Actor Emma Roberts and producer Karah Preiss are launching a new literary video series with the online community BookClub, the Hollywood Reporter reports.
The project is a collaboration between BookClub and Belletrist, the virtual literary community that Roberts and Preiss founded in 2017. The series will feature monthly book selections by the two friends and feature video and audio content about each month’s pick.
The first selection for the club is Animal, the debut novel by journalist Lisa Taddeo. A reviewer for Kirkus called the book, which follows a woman who moves from New York to southern California after witnessing her lover’s suicide, “as full of sensuality, amorality, and drama as its riveting narrator.”
“Our friendship is rooted in a mutual love of books,” Roberts said. “There’s nothing like finding a fellow reader who’s just as passionate about prose as you are.”
In a video preview for the project, Preiss says, “We’ve channeled our love of books into an online community of voracious readers.”
“And now we’re bringing our favorite authors into your living room,” Roberts adds.
On Instagram, Belletrist featured a sneak preview of their discussion with Taddeo about Animal.
“The second women do anything using sexuality, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, can you believe she did that?’” Taddeo says. “And it’s like, ‘Yeah, I can.’ I’m not trying to elicit shock, but I am trying to elicit a visceral response.”
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
