Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery 
☆☆☆☆☆/5

THE GREAT READING BINGE OF 2017

Genre: Classic/YA Fiction

Dear old world…you are very lovely, and I’m glad to be alive in you.

I first met Anne Shirley when I was 12 years old. There was a program called accelerated reading and this book was worth the most points. Me, being an overacheiver, accepted the challenge.

I found myself in Anne. With her vivid imagination, bright red hair, and comapassion. I wanted to be Anne and she was one of my first heroines. 

I could go on all day about how Anne Shirley changed my life. ❤ This is one of those books that lasts a lifetime.

How to be a Heroine

How to be a Heroine: Or what I’ve learned from reading too much By Samantha Ellis
☆☆☆☆/5

THE GREAT READING BINGE OF 2016

Genre: Memior

Yet I feel that more heroines now are Scarlets than Melanies. Melanie’s quieter virtues have gone a bit lost, and many heroines now seemed defined mainly by their strength…They’re Warriors not Worriers.

Though I’m begining to think all readings are provisional, and that maybe we read heroines for what we need from them at the time.

This is a memior where an author looks back on her favorite books where a Heroine was a standout. And how it shaped her growing up and what she took from them. And she rereads these books to see how they may have changed over the decades. 

The author herself is muslim/Jewish and is raised in England. It plays alot on how she goes  through things and how she defines herself and what she wants from life outside of tradition. She explores Anne Shirley, Charlotte and Emily Brönte, Pride and Prejudice, Sylvia Plath (etc) and talks about what makes the MC’S heroines. 
This book was fascinating and very well written. Alot of her heroines are ones that I myself have turned to in times of need. Her adventures are relatable and it makes her very human. I didn’t agree with all of her opinions but it did make me think of what I may have pulled from my own reading to define my sense of self.

I recommend this to the ladies and pose a question: who’s your favorite literature based heroine and why?