Julie's Review: The Heroine's Bookshelf

Summary: Marketing consultant Blakemore finds that in moments of struggle and stress she revisits her favorite childhood women authors and their plucky heroines for respite, escape, and perspective. Jane Austen, who broke off an engagement and threw away her last chance at a respectable marriage, poked fun at polite society and its expectations of women in her novels, and she created a self-assured, self-respecting protagonist in Pride and Prejudice's Lizzy Bennet--who also doesn't need a man to complete her even if Lizzy does get a rich, handsome husband in the end. As Blakemore pushes against the boundaries of her own life, she also identifies with selfish Scarlett O'Hara, who, lacking in self-awareness and oblivious to the emotions of others, shoulders life's burdens and moves ahead, "her decisions swift, self-serving, and without compromise." The Little House on the Prairie series reminds Blakemore that when we focus on people and life instead of on material possessions, we learn to acknowledge what really counts. She finds inspiration, too, in Little Women, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Color Purple, and Anne of Green Gables, and offers some nuggets of wisdom, but for the most part, her observations are familiar and pat. ~amazon.com

Review: The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder came highly recommended by Jen at Devourer of Books when we met up recently. As I got home and was looking at it, I felt that it could be the type of book to read slowly and absorb each essay on it's own merit. I consider myself well read, but it's obvious that Ms. Blakemore takes it to a whole new level. I will totally admit I've never read Pride And Prejudice all the way through. I've tried but I just can't do it. Give me the movie any day. But her break down of Lizzy Bennett rang so true to me. If there is one virtue that girls these days need to learn it's a sense of self. Lizzy is the ultimate when it comes to believing in herself and her dreams.

Of course, I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder books and the tv show while growing up and I hope that my daughter finds joy in them as she gets older as well. I remember my grandmother giving me the first in the series; just as my sister remembers her reading Little Womento her when she was younger.

Not only does Ms. Blakemore explain the qualities of a heroine well but she has made me want to read some books that I might not read otherwise. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Secret Garden and Jane Eyre are the ones that resonated with me.

A heroine doesn't have to always be nice, as is depicted with Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but she fought for what she believed in and persevered.

What I loved about the book was not only did you dig into the characters in each of the featured books but you learned new information on the authors as well. This is where I began to realize, perhaps, how autobiographical these novels were for a lot of these women.

This is a must keep for me. This will be kept on my nightstand and brought out when I need a little pick me up. It has also added books to my huge TBR pile. It is also something that I will gladly lend to my daughter when she's older. This would be a wonderful gift for a young woman who is looking for literary women to read.

Final Take: 4/5