Emma Watson's Reading List
Actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. Founded the Our Shared Shelf feminist book club on Goodreads in January 2016, selecting one or two new feminist titles every two months through 2019.
Open in WellRead Daily app →Our Shared Shelf — Complete Picks (2016–2019) (2019)
All 32 bimonthly feminist book picks Emma Watson selected for the Our Shared Shelf Goodreads group from January 2016 through 2019. Goodreads group page is the primary source; chronology cross-referenced with radicalreads.com/emma-watson-favorite-books and contemporaneous Bustle / Guardian coverage.
Source: www.goodreads.com
Gloria Steinem · 2015 · Buy on Amazon
Alice Walker · 1982 · Buy on Amazon
bell hooks · 2000 · Buy on Amazon
Caitlin Moran · 2011 · Buy on Amazon
Maggie Nelson · 2015 · Buy on Amazon
Marjane Satrapi · 2000 · Buy on Amazon
Carrie Brownstein · 2015 · Buy on Amazon
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn · 2009 · Buy on Amazon
Maya Angelou · 2013 · Buy on Amazon
Eve Ensler · 1996 · Buy on Amazon
Clarissa Pinkola Estés · 1992 · Buy on Amazon
Margaret Atwood · 1985 · Buy on Amazon
Naomi Wolf · 1990 · Buy on Amazon
Roxane Gay · 2017 · Buy on Amazon
Naomi Alderman · 2016 · Buy on Amazon
Reni Eddo-Lodge · 2017 · Buy on Amazon
Terese Marie Mailhot · 2018 · Buy on Amazon
Kate Moore · 2017 · Buy on Amazon
Angie Thomas · 2017 · Buy on Amazon
Rupi Kaur · 2014 · Buy on Amazon
Daphne du Maurier · 1938 · Buy on Amazon
Audre Lorde · 1984 · Buy on Amazon
Brittney Cooper · 2018 · Buy on Amazon
Rebecca Traister · 2018 · Buy on Amazon
Sabrina Mahfouz (ed.) · 2017 · Buy on Amazon
Kai Cheng Thom · 2016 · Buy on Amazon
Min Jin Lee · 2017 · Buy on Amazon
Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman · 2019 · Buy on Amazon
Yusra Mardini · 2018 · Buy on Amazon
Toni Morrison · 1987 · Buy on Amazon
Rebecca Solnit · 2019 · Buy on Amazon
Rebecca Solnit · 2019 · Buy on Amazon
Favorite books (2023)
Favorite books recommended by All 32 of Emma Watson's Feminist Book Club Picks, as compiled by radicalreads.com. Source article: https://radicalreads.com/emma-watson-favorite-books/.
Source: radicalreads.com
Gloria Steinem (also rec’d by Elizabeth Gilbert ) · Buy on Amazon
bell hooks (also rec’d by Pussy Riot ) · Buy on Amazon
Caitlin Moran (also rec’d by Amanda Palmer ) · Buy on Amazon
"I read it on a plane from London to New York and I laughed out loud and cried so much I think the whole of my cabin, airline staff included, thought I was losing my mind."
Maggie Nelson (also rec’d by Carrie Brownstein , Emma Watson , Greta Gerwig & Kim Gordon ) · Buy on Amazon
"The story is about the author’s relationship with artist Harry Dodge, who is fluidly gendered. It’s about their romance, the birth of their son, the death of Harry’s mother and their changing bodies, as Maggie becomes pregnant and Harry undergoes surgery, but it’s also about inclusion and the powers and shortfalls of language. It might require a bit of work but The Argonauts rewards us with an expansive way of considering identity, caretaking, and freedom—along with a liberation from, what Ma..."
Marjane Satrapi (also rec’d by Noname ) · Buy on Amazon
"Satrapi grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and its aftermath; Persepolis is the story of her childhood. Through Marji’s youthful (though not-always-innocent) eyes and mind, we see a turbulent moment in history unfold, and we witness the tremendous impact that local and global events and politics can have on even the most intimate moments of personal lives. We experience with Marji her day-to-day dreams and struggles, from family strife to wrestling with religious faith and custom...."
Carrie Brownstein · Buy on Amazon
Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn (also rec’d by Mia Farrow & Yoko Ono ) · Buy on Amazon
"Half the Sky depicts, in eye-opening detail, the various cultures and customs that suppress women and gives a voice to those individuals who need to be heard the most. Traversing through Africa and Asia, Kristof and WuDunn introduce us to some incredibly strong women and describe their stories of suffering and survival. Most importantly, the book spotlights how these women were able to stand up and transform their lives and, through their inspiring examples, we learn that the key to enabling..."
Maya Angelou · 2013 · Buy on Amazon
"Maya Angelou’s final work, published a year before her death, in 2013, when she was 85 years old. It was the first book to focus on her mother, Vivian Baxter, who abandoned Angelou when she was a child and it portrays their complicated relationship. The story is about the special connection between mother and child; both women found a way to move on and form a profound and enduring bond of love and support."
Eve Ensler (also rec’d by Rupi Kaur ) · Buy on Amazon
"This book isn’t strictly just a book – it’s a play that became a political movement that became a world-wide phenomenon. Just say the title The Vagina Monologues and, even now, twenty years after Eve Ensler first performed her ground-breaking show, the words feel radical…I’m so interested to see which monologues we all like best, and which ones still shock us. Has the world moved on in twenty years, or are there still aspects of women’s sexuality we can’t talk about, through our own fears or..."
Margaret Atwood (also rec’d by Gloria Steinem & Jane Elliott ) · Buy on Amazon
"Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale over thirty years ago now, but it is a book that has never stopped fascinating readers because it articulates so vividly what it feels like for a woman to lose power over her own body. Like George Orwell’s 1984 (a novel that Atwood was inspired by) its title alone summons up a whole set of ideas, even for those who haven’t read it…Atwood has called it ‘speculative fiction’, but also says that all the practises described in the novel are ‘drawn from th..."
Naomi Wolf (also rec’d by Jane Elliott ) · Buy on Amazon
Roxane Gay (also rec’d by Ann Patchett , Jameela Jamil , Megan Rapinoe & Min Jin Lee ) · Buy on Amazon
"Roxane Gay describes her book Hunger as a ‘memoir about my body’. It traverses many of the issues surrounding our human bodies, the sexual experiences we have, our relationship with food, how we feel about our own bodies and the difference gender has to play on a body…While parts of the book are difficult to read, it highlights the very real damage done by sexual violence and puts you in the mind and body of someone that has to move through the world in a different way. A small insight or per..."
Naomi Alderman · Buy on Amazon
"Alderman challenges the cliché that women are more noble than men, and that a world run by women would be more gentle, with benevolent leaders and no war. In fact, women become power hungry and begin to repress men. They commit war atrocities, perform male genital mutilation, rape and maim for sport and kill to occupy land. With power dynamics reversed, the women don’t choose a righteous path – they act no better than men who have abused power throughout history. I think Alderman’s point is t..."
Reni Eddo-Lodge · Buy on Amazon
"I’m excited to announce that our first book of 2018 is Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge which talks about the history of racism in Britain, and ways we can see, acknowledge and challenge racism. I am not supposed to have favourites, however this was the most important book for me this year."
Terese Marie Mailhot · Buy on Amazon
"Having always felt deeply impatient and limited by having to express myself in perfect grammar and punctuation (this was pre-apostrophe gate!), I am quietly reveling in the profundity of Mailhot’s deliberate transgression in Heart Berries and its perfect results. I love her suspicion of words. I have always been terrified and in awe of the power of words – but Mailhot does not let them silence her in Heart Berries . She finds the purest way to say what she needs to say. She refines… How beaut..."
Angie Thomas · Buy on Amazon
Rupi Kaur (also rec’d by Jameela Jamil ) · Buy on Amazon
"Unlike poems I have often spent weeks unraveling, Rupi’s poems are not designed to obscure meaning or entertain too much ambiguity – they hit you like punches to the stomach. They are immediate, visceral and not easily digested. I am loathe to say Rupi has made poetry ‘accessible’ because while this is the truth (Rupi’s poems and illustrations fit well into those famously square shaped Instagram frames), there is nothing easy or accessible about what Rupi chooses to talk about. In fact, the t..."
Daphne du Maurier · Buy on Amazon
Audre Lorde (also rec’d by Ibram X. Kendi , Janet Mock & Noname ) · Buy on Amazon
Brittney Cooper · 2018 · Buy on Amazon
Rebecca Traister · 2018 · Buy on Amazon
Sabrina Mahfouz · Buy on Amazon
Kai Cheng Thom · Buy on Amazon
"With Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars, you really get the sense of creativity and invention that comes from becoming your own woman – an artist of your own identity. It may be a natural inclination to be nervous of what we do not know. Here is an author who builds us another world, expanding our view. This is a privilege. This is writing at its best. Enjoy being touched by the sparkle, warmth, community, violence and fierceness of the world Kai Cheng Thom has created."
Min Jin Lee (also rec’d by Jia Tolentino & Roxane Gay ) · Buy on Amazon
Steven Mayers & Jonathan Freedman · Buy on Amazon
Rebecca Solnit · Buy on Amazon
"Her book and all of her books give us the chance to ‘know’ more and that we should want to know more. I am grateful to Rebecca for her work as ‘creative extremist’, ‘nurturer’ and ‘truth seeker’. I feel better able to see, feel and express myself because of her. We all have many different types of mothers – intellectual, creative, political – Rebecca Solnit is one of mine… and I don’t care if it antagonizes anyone to say so."