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November Picks From Celeb Book Clubs We Love

by  | November 19

As big readers, we love to hear book recommendations from people we admire. In recent years, some of our fave celebs have been creating book clubs to share what they are reading and why they chose those stories.

Emma Watson and Reese Witherspoon are two very outspoken bookworms, and the mission with their monthly recommendations is to highlight books that have strong female characters. (We’re here for it!) Check out the latest picks from these and other leading ladies we respect.

Good and Mad

Good and Mad

by Rebecca Traister

Our Shared Shelf, Emma Watson's Pick #1:
Good and Mad

This current year, 2018, has been a year of women’s empowerment and anger at the old way of doing things. We don’t want to just keep quiet and brush things under the rug anymore. It’s about time that men start respecting us. For decades, female anger has been perceived as a bad thing, but times are changing!

In Good and Mad, Rebecca Traister tracks the history of female anger as political fuel. She looks back at movements that empowered women—from the suffragettes marching on Washington to office workers walking out of their buildings after Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court. She examines how women’s collective rage has impacted society’s perspective on political issues.

 

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Eloquent Rage

Eloquent Rage

by Brittney Cooper

Our Shared Shelf, Emma Watson's Pick #2:
Eloquent Rage

The theme of female rage continues in this book selection. Brittney Cooper’s Eloquent Rage focuses on black women’s anger, which has often been caricatured as an ugly and destructive force. It is a feeling that has empowered many of the prominent black women in society…from Serena Williams to Beyoncé. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less.

Queen Bey says it best…

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Sister Outsider

Sister Outsider

by Audre Lorde

Our Shared Shelf, Emma Watson's Pick #3:
Sister Outsider

The theme of the power of female rage continues with this powerful collection of essays and speeches from famed feminist writer Audre Lorde. In Sister Outsider, you’ll find Lorde’s essay “The Uses of Anger,” in which she wrote, “every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, personal and institutional, which brought that anger into being. Focused with precision it can become a powerful source of energy serving progress and change.”
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In this collection, Lorde takes on social issues such as sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class. Although the essays were written from 1976 to 1984, the messages still resonate in today’s climate—touching on police brutality, violence against women, and movements toward equality.

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The Other Woman

The Other Woman

by Sandie Jones

Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick:
The Other Woman

If you are a fan of twisty psychological suspense, this is a book you need to add to your TBR list! I won’t give away too much because it’s best to go into this story a little blind….

When Emily meets Adam she knows he is the One. But lurking in the shadows is another woman, Pammie. Emily is about to find out just how far Pammie will go to get what she wants—which is Emily gone forever.

 

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She Would Be King

She Would Be King

by Wayétu Moore

Sarah Jessica Parker's Pick:
She Would Be King

This powerful debut by Wayétu Moore is a reimagined story of Liberia’s early years, through three unforgettable characters who have special abilities: Gbessa, June Dey, and Norman Aragon.

Gbessa was exiled from the West African village of Lai for being “cursed”—she was bitten by a poisonous snake but somehow survived; June Dey was raised on a plantation in Virginia but he flees after a confrontation with the overseer in which he displays his unusual strength; Norman Aragon is the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica who can become invisible. When they meet in the settlement of Monrovia their powers help to ease the tensions between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes.

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Bringing Down the Colonel

Bringing Down the Colonel

by Patricia Miller

Emma Robert's Belletrist Pick:
Bringing Down the Colonel

In the era of the #MeToo movement, women are bringing down men in powerful positions for committing acts of sexual harassment and assault. But long before #Me Too, there was the Breckinridge-Pollard scandal.

Journalist Patricia Miller shares the story of Madeline Pollard and her affair with a prominent politician that left her “ruined.” When Madeline and Kentucky Congressman William Breckinridge began their decade-long affair, she was just a teenager. After Breckinridge’s wife died, he asked for Madeline’s hand in marriage, but then he suddenly broke off the engagement and married another woman.

In 1893, Madeline sued the congressman for breach of promise—which led to their affair coming under public scrutiny. She began her campaign for justice, calling out the double standard by which society lived. She was “ruined” and blamed for partaking in premarital sex, while he was getting away with it…until she took matters into her own hands.

 

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Categories // Celebrity

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Saimah works on the Corporate Digital Marketing team at Simon & Schuster. She is a fan of dystopian fiction, celeb memoirs, contemporary rom-coms and murder mysteries. When she's not reading, she is binge-watching her favorite shows, exploring the best rooftop bars in the city and watching sports. Follow her on Instagram at @fire.escape.reads!
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