Emma Watson Picks ‘Half the Sky’ for Feminist Book Club, Seems to be Enjoying Her Break, Continues with Social Work

The next book Emma Watson is considering for her feminist book club is ‘Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.’

The book, written by couple Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, features tales of some exceptionally strong women the authors encountered when travelling through Asia and Africa. These women are survivors who stood up against all the odds facing them and hence went on to inspire others, as posted by Watson on Goodreads.

The post addressed to her book club also mentions how ‘Half the Sky’ became the central point of a global movement.

This pick for ‘Our Shared Shelf’ for September/October 2016 was released by Knopf in 2009, and its title is an ancient Chinese proverb saying that women support half of the sky.

Before this, her club which she launched sometime in January has read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein, and My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem. Recently, she posted about an interview with Satrapi for Vogue on Twitter.

The actress has been an avid supporter of the feminist movement (remember the HeforShe campaign speech at the UN Headquarters?), and it shows in the roles she played as an actress post-Harry Potter.

Her last film, The Colony, though not a box-office success, especially on her home turf, takes a refreshing break from the done-to-death mould of the knight saving the damsel in distress. It shows her as Lena, a woman who embarks on a quest to save her lover, played by Daniel Bruhl, from the Colonia Dignidad cult.

Watson’s performance as the gritty young woman willing to face everything has been praised in the film based on a true story featuring a cult which was associated with Pinochet’s regime in Chile.

And Watson continues spreading social awareness by becoming a part of Jeans for Refugees project launched by Johny Dar. She, along with Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe, joined ranks with more than a 100 other celebrities like Harry Styles, Kate Moss and Elton John who became associated with this venture.

The jeans are to be painted and customized by Dar before being auctioned off. The first lot of men’s jeans from among the 33 pairs already available were put up on August the 19th, which was also World Humanitarian Day. And Sharon Stone has already reached the top spot with a bid of 4,179.

More jeans are to appear over the summer, and the project is also to feature interactive events with the public.

About Emma’s jeans, Dar commented that he loved working on them as it was like making art out of the story that is Emma’s personal fairy tale.

And it seems that her ventures are doing credit to her and her causes, as she turned out to be the most popular celebrity among British teenagers according to an exclusive study conducted by YouGuv on behalf of Radio Times.

The research involved a staggering 1,200 children and young adults in the 13 to 18 age group who had to rate the public figures of their choice on six different characteristics like trust, respect, style and how much they could relate to it.

And it was aimed at finding the person they thought influenced them the most. It also wanted to find the relative popularity of traditional and online stars. In fact, 5 of the final Top 20 chosen as favorites were ‘vloggers’ on YouTube.

US President Barack Obama is at the second spot while actor David Tennant is in the third. With J.K. Rowling at the 6th position followed by Daniel Radcliffe, there are four of Watson’s Harry Potter colleagues who feature in the top 10.

Not surprisingly, British politicians are way down the list, topping from the bottom like Jeremy Corbyn.