Norwegian title: Kjemp for alt hva du har kjært
Good afternoon friends,
This book was also a part of the non-fiction challenge I participated in during September. Hanne Kristin Rohde is best known as the chief of the Section For Violent and Sexual Crimes. She held the position when the bomb exploded in Oslo in the summer of 2011 which is where this book begins. I’ve wanted to read this book for a while and finally, I got the chance. It was refreshing and educational to read this kind of book. I work in a male-dominated field myself but I haven’t experienced what Rohde has and for that, I am very grateful. The synopsis is borrowed from Goodreads and translated by me:
22nd of July 2011: Cheif of Police, Hanne Kristin Rohde, is on vacation in Sweden when her phone rings. A bomb has exploded in Oslo. Little does she know that this is just the beginning of the most demanding year in her life. The bomb is the beginning of an extreme amount of work pressure, pressure from the media, and serious illness within her own family.
It is time to bring forward the primordial power.
Fight For Everything You Love tells the story of the year 2011 to 2012 in Hanne Kristin Rohde’s life, from July 22 to the Sigrid case and the following illness. However, the book contains an optimistic message we all can recognize. With the experience as a leader, a mother in a time squeeze, and a woman in a male-dominated environment Rohde tells about her ample experiences from the workplace. She provides inspiration about how to bring out the primordial power – whether your goal is to become a leader or a better version of yourself.
I remember seeing Hanne Kristin Rohde almost daily on the television in the aftermath of July 22, and I remember that I admired her for the way she held herself and how she kept calm on live television in front of an entire nation where so many had lost someone. I was home that fatal day and I heard the bomb like a faint rumble in the distance. Now, that I’ve read her book, I understand that this calm and collective attitude has been built up over the years she’s worked on the police force and that she’s been through events that have built her up to become the leader she is today. This book is more about leadership, personal growth, and learning as you go than anything else. I find it inspiring to read such a book when I’m this early in my career as a young professional. I haven’t experienced much yet but by reading books like this one I can reflect on situations I hopefully will never experience and gain some perspective of what the outcome of such situations might be. At the same time, as Rohde points out, the police force has changed very much since she started and in the year 2021 56,8% of the applicants for the Police Academy were female which is very impressive!
This is a personal book. I feel that Rohde gives a lot of herself and that the reader to some degree gets to know the person behind her known persona. I really enjoyed the small sections at the end of each chapter where there is room for reflection through various questions Rohde asks. I assume she’s asked herself these questions but the reader is also invited to reflect on these questions in relation to their own life. It made for some good reflection exercises and kept me more engaged in the content of the book. There are also several examples of other books that might be rewarding to read in connection with the topics that are raised in this book. I enjoy it when authors do this because it can potentially make me aware of books I otherwise never would have experienced. Some of the books and authors I was familiar with before and others were new. At the same time, it took me a little while to get into this book because it and its language wasn’t quite what I expected.
Fight For Everything You Love is a good book about personal growth and development. It gives a perspective on how it is to be in an organization where a lot of the employees were men. I enjoyed Rohde’s writing so I might have to check out her crime novels as well at some point. If you’re looking for a book that talks about leadership in difficult situations I really do recommend that you pick up this one. My opinion is that Rohde is honest and open about being a leader in one of the most difficult times Norway has faced since World War 2.
Published: 2015
Genre: Nonfiction
Theme: Leadership, July 22, police work, personalgrowth
– The Book Reader
TheBookReader 