“Women and fiction remain, so far as I am concerned, unsolved problems.”
– Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2016, and to remind students that the Library has more than just textbooks, we compiled a list of some books written by women in the Main Library:

• Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, PS1017.L5 Alc.
• Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale, PR9199.3.A8 Atw.
• Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, PR4034.P7 Aus.
• Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, PR4167 Bro.
• Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, PR4172.W7 Bro.
• Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, PR6005.H66 Chr.
• Louise Erdrich, The Round House, PS3555.R42 Erd.
• Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary, PR6056.I4588 Fie.
• Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees, PS3611.I44 Kid.
• Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, PS3562.E353 Lee.
• Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife, PS3564.I362 Nif.
• Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar, PS3566.L27 Pla.
• Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire, PS3568.I265 Ric.
• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, PR5397.F7 She.
• Kathryn Stockett, The Help, PS3619.T636 Sto.
• Alice Walker, The Colour Purple, PS3573.A425 Wal.
• Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, PR6045.O72 Woo.

Today we were in the Foyer of the Main Library asking students to vote on their favourite one! It was a close race, but in the end the winner was Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre! Other popular titles were Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein!

Let us know on Facebook or Twitter (#happylibrary) if you have comments on the winners or suggestions of other titles! And why not borrow one of these books this week! Remember, it only takes six minutes of quiet reading to relax you.

We will leave you this week with another image from our collections, this time of Scottish writer Joanna Baillie, who was greatly admired by Sir Walter Scott for her poems and plays:

Steel engraved portrait of Joanna Baillie by H. Robinson after a painting by Masquerier. 1876-1877. Corson P.2021. Image can be accessed here.

Happy International Women’s Day!