Book recommendations International Women's Day 8 March
As a library committed to promoting diverse voices and empowering our community through literature, we are proud to share some reading tips for International Women's Day, 8 March.
Explore and promote gender equality by visiting our themed collection, where you'll find a blend of biographies about women in natural sciences, technology, engineering, and architecture, feminist classics, as well as significant literary works.
Go to themed collection: International Women's Day 8 March
Book recommendations from the KTH Library staff
Naher's recommendation: In the graphic novel Inne I spegelsalen (In the Hall of Mirrors), Liv Strömqvist describes our fixation on beauty, both present-day and historically. She brings up examples that illustrate how much of our lives are governed by our appearance and how beauty has become an object of consumption.
Inne i spegelsalen, Liv Strömqvist
Miritt's recommendation: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood explores the dystopian society of Gilead, a fictional state in New England where women face severe oppression. They are relegated to childbearing for the ruling class, stripped of rights and autonomy. Yet, amidst this patriarchal regime, the narrative shines a light on women's resistance, depicting their fight for agency. With themes echoing contemporary issues like the anti-abortion movement and broader infringements on women's rights, Atwood's novel serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and autonomy.
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
Aruna's recommendation: Naomi Alderman's book The Power reveals the absurdities of society's structures when our existing conditions are turned upside-down. By illuminating what significance physical power has had in human history, the book explores the idea of what would happen if the power balance shifts. And the way power can corrupt us all.
Lotta's recommendation: Estrid Ericson is a role model as a designer and entrepreneur. This is a biography about her collaborations with a number of prominent Swedish architects and about her own creativity. It is inspiring to read about her thoughts on how objects, patterns and forms from all corners of the world can meet and create something new that feels as relevant now as it did 100 years ago.
Estrid Ericson, Hedvig Hedqvist
Lenita's recommendation: Elisabetta Maiorano, a math teacher at a juvenile detention center, grapples with grief over her late husband's passing and the shared longing for children they never had. Amidst her struggles, she befriends Almarina, a resilient refugee student. Their bond deepens as Elisabetta teaches Almarina to swim and shows her the world outside the confinement of the youth prison. Together, they find solace and growth, illustrating the transformative power of friendship amidst adversity.
Piah's recommendation: In "Att uppfinna världen" (English title: Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men), Katrine Marçal describes which inventions are considered technical and how our perception of technology is intertwined with our views on gender roles.
Att uppfinna världen, Katrine Marçal
Pontus' recommendation: Kvinnosaker by Karin Carlsson goes through 50 objects that changed women’s lives from the early 1900’s until today. The author writes about scientific innovations like bicycles, microwave ovens and running shoes and the impact they have made on women’s everyday lives throughout the past century.Available at KTH Library in Swedish.
Melissa's recommendation: This everlasting classic is based on two, at the time highly progressive, lectures delivered by Virginia Woolf at Cambridge University in 1928. Woolf talks about the importance of access to education, to money and, at least metaphorically, a room of her own, in order to be creative and independent.
A Room of one's own, Virginia Woolf
Viveka's recommendation: The Lover is a modern classic first published in 1984. The setting is Indo-China in the 1930’s. A girl of 15 from a French family on the brink of ruin becomes the mistress of a wealthy young Chinese. Their relationship is frowned upon, with regards to their different backgrounds; ethnicity, age and money. A dreamy and disruptive novel on passion and love that cannot be.
Available at KTH Library in French and Swedish.
Anna Karin's recommendation: An important book about the life of young working women in Stockholm in the early 1900s. Straightforward and witty dialogue makes it an engaging read.