5 Celebrity Book Clubs You Can Actually Join

Image by Nikki Casey

By Thea Glassman March 24, 2017

It’s still chunky sweater and thick socks weather, so really the only thing you should be doing (aside from deciding that it’s too cold to go to the gym) is curling up with a good book.

For those of you in need of reading recommendations, here’s five celebrities who have book clubs you can actually join — plus all the Jewish authors they’re into right now.

Lena Dunham

Image by Getty

If you’re a fan of Lena Dunham and aren’t subscribing to her feminist newsletter “Lenny Letter,” pause everything and go subscribe. Besides inspiring, thoughtful interviews and beautifully candid essays, you’ll get treated to Lit Thursday, which offers up what Dunham, and the rest of the editors, are reading. There’s true crime stories, memoirs, poetry, gothic romances and much more — basically anything to wet your book loving whistle.

Emma Watson

Image by Getty

There’s a lot of reasons to love Emma Watson. The fact that she started her own feminist book club is just one of them. Her first read was Gloria Steinem’s “My Life On The Road,” followed by Caitlin Moran’s “How To Be A Woman” and Clarissa Pinkola Estés’s “Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype.”

Sarah Michelle Gellar

Image by Getty

Sarah Michelle Gellar seems to be more of a summer book club type of person (meaning her recommendations only pop up during the warm months) but that doesn’t mean you can’t delve into her past book picks. Check out #smgbookclub on Instagram or Facebook, and you’ll get everything she’s reading — and bonus points that the pictures are always poolside, next to a tasty snack or include a seal of approval from Reese Witherspoon.

Sarah Jessica Parker

Image by Getty

If you’ve been missing Carrie Bradshaw in your life, we have some great news for you. Sarah Jessica Parker is chairing American Library Association’s new Book Club Central, which will recommend a book a month starting in June. If you want to get a feel for Parker’s recommendations ahead of time, she curated a list of her favorites here, which range from works by Joshua Ferris to Sheri Fink.

Emma Roberts

Image by Getty

Emma Roberts just started Belletrist, a new book club with monthly picks — and her first recommendation, Joan Didion’s South and West, comes complete with an exclusive author interview. Plus, in the past, Roberts has shared book recs from her co-star Jamie Lee Curtis (“Hold Still” by Sally Mann, “Honey Girl” by Lisa Freeman) so we’re even more on board.

Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected]

Thea Glassman was an associate editor for the Forward. Follow her on twitter @theakglassman.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO