Oprah

A Biography

By: Kitty Kelley

Narrated by: Kitty Kelley

Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Based on three years of research and reporting, as well as 850 interviews with sources, many of whom have never before spoken for publication, Oprah is the first comprehensive biography of one of the most influential, powerful, and admired public figures of our time, by the most widely read biographer of our era.

Anyone who is a fan of Oprah Winfrey or who has followed her extraordinary life and career will be fascinated and newly informed by the closely observed, detailed, and well-rounded portrait of her provided by Kitty Kelley's exhaustively researched book. Listeners will come away with a greater appreciation of who Oprah really is beyond her public persona and a fuller understanding of her important place in American cultural history.

©2010 Kitty Kelley (P)2010 Random House

Proceed with caution if you like Oprah

I’ve been a huge fan of Oprah my entire life. When she stopped doing her daytime talk show I missed her so much! As of 2023 I am still a huge fan and interested in what she’s up to and still love her magazine.

Because of how much I have always liked Oprah, this audiobook was really unpleasant to listen to. The narrator did a fine job. The more I listened to this book the less good feelings and thoughts I had about Oprah. This book does not paint over in a good light at all!

Kitty Kelly does her research and does not print gossip she goes to great lengths to know what she is writing is the truth. In this book you will sometimes hear Oprah’s family and other people talking about Oprah and then Oprah giving her side and wondering who was telling the truth. After listening to the book for a while, you realize that Oprah herself doesn’t really tell the truth about much of anything. Oprah is really good at telling people what she thinks they want to hear.

I listened to bits and pieces of different chapters, less than two hours total, and returned the book.

I prefer to think of Oprah as the person I’ve grown up loving for the past few decades.

I was afraid if I listened to the rest of the book that I wouldn’t even like her anymore.

I’m stopping the book and returning it, remaining a fan of Oprah and hoping that I can forget most of what I heard here.

Everything you never wanted to know about Oprah

I surprised myself by buying this book as I have never been an Oprah fan. I always felt her to be pretentious and fake. Well I am amazed at all that she has accomplished I wonder to what end. It’s hard to say whether or not the things in this book are true but I would think that most is accurate. It certainly is a tell-all.

Good. Felt a bit negative overall

This was an overall great listen. Really good if you want to see the “controversy” side of Oprah. I wish it was a little more balanced. It felt really weighted around the negative sides of her life. It didn’t feel malicious just unbalanced.

Oprah, a Biography

Kitty Kelly is known as a writer of tell-all books, unauthorized biographies. This one is no exception. While she gives us a thorough review of the Oprah show, and what everyone thought of her, friends and foes alike, it did feel a little like being a voyeur, but of course I enjoyed it. Kitty Kelly narrated her own book, and she did quite well. It is said that people talk to her because she seems like such a benign grandmotherly type person. You could hear that in her voice as a narrator.

We all ready know it.

What disappointed you about Oprah: A Biography?

I am a fan both of kitty and Oprah. In most of Kittys'other books which I have read three others I found very interesting because I have learned a lot of new information. However with this book there was not much-new that had not already been seen , heard. Or written about.

What could Kitty Kelley have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

New information

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Kitty Kelley?

I enjoy. Kitty as a narrators.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

For a reader who may not have been formliar with Operah.

Oprah unmasked

The author did an incredible job writing this book based on a meticulous review of media reports. It is documented throughout with quotes from published sources. It was very interesting at first, but I tired of Oprah's story after a while, and just stopped reading.

Kitty Kelley Does Exhaustive Research

Kelley's book has example after example of how Oprah is not on TV.

Selfish, vindictive, unforgiving, relentless, ftom many accounts, Harpo Inc was like Germany in WWII, and Oprah was the furor.

Reading that as a teenager, Oprah performed sex acts for money, and was pregnant at 14, made me consider how extremely troubled she was growing up on poverty in Misdissippi.

Also, Oprah did a show on auto erotic oxygen restriction that is supposed to dramatically enhance orgasm, when the restriction is supposed to be released. However, obviously it is a very dangerous practice, with death occurring when the subject unexpectedly passes out and dies when the restriction is not removed.

A father discovered his "boy" dead in their garage with the door locked from inside.

His son had watched the show and his dad was sure The Oprah Show was responsible. He said he thought his son had killed himself, until one of the EMTS told him he thought his son had seen the Oprah Show.

Now, the son was no BOY. He was 38 years old. A little old to be living at home. If the son was wanting the high, why did he lock himself in the garage?
Doesn't seem like the most comfortable place to masturbate, or eadily recover from hanging.

What they DONT know is how many people the show SAVED. A 38 year old MAN should have gotten the intended message that it was a dangerous practice. ANY show like that likely would have discouraged the practice by people who are not troubled, and they have no way of knowing why this guy died.

Great Listen for fans of Oprah

Being a major fan of Oprah, nearing to the statement that she is indeed one of my few idols, I find this listen a fantastic way to wade through a work day that needs some perking. Kitty Kelley is said to have interviewed over 850 people for her research of this book (many of the quotes coming directly from Oprah from past and previous interviews) and the thick pages and countless quotes attest to that account. I am someone who Oprah can in perpetuity do no wrong in my eyes, so no revelation too scandalous or accounts of petulant tantrums would ever tinge my holistic view of her. Kelley when asked if her opinion of Oprah has changed after she had written her book stated that " my impression of her hasn't changed as much as it has expanded" and I find that this rings true for me as well. The over arching tone of the unauthorized and un-corroborated biography tends to have a page six, internet gossip site element to it in the stories that are told and retold. Only minute details of her spending and giving coupled with anecdotes from her days before her syndicated talk show revealed to me details that I ( and most likely other readers) had not already known. Kelley does her fair attempt at creating a leveled unbiased coloring of Oprah but I would have to say that if she was to praise Oprah as much as she were to prod and point out her numerous faults and failings this book probably wouldn't have had as much interest nor be as commercially successful as it stands.

Didn't believe

I think the author had a vendetta against Oprah!
I won't be reading or listening to any more if this authors books.

Can't get enough

This is my favorite audiobook, and I listen to it quite often. Kitty Kelley is one of the few authors who is also an excellent narrator, so expressive and natural.

It's ironic that I sometimes felt sympathy for Oprah, because I never was--and still am not a fan of hers.
I found Kitty Kelley to be credible, and I do not feel she bashed Oprah. Rather, I found Kelley's biography to be quite
revealing of Oprah--her good side, benevolent side, compassionate side as well as her ruthless side, narcissistic side and vindictive side. So I feel I learned a lot about Oprah, from wonderful things---to all her warts.