Our shared shelf — Emma Watson’s Feminist book club

*Warning: A LOT of GIFs and Harry Potter puns ahead :P

Have you ever fallen in love with an actor as child and as you grew up discover they are not who you idolized them to be and ripped their movie posters off of your wall?

Ever been obsessed with a series when you were young and now you just don’t get why that series even caught your attention? I’m not saying which series. But psst.. it rhymes with shwilight.

Yeah, we have all been there.

But every once in awhile, you come across a celebrity who can be charming both on-screen and off-screen.

If she was brilliant playing the role of Hermonie Granger, Emma Watson is truly stunning as a person.

Everyone kinda has an idea of who she is from her famous role as Hermonie Granger

Harry Potter fandom has been so loyal even after ten years after the release of the last book.

If you’re a Potterhead like me, you’ll probably know a lot about Emma Watson. But one thing about her that seems to be under the radar of the social media is her feminist book club: Our Shared Shelf. I was so shocked and thrilled to stumble upon it in Instagram and quite honestly found it odd that I didn’t know about it earlier.

As part of work as Goodwill ambassador for UN Women, the 26-year-old started this club to suggest the books and essays about gender equality. She chooses the best book she can find on the topic and suggests it to the book club members every one or two months.

Anyone can join this book club on ‘goodreads.com’ or on Instagram page with the same name: https://www.instagram.com/oursharedshelf/

This book club recommends books on feminism, equality, woman empowerment and awareness about sex trafficking across the globe and a lot more.

They’re all very good read and I’ve never been let down so far, siriusly!

Some of the books recommended in this book club-

• Women who run with the wolves
• Persepolis
• The Vagina monologues, Eve Ensler
• Mom and me and mom, by Maya Angelou
• Half the sky, by Pulitzer award winners/couple Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudun

Almost all these books recommended can be purchased online. Hell, Amazon’s algorithm does so well that it recommended the latest book suggested in the book club even before I had the chance to look it up.

Half the sky

Women hold up half the sky.

I have started reading “Half the sky” and its sobering, bleak information on the horrific sex trafficking and the lenient attitudes of people across the globe towards it is eye-opening.

Sex trafficking could as well be happening right now in our not-so-far vicinity and we could blithely be unaware of it.

We often see an isolated crime against women and agitate over it and move on. But the statistics presented in this book efficiently draws attention to how often it happens and how much of a pattern there is and discusses the best method that the authors think are efficient, if not successful, to curb it.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone, it’s time that we know what surrounds us.

Mom and me and mom

Mom and me and mom & The Vagina Monologues and a crappy bookmark that I made…

Mom and me and mom is a soothing and a brilliant autobiography of Maya Angelou. If you are anything like me and already love her for her works like “The Phenomenal Women” and “I Know Why Caged Birds Sing”, you’ll find this book endearing and your awe and respect towards Angelou would quadruple.

The Vagina Monologues

Man do I love this book! I have just started reading it.

From the author’s cheekiness of naming the novel just to break the taboo around the word Vagina and encourage more women to say it out loud, to the actual content of the book, on the whole the book is very exciting to read.

But don’t be shocked if you are reading this book in public and it makes some heads turn.

In fact that’s exactly the whole point: the inclusion of the word in public space.

Join the club!

The book club is active on both Instagram and ‘goodreads.com’.You can follow up to see which book is suggested for the upcoming month. You can have discussions on the book in ‘goodreads.com’ towards the end of the month to find out what the fellow readers have to say about the book.

Join this club if you find it intriguing and get updates on what’s cooking in the book club.

Happy reading!