HEROINES BOOKSHELF: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder - Softcover

"[A] delightful guide to what the heroines of some of the great novels by women writers, and those writers themselves can teach us about life." -- Beatrice.com "If you're stumped for your next pleasure book and want to submerse yourself in a literary past sprinkled with powerful, independent women like Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott, Blakemore's book provides the perfect portal." -- New York Press "Blakemore finds comfort and inspiration in revisiting the tales of literature's leading ladies and exploring the lives of the women who spun them. [She] makes a charming case for rereading." -- Washington Post

Jo March, Scarlett O'Hara, and Scout Finch - the literary canon is brimming with intelligent, feisty, never-say-die heroines and celebrated female authors. Like today's women, they placed a premium on personality, spirituality, career, sisterhood, and family. When they were up against the wall, authors like Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott fought back - sometimes with words, sometimes with gritty actions. In this witty, informative, and inspiring read, their stories offer much-needed literary intervention to modern women. Full of beloved heroines and the remarkable writers who created them, "The Heroine's Bookshelf" explores how the pluck and dignity of literary characters such as Jane Eyre and Lizzy Bennet can encourage women today. Each legendary character is paired with her central quality - Anne Shirley is associated with irrepressible Happiness, while Scarlett O'Hara personifies Fight - along with insights into her author's extraordinary life. From Zora Neale Hurston to Colette, Laura Ingalls Wilder to Charlotte Bronte, Harper Lee to Alice Walker, here are authors and characters whose spirited stories are more inspiring today than ever.