Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, "lays out an agenda for the world's women and three major abuses: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence including honor killings and mass rape; maternal mortality, which needlessly claims one woman a minute."

Even though Kristof and WuDunn focus on solutions as well as problems around these issues, reading about them might feel overwhelming. Why not transform that overwhelm into action by registering your book club with the Mercy Corps Half the Sky Book Club?

You'll receive discussion questions from Kristof and WuDunn, handmade bookmarks from India, and updates on Half the Sky news and events. Plus, the book club that, "compiles the most impressive record of activism by June 15, 2010 will receive a visit and discussion session with Kristof and WuDunn."

Here's how it works:

• Go to One Table, a Mercy Corps campaign to fight hunger by investing in women.
• Fill out the registration form for your book club.
• Read the book!
• Host an event to discuss the book and raise funds and awareness for Mercy Corps programs that help women around the world.

Even if you don't belong to a book club, you can still get together a group of 6-10 friends, family members, coworkers, neighbors, or online pals to read the book and take some kind of action together.

Update: Here's a resource I learned about after the post was published, EngenderHealth’s online Reader’s Companion for Half The Sky.

Related posts

• Aid Group Taps Book Clubs to Help Raise Money and Awareness by Caroline Preston on philanthropy.com.
• Mercy Corps, Nicholas Kristof Encourage Book Clubs To Fundraise And Get Active on the Huffington Post.
• Book Club Activists Unite! by Linda Mason on The Huffington Post.
• Holding Up Half the Sky by Joanne Bamberger on BlogHer.
• Book Report: Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn by Tammy Oler on tammyoler.com.

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Britt Bravo, also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, WE tv's WE Volunteer blog, The Extraordinaries, and the Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship blog. She is a Big Vision Consultant.