The Heroine's Bookshelf by Erin Blakemore

The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder by Erin Blakemore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is going to be a very private review for this is about a very private book. Erin Blakemore shares with us some of her precious memories and the precious memories of many remarkable women writers.
The Heroine's Bookshelf shows which character trades a modern heroine should have in times like these, explaining that there is a heroine in every women. Each character trade is described with the help of a fictional heroine who portrays the feature. Erin Blakemore does not just outline why the heroine she picked is a heroine, she also allows us a deep glimpse into the struggles the authors behind the books had to overcome. Therefore she shows us, what we can learn from women like Scarlett O'Hara, Scout Finch or Alice Walker.
The book is not just well written but also well researched.
The chapters of this book work like mirrors, because they capture so many nuances and different states of life.
This is a book EVERY women should read, and every man who wants to understand us or who doesn't acknowledge the women in his life.
Sometimes it is hard to read the stories of women, no matter ficitonal or not, who had less than I have today and made so much more out of it than I do. On the other hand I have a feeling that I can draw strenght from the stories and memories lying in front me.
This book feels like a journey to myself and to the person I want to become one day, a true heroine, no matter if I ever "safe the world". It's enough, if I save my own day. Erin Blakemore shows that amazingly.
Right now I'm at a state of my life where I fear the next move, or the next mistake can shape my entire future.
It's a hard time for me, for growing up is always hard. But this book reminded me of the people in my life that are here to help me, the real and the unreal persons surrounding me in every day-life and in the books I read.
And I can only conclude with the words Erin Blakemore used to start her novel: "In times of struggle, there are as many reasons not to read as there are to breathe."

A must read, a "I'm going to read it over and over again", and of course a recomendation to everyone!
Love and words
KJ
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