Reese Witherspoon's 'Beautiful' November Book Club Pick Is a Tribute to Native American Heritage Month
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While we have yet to reach November (we know you might still have some Halloween plans to get to!), Reese Witherspoon is already shining a light on next month’s National Native American Heritage Month with her new book club pick.
On Oct. 29, The Morning Show star announced that her latest pick is We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People by Nemonte Nenquimo and Mitch Anderson.
In her announcement on Instagram, Witherspoon called the 2024 book “an unforgettable memoir about fighting for your home and your heart.”
“We Will Be Jaguars follows the life of internationally acclaimed activist @nemonte.nenquimo and her journey to protect her people and indigenous lands, alongside her husband and writing partner @mitchandersonaf,” Witherspoon explained of the plot. “I was so moved by this story.”
Also in the post, Witherspoon read out loud a section of the book’s introduction. “For us, stories are living beings,” she reads. “They breathe life into our homes, into our forests. They pulse in our blood, in our dreams. They stalked us like jaguars, clack like peccary, sail like macaws, run like fish. They are powerful beings.”
'We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People' by Nemonte Nenquimo & Mitch Anderson
On the book club’s official website, Nenquimo, who is from the Waorani Indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon, wrote candidly about why she chose to share her and her people’s stories with the world.
“My father often told me that people must find it easy to destroy what they don’t understand,” she wrote. “Perhaps if more people understood something about life in the Amazon rainforest, they would not want to burn it down or poison it.”
“My father gave me his blessing to tell my story, to help more people understand who we are and where we live,” she continued. “Our hope with this book is to reach more people, to touch readers’ hearts, to stir them awake to the dangers facing our home and the ways they can help reduce those dangers, to make connections across cultures and to strengthen spiritual connections to the earth.”
If you ask us, there’s no better way to celebrate and honor National Native American Heritage Month in November than reading this touching book. Get yours now!
Before you go, click here to see all the best picks from Reese Witherspoon’s book club.