My Lit Ladies

        Is it too dorky to admit that Tuesdays have quickly become my favorite day of the week? Part of that new-found Tuesday-love is probably due to the fact that it's my one day off from teaching... the one day I can dedicate to MY reading, MY projects, and MY LIFE!  But the other part of my preference for Tuesdays is definitely the Top Ten Tuesday meme run by The Broke and the Bookish. I love the opportunity to go digging back through my reading-memories to come up with answers to the weekly question, and I've really enjoyed checking out other people's answers. Every once in a while somebody will talk about a book I haven't read in YEARS and I'll float away on a tide of nostalgia... or run right over to the bookshelf to get reacquainted with the old favorite (last week's major re-find was The Giver... love love love that book)

Anyway! This week's episode is Top Ten Favorite Heroines! So, in no particular order... away we go!

1. Beatrice from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. She's snarky, sarcastic, a quick-thinker, and not willing to put up with any crap from any of the men in the play. Plus.. Emma Thompson plays her in the 1993 movie version.. and that gives her instant bonus points.

2. Lucy Snow from Charlotte Bronte's Villette. While I'm not huge on the whole 'repressed Victorian maiden' thing, I do love how self-reliant and resilient Lucy is. She's an intensely introverted character, but she also easily understands and reacts to the more emotive needs of others.

3. Precious in Sapphire's Push. It hurt to read this book-- the story was uncomfortable, disgusting, and horrifying. But no matter what happened, Precious managed to find a silver lining that was creative, hopeful and often hilariously funny. By the end of this book I was literally cheering out loud for her.

4. Elizabeth Bennett from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I love Elizabeth's spunk and her willingness to thumb her nose at convention. If I ignore the whole 'I won't really fall in love with Darcy until I see his fantabulous estate' business, she's pretty much perfect!

5. Jo March from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. In elementary school, my friends and I used to pretend that we were the characters from Little Women. It was a great way for girls with different interests to hang together- some of us could play house (the Megs and pre-death Beths), some of us could play dress-up and be lovely young ladies (the Amys) and some of us could be skallywag tomboys (the Jos). I always wanted to be Jo, but I usually got cast as Laurie because I couldn't seem to be lady-like enough to be a March daughter...

6. Thursday Next from Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. I'm still new to Fforde's series, but I have already decided that I want Thursday Next's life. She a literary detective (LiteraTec) who runs around INSIDE books trying to keep plots in place and characters happy. It's pretty much my dream job.

7. Ada from Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. This is my all-time favorite book, and Ada (or Adah, depending on her mood) is a large part of the reason why I can't seem to go a month or two without rereading. She was born with a condition called hemiplegia (half of her body and brain is impaired) and she believes this condition changes the way she views and understands the world. Ada has an unusual way of looking at things (she often reads backwards and is obsessed with palindromes) but she has such heart and humor that you can't help but relate to her. 

8. Kambili from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus. This is one of the books that really started the genre known as African Gothic, and Kambili, in her way, is just as determined to face her demons as any of the Victorian Gothic heroines who came before her (Jane Eyre, Catherine Earnshaw). She's also more successful than many of them tend to be..

9. Hermione from the Harry Potter Series. Wicked smart, somewhat snarky, and perfectly willing to punch Draco Malfoy in the face when he deserves it. 

10. Petra in the Enders Game series. Petra has a chip on her shoulder the size of Gibralter, but (as you see in the later, Bean-focused books) she also has a huge heart and a willingness to do just about anything to help those she loves.