails, pale skin, and big round spectacles--decides she's watched enough dog-washing at the local pet store to scrub the family's recalcitrant pug, Frank. Both Betty and Frank get increasingly messy as they tussle in an inflatable pool and Frank knocks into canisters of glitter, but Betty's pale-skinned, dark-haired best friend Mae is able to peer through the chaos and see a great idea: "a bubble-blowing-dog-running-squeaky-clean-canine-scrubbing... BUSINESS!" Text leans heavily into positive messaging ("You have to focus to finish") and wordplay ("When we pool our, ideas, we can do anything!" says Betty, pushing the pool into place). It may test some readers' tolerance for perkiness, but it's an earnest and unabashed celebration of youthful entrepreneurial zeal that feels very of the moment. Ages 3-7. Author's agent: Cait Hoyt, CAA. Illustrator's agent: Christy Ewers. CAT Agency. (Oct.)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 PWxyz, LLC
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Busy Betty." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 36, 29 Aug. 2022, p. 102. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A716641327/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=11adfd79. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022.

Jacobs, Barbara. "Whiskey in a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me about Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits." Booklist, vol. 114, no. 22, 1 Aug. 2018, p. 10. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A550613039/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=a85c6c17. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022. "Whiskey in a Tea Cup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits." Publishers Weekly, vol. 265, no. 32, 6 Aug. 2018, pp. 67+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A550547711/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=acd296ae. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022. "Witherspoon, Reese: BUSY BETTY." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2022, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A711906332/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=57a90e6c. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022. "Busy Betty." Publishers Weekly, vol. 269, no. 36, 29 Aug. 2022, p. 102. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A716641327/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=11adfd79. Accessed 14 Dec. 2022.

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