Our Book Club is open to anyone who loves to read and cares about Together Women Rise’s mission to achieve global gender equality. We feature fiction and nonfiction books related to:
- Gender equality
- International women’s issues
- Global poverty
- Countries where our grantees operate
- Women’s history and accomplishments
- Memoirs/biographies of strong women who changed the world
We use Goodreads to share, review, and discuss books. Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Together Women Rise’s volunteer Moderators post books regularly and generate online discussions.
How to Join
- Go to Goodreads and create your free account.
- Click on the “Community” tab, then “Groups” and search for Together Women Rise.
- Click “Join Group” button below our logo.
- Click on the Book Shelf to view or add books.
- Invite your chapter members or friends to join.
- Attend quarterly Book Club events
- Discuss what you have read with other Book Club members.
Together Women Rise Big Read Events
Each quarter, we select one book that we will feature for Together Women Rise’s “Big Read”, and we encourage everyone to read this book at the same time! We highlight the book in our newsletters and on social media, and host a virtual book club gathering to discuss the book.
Book: Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World
Author and Guest Speaker: Eliza Reid, First Lady of Iceland. Eliza is a journalist, editor, and cofounder of the annual Iceland Writers Retreat. As Iceland’s First Lady, she has been active in promoting gender equality, entrepreneurship and innovation, tourism and sustainability, and the country’s writers and rich literary heritage.
Summary: Iceland is the best place on earth to be a woman—but why?
For the past twelve years, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report has ranked Iceland number one on its list of countries closing the gap in equality between men and women. What is it about Iceland that enables its society to make such meaningful progress in this ongoing battle, from electing the world’s first female president to passing legislation specifically designed to help even the playing field at work and at home?
The answer is found in the country’s sprakkar, an ancient Icelandic word meaning extraordinary or outstanding women.
Event: Wednesday, November 1 at noon ET
Book: Nervous Conditions
Author: Tsitsi Dangarembga
Summary: A modern classic in the African literary canon and voted in the Top Ten Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, this novel brings to the politics of decolonization theory the energy of women’s rights. An extraordinarily well-crafted work, this book is a work of vision. Through its deft negotiation of race, class, gender and cultural change, it dramatizes the ‘nervousness’ of the ‘postcolonial’ conditions that bedevil us still. In Tambu and the women of her family, we African women see ourselves, whether at home or displaced, doing daily battle with our changing world with a mixture of tenacity, bewilderment and grace.
Event: Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 8 pm ET
Book: Guardians of the Trees
Author: Kinari Webb. Kinari is also the founder of Rise past grantee Health in Harmony!
Summary: Full of hope and optimism, Kinari Webb takes us on an exhilarating, galvanizing journey across the world, sharing her passion for the natural world and for humanity. In our current moment of crisis, Guardians of the Trees is an essential roadmap for moving forward and the inspiring story of one woman’s quest to heal the world.
When Webb first traveled to Indonesian Borneo at 21 to study orangutans, she was both awestruck by the beauty of her surroundings and heartbroken by the rainforest destruction she witnessed. As she got to know the local communities, she realized that their need to pay for expensive healthcare led directly to the rampant logging, which in turn imperiled their health and safety even further. Webb realized her true calling was at the intersection of medicine and conservation.
After graduating with honors from the Yale School of Medicine, Webb returned to Borneo, listening to local communities about their solutions for how to both protect the rainforests and improve their lives.
Event: Tuesday, April 23, 2024 at 8 pm ET