Oprah and Jonathan Franzen went from estranged to potential BFF’s on her show yesterday (New York magazine’s “Vulture” blog describes the sit down, along with video clips).

The greatest excitement, however, came when Oprah gave everyone in the audience a Kindle (hey, guys, it’s not a car!) Ironically, that moment came right after Oprah talked about the beauty of the “special, deluxe” Penguin edition of the next Book Club pick, Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, and declared, “You can pass it on to your grandchildren, because books DO matter. We’re still going to be holding books in our hands for years to come.”

The actual book discussion was reserved for the after show interview, featuring an all-male book club (Oprah claimed she’d never heard of such a thing, but Franzen said they aren’t that rare).

It’a not just one classic, but two this time, both by Charles Dickens; A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, bound into one 800 page special edition for the club.

The AP’s book publishing reporter, Hillel Italie, broke the news, saying that he purchased a copy of the volume with the logo on the cover.

The official announcement will be made on the show today.

Oprah announces her next pick on Monday, the same day that Jonathan Franzen appears on the show to discuss the current one, Freedom.

According to industry news site, Publishers Lunch, “It’s a big fat paperback from Penguin, with an unknown page count but a listed shipping weight of 1.9 pounds. The print book has a list price of $20, but the ebook currently has an agency price of only $7.99.”

Could it be the new edition of Madame Bovary, translated by Lydia Davis?

No, its list price is $27.95 and the weight is 1.4 pounds.

Any ideas?

According to tweets from people who watched the live Oprah Show in Chicago, the next Book Club pick is the heavily-rumored Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom. According to one tweet, Oprah said that she checked it out with Franzen first (good move).

UPDATE: A tweet from Franzen’s publisher, FSG (FSG_Books), confirms the selection. It is also posted on the Oprah Web site. But the really big news, according to PW Daily is that Oprah said this is not her final book club pick. She plans to pick books throughout the final season of her show AND it will “go with me to the Oprah Network.”

In just a few hours, we’ll learn which title will get the magic book club sticker, when Oprah’s live show debuts on Chicago’s WLS at 10 am. EDT (it runs on other stations at 4 p.m. local times). Many news outlets are already claiming that it is the wild card, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, based on a story, released mid-afternoon yesterday, by the AP, quoting three anonymous booksellers who have seen early copies of the stickered book.

The Melville House Publishing blog posted a story way back on Monday, based on “reliable sources” and followed with post featuring the cover with an Oprah sticker. The L.A. Times is suspicious that the rather blurry photo may be a result of photoshopping. Below is the cover, next to the Melville House image. We leave it to you to judge — is this a poor photo shop job, a bad scan, or just a terrible photo?

Consider it her parting gift to the book business; in the final season of her show, Oprah is bringing back the Book Club. Macmillan has alerted accounts that the announcement will be made on Sept. 17th, which is also the book’s on sale date (that’s the date for the edition with the official sticker; the book might have already been published, according to the bookseller Newtonville Books Community blog).

And, guess what literary darling is published by one of Macmillan’s companies? Freedom by Jonathan Franzen is published by FSG. Would Oprah be willing to revisit the author who dissed her in the past, causing her to revoke his invitation to appear on the show? It might make for an interesting segment on forgiveness.

The price fits; Oprah #64 is $28 and so is the Franzen. However, the fake ISBN indicates Oprah’s selection is a St. Martin’s Press title. The price is puzzling, though; it doesn’t fit any titles in St. Martin’s catalog. My guess is that they would be more likely to fudge the price than the ISBN. So, ignoring the price question, here are a couple of titles that might be possibilities:

Some Sing, Some Cry: A Novel Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayeza Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 031219899X / 9780312198992

Ntozake Shange wrote the award-winning 1975 play,  for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, which Tyler Perry just finished directing as a film. Originally announced for Martin Luther King Day weekend release, it was just moved to November and is getting Oscar buzz. Perry and Oprah are friends and were co-executive producers of the movie Precious.

…………………………

A Secret Kept Tatiana de Rosnay Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 0312593317 / 9780312593315

The follow up to de Rosnay’s best-selling Sarah’s Key is, according to Kirkus, about “the crushing cost of keeping secrets,” a recurring theme on Oprah’s show.