Books are always welcome and demanding dates such as March 8 are a perfect occasion to get closer to new readings. There are many novelties that arrive at bookstores these days with the feminine gaze as the common thread. Although any selection is incomplete and therefore unfair, we offer some of the titles that publishers have suggested for International Women's Day.
Chemistry Lessons (Salamander), by Bonnie Garmus. It rarely happens that a debut causes so much furor. Bonnie Garmus has achieved it with this novel that has Elizabeth Zott as the protagonist, a single mother and star of the most followed television cooking show in the United States. Her unusual approach to cooking, combining a tablespoon of acetic acid with a dash of sodium chloride, proves revolutionary. However, as her success increases so do her enemies, for Elizabeth is not only teaching women to cook but also challenging them to disrupt the established order.
A shared history (Plaza
Physical education (Seix Barral), by Rocío Villajos. The author won the Biblioteca Breve award with this work set in the early 90s that draws the portrait of Catalina, a teenager marked by a complicated relationship with her own body and by resentment towards a world determined to make her guilty of the act. to be a woman The young woman forges her personal rebellion against the world through the struggle not to give up her own freedom, freedom of movement, freedom to be and to show herself as she is, even if that means taking risks.
Men Who Hate Women (Captain Swing), by Laura Bates. The author goes underground to expose vast misogynistic networks and communities that operate virtually undetected. These extremists commit deliberate terrorist acts against women and train and radicalize adolescents to carry on their legacy. Bates has interviewed members of these groups to understand how they work and discover the terrible ideas they spread from the darkest corners of the Internet.
A world without men (Seix Barral), by Sandra Newman. One fine day, Jane Pearson wakes up to a world without men. All of them have disappeared, including her son and her husband. As she searches for them, a new society arises before her, better, happier and safer than the previous one. Jane will thus face a great dilemma: she will have to decide if she wants to help the men to return or if she prefers to continue living in a new world without them.
Fémina (Aticus of books), by Janina Ramírez. The Oxford historian, specialist in the Middle Ages, Janina Ramírez, rediscovers the forgotten women of the Middle Ages for readers. Through a close examination of the objects, writings, and possessions they left behind, the influential and multifaceted lives of the women of that time and the impact they made at the time emerge. A vibrant journey that offers a new look at a time that, far from what is thought today, was anything but dark.
Bloomsbury Girls (Cathedral), by Natalie Jenner. We are facing the exciting journey of three intelligent and brave women who will learn the value of sorority and the importance of fighting for their dreams together. Bloomsbury Books is a quaint yet old-fashioned bookstore. It has hardly changed since it was inaugurated a century ago by an eminently male team, which has always been governed by fifty-one rules as immovable as they are absurd. But the women who work at the establishment have big plans for it.
Clever Girls (Pinolia), by Nathalie Holt. Keep your names. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier. Four women who did not fit the figure of femme fatale typical of spy novels. This group of brave and innovative women was baptized with the name of 'Smart Girls', and that is the title that Nathalie Holt has chosen for her novel. In it, she explains the work of these intelligence agents who were part of the first and precarious stage of the CIA. Not only did they revolutionize the outdated model of what it meant to be an agent, they also shattered stereotypes of a traditionally male-dominated industry and were uncompromising in their demands for equal pay commensurate with their talent.
Condensed milk (Trojan Horse), by Aida González Rossi. There are many topics that Aida González deals with in her debut, such as the end of childhood, symbiotic relationships or wanting to be expansive and encountering containment of abuse. Also about the Internet as a refuge, especially when you live in a town and you are queer. A debut that will give a lot to talk about.
A mother (AdN), by Alejandra Parejo. A portrait about the shadows of motherhood and the toughest aspects of the relationship between a mother and a daughter who don't know each other. The protagonist of this story is Bruna, a young woman who receives a call from the hospital regarding her mother, who suffers from bipolar disorder, twenty-nine years after she abandoned her. This causes her to leave the life she has built in Paris and go back to the place where she was born.
Our Seas (Edicions Proa), by Gemma Ruiz Palà. The journalist won the 2022 Sant Jordi Award with this work that is now in bookstores and that wants to honor a generation of women who gave up their dreams so that their daughters could choose years later. The author thus reveals the stories of ten powerful women born during the dictatorship with whom many may feel identified.
Determined. Love, sex and money (Today's Topics), by María Florencia Freijo. In her new book, the author breaks down three great axes that are still deeply marked by injustice: love, sex and money. From neuroscience, sociology and psychology, the author builds an enlightening essay on the obstacles that continue to stand in the way of any woman towards full freedom.
A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf Illustrated by Maria Hesse. The Andalusian illustrator rescues this unforgettable feminist classic in a new edition. In it, Virginia Woolf deals with issues such as economic dependency, the burden of care and the low historical presence of women. Topics that, even today, generate strong debates.
Jiujitsufragists. The Amazons of London (Garbuix Books), by Clément Xavier, Lisa Lugrin and Albertine Ralenti. The suffragettes had to face police repression. His weapon? Return the violence of the attackers against themselves, thanks to jiujitsu to achieve victory. This Chateau de Cheverny Award-winning graphic novel recalls the story of Edith Garrud, the first feminist self-defense trainer who trained Emmeline Pankhurs' bodyguards, nicknamed 'The Amazons'.
What would de Beauvoir do? How the great feminists would solve your daily problems (Larousse editorial), by Tabi Jackson Gee and Freya Rose. Have you ever wondered what Andrea Dworkin would have to say about your Brazilian wax? Or what would Mary Wollstonecraft think of the "fairy tale" weddings to which you are often invited? Do you know what recommendations Naomi Wolf would give you about your Tinder profile? Current everyday problems serve the authors as a springboard to explore the theories and concepts of the great feminists of all time.
The House of Broken Threads (Destiny), by Angélica Morales. The book rescues the life of Otti Berger, a young Hungarian from a wealthy Jewish family who dreams of studying textile design at the most important avant-garde art school of the moment, the Bauhaus. Despite her hearing problems due to an accident suffered in her childhood, she very soon began to stand out for her great creativity and desire for experimentation, until she became one of her most advantaged students.
The decision (Seix Barral), by Viola Ardone. The author travels to the sixties in Sicily, where the young Olivia lives. Italy is experiencing a moment of transition in which certain freedoms for women are beginning to be glimpsed. However, for this fifteen-year-old teenager and most of her friends, it is as if time has not passed.
The Book of My Destiny (Publishing Alliance), by Parinoush Saniee. A new reissue of this world bestseller, translated into twenty-six languages and banned several times in Iran, about the search for freedom and dignity of Iranian women, has arrived in bookstores. Masumeh's life allows us to look back to follow the turbulent history of the country, before, during and after the Islamic Revolution, to whose fate she is firmly tied. But Masumeh, like her contemporaries, will not stop seeking in friendship, in love and in her own greatness the strength of her to continue affirming life in the face of hatred.
To the body of a woman (Editions B), by Alejandra Martínez de Miguel. The woman from Madrid returns to bookstores with a feminist collection of poems with desire as the main theme. A bold, intimate and combative tribute to the body.
Amalia (Garbuix Books), by Aude Picault. Amalia is a family mother overwhelmed by the demands of her work and the inability to achieve a reconciliation that does not imply constant personal sacrifice. The constant pressure to which she is subjected begins to take its toll on her health. She is soon diagnosed with performance intolerance that will result in her having to rethink her life. Thus, she will see how the way of life in the contemporary world is incompatible with personal and family balance.
