{book suggestion}

The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder by Erin Blakemore

As women, we are the protagonists of our own personal novels. We are called upon to be the heroines of our own lives… To inspire us bluestockings in all the many, often difficult, roles we play in real life, Erin Blakemore presents this breezy collection of essays about a dozen beloved literary characters and the brilliant authors who created them. In the chapter titled “Self,” for example, Blakemore recounts the true story of Jane Austen breaking off her engagement, and ponders the ways Elizabeth Bennett (heroine of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) approached similar predicaments of love, marriage, and self-fulfillment. Blakemore also explores themes of “Faith” (through the lives of Zora Neale Hurston and the fictional Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God), “Happiness” (about Lucy Maud Montgomery and her irrepressible creation Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables), “Compassion” (as illuminated by Harper Lee and the plucky Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird), and more. The Heroine’s Bookshelf offers sweet comfort and rousing inspiration to bookworms of all ages! (CH--Bas Bleu)