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Who has their book? #OurSharedShelf @GloriaSteinem #mylifeontheroad #bookclub pic.twitter.com/ZX3ze6BAc5

— Emma Watson (@EmWatson) January 11, 2016

Earlier this week, Emma Watson announced the launch of a feminist book club called Our Shared Shelf. The actress and United Nations women goodwill ambassador shared a photo on Twitter (embedded above) with the first read for the group: My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a new selection will be made on a monthly basis. Thus far, more than 78,000 people have joined this group. Some of the celebrity participants include actress Sophia Bush, soccer star Abby Wambach, and filmmaker Lena Dunham. At this point in time, it is not known if singer Taylor Swift or author J.K. Rowling will also take part.

Over at the Goodreads page for Our Shared Shelf, Watson revealed the origins behind this venture: “As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading as many books and essays about equality as I can get my hands on. There is so much amazing stuff out there! Funny, inspiring, sad, thought-provoking, empowering! I’ve been discovering so much that, at times, I’ve felt like my head was about to explode…I decided to start a Feminist book club, as I want to share what I’m learning and hear your thoughts too.”

Click here to listen to Watson’s HeForShe campaign speech. (via People)

Emma Watson has decided to launch a feminist book club. The actress and United Nations women goodwill ambassador posted a message on Twitter asking for help on figuring out a name for it.

Here’s more from The Guardian: “After suggestions including ‘Wats Up Fems’, ‘Watson Your Shelf’ and ‘Hermione’s Army’, Watson announced today that she ‘absolutely loved’ Twitter user @emilyfabb’s suggestion: ‘Our Shared Shelf’ and foreshadowed further information about the book club was still to come. Twitter’s response has been enthusiastic: alongside punters, retired American footballer Abby Wambach, actor Sophia Bush, and singer Kate Voegele have all tweeted they would take part in the club, with Watson agreeing to ask Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and singer Taylor Swift to join in.”

Wambach, a world-renowned soccer champion, might have given Watson the inaugural title for the book club: My Life On the Road by Gloria Steinem. Steinem herself tweeted back at Bush, Watson, and Wamback with this proposition: “After we do this digitally we’ll have to do this in person!”

Click on this link to listen to Watson’s HeForShe campaign speech. (via USA Today)

We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending Nov. 01, 2015–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.

(Debuted at #1 in Paperback Nonfiction) Lost Ocean by Johanna Basford: “Through intricate pen and ink illustrations to complete, color, and embellish, readers will meet shoals of exotic fish, curious octopuses, and delicately penned seahorses. Visit coral reefs and barnacle-studded shipwrecks, discover intricate shells and pirate treasure.” (Oct. 2015)

(Debuted at #3 in Hardcover Nonfiction) The Witches by Stacy Schiff: “It began in 1692, over an exceptionally raw Massachusetts winter, when a minister’s daughter began to scream and convulse. It ended less than a year later, but not before 19 men and women had been hanged and an elderly man crushed to death. The panic spread quickly, involving the most educated men and prominent politicians in the colony. Neighbors accused neighbors, parents and children each other. Aside from suffrage, the Salem Witch Trials represent the only moment when women played the central role in American history. In curious ways, the trials would shape the future republic.” (Oct. 2015)

(Debuted at #8 in Hardcover Nonfiction) My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem: “Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. When she was a young girl, her father would pack the family in the car every fall and drive across country searching for adventure and trying to make a living. The seeds were planted: Gloria realized that growing up didn’t have to mean settling down. And so began a lifetime of travel, of activism and leadership, of listening to people whose voices and ideas would inspire change and revolution.” (Oct. 2015)

Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar this week.

To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.

Gloria Steinem will talk about her new book, Nomad: My Life on the Road at Barnes & Noble (Union Square branch). Hear her on Tuesday, Nov 3 starting 7 p.m. (New York, NY)

At the next session of the Macaulay Author Series, Paul Goldberger will discuss his new book Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry. Join in on Wednesday, Nov 4 at Macaulay Honors College starting 7 p.m. (New York, NY)

Ada Calhoun will celebrate the launch of her new book, St. Marks is Dead. Meet her on Thursday, Nov 5 at the powerHouse Arena from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (Brooklyn, NY)

I didn’t actually meet Gloria Steinmen, but I heard her speak to a packed audience this morning starting at 8:30am.

Gloria has been my hero throughout my life. I’ve admired her passion and commitment advocating for women to be seen as equal citizens and our right to control our bodies. Her message of being aware and opening your mind to seeing things with a different perspective was a reason I became a children’s librarian.

Gloria said many amazing things as she spoke, but I found it admirable when she would admit that there were moments in her life when she connected the dots. Though she may have been talking about equality of the sexes, not realizing a female rock band could elicit as much screaming from fans as their male counterparts until she witnessed the explosion of emotions while at a Heart concert.

That realizing your state legislators were more important than those in Washington, D.C.

Her wisdom, candor, and wit has left me feeling as if I am riding on a cloud.

I only wish I had asked her these two questions.

If being an activist means you must be angry enough (and passionate) about something, and believe in every fiber of your being that fighting for it is the single most important focus of your life, how do you find the balance between anger and happiness?

Did you ever worry that you would be content with just okay?

Gloria closed with a recommendation for a library sign: No talking. Only laughter.

The post #alasf2015 Meeting your heroes is pretty awesome appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Famed feminist activist Gloria Steinem has landed a book deal.

According to USA Today, this projects marks the first time Steinem has written a book in over 20 years. Penguin Random House will release My Life on the Road on October 27th.

Entertainment Weekly reports that this memoir focuses on Steinem’s “experiences on the road and the people she met who influenced her life. Steinem will detail her encounters with both famous faces and not-so-familiar names, all of whom were important to Steinem’s journey. She’ll also write about how the nomadic state of her life also played a major role in her roles as a journalist and activist.”

Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar this week.

To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.

Children’s author Maureen Kanefield will appear at the University Avenue Discovery Center to deliver a reading. See her on Monday, November 24th starting 3 p.m. (Madison, WI)

(more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Succumbed to the hype and lost a few IQ points reading Book One of Fifty Shades.

Awful writing + glorification of an abusive relationship = trash. Fifty Shades is a spicier version of a good old Harlequin Romance, with all the tropes of the genre: sweet young woman falls for gorgeous, super-rich, arrogant man with a tragic past, boo hoo. She tames him and turns him into a better person. When Fifty Shades got to the backstory that explained why Christian was so messed up - his birth mother was a crack whore - I laughed out loud. Of course she was a crack whore!

I loved the Amazon reviewer who hypothesized that the book had been dreamt up by a couple of teenage girls. But what disturbs me about this book is that such a piece of garbage is being read and analyzed by some pretty smart women as if Christian Grey were a literary construct worthy of discussion. I CAN'T STAND IT. How can they not see that he - and this book - have less depth than a comic book? (Jughead's character flaws would be more interesting.)

Most disturbing - the abuse factor. Who cares what people do in the bedroom - it's no one's business. But his controlling her life, limiting her contact with friends and family, are the hallmarks of batterers. And her acquiescence in that kind of relationship - which is meant to be "hot" - is typical of abused women. I wonder how real women who have suffered mistreatment at the hands of a partner find this book. Not so sexy, I'm guessing.

And here's my least favorite passage: "It's (the domination and hitting) right for Christian. It's what he wants, and ...after all he's done (bought her a car and first class airfare) I have to man up and take whatever he decides he wants, whatever he thinks he needs."

Whoa! We should put up with men controlling and hitting us as long as they buy us expensive gifts??? What the hell year is this? Gloria Steinem, speak up about this piece of crap book. Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On every dimension - artistic, political, psychological - this book is offensive, misogynistic junk, and I wish people would recognize that and shut up about it already!

* Yolanda Miller asks, “What Are Fathers For?” She begins with a great quote from Gloria Steinem, “Most American children suffer too much mother and too little father.” About midway she writes:

By manhood, I do not mean the stereotypical beer-belching, video-game-playing, sports-fanatical behavior often attributed to men—I mean something deeper. I am talking about the core essence of a male identity that has gone missing. As gender roles have morphed, women have preached and proven their self-sufficiency. The end result is that we have implied (and sometimes stated) that men are no longer wanted or needed and that their contributions, outside of sperm and salary, are no longer desirable.

* Here’s an entertaining site for to-the-point book reviews from a retired guy’s perspective: “My Dad Reads Too Many Books.”

* This “Dedicated Dads Program” invites fathers into the school:

Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) is the parental involvement initiative of the National Center for Fathering that organizes fathers and father figures to provide positive male role models for students and to enhance school security.

At Anderson-Livsey Elementary, which opened in the Shiloh cluster at the beginning of the school year, officials launched the program in the school to ensure students would have male role models.

“The whole goal of Watch D.O.G.S. is to attract and get positive male role models into the education system,” said Darren Boyce, the school’s parent instructional support coordinator.

* Anna Richardson reports: “Kids prefer gossip mags to books.”

A National Year of Reading study [based in Australia] has revealed that children are reading celebrity gossip magazines such as Heat and Bliss instead of books, especially if the novels stretch to more than 100 pages, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Boys and girls as young as 11 said they preferred absorbing the exploits of pop stars and models such as Amy Winehouse and Kate Moss to reading books by Jacqueline Wilson or Philip Pullman.

The study sparked debate on whether children were damaging their development by reading such magazine, or whether children should be encouraged to read what they liked, as long as it was reading.

* Over at my other blog, Jamespreller.com, I had t