How to Be a Heroine in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Mar 15, 2015 Shelley rated it really liked it

Shelves: youth, my-childhood, literature, 2015

A memoir framed around the various literary heroines she had at different points in her life and what they meant to her. I loved this, seriously. Many of her heroines (Anne Shirley, Lizzy Bennet) are mine, and most of the others I was at least familiar with. I think we approach books and characters in similar ways, looking for a new viewpoint in our own lives or taking on various character's strengths to move through our lives. Some of her perspectives bugged - the idea that there's one right wa ...more

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Jan 02, 2015 Carly Thompson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: essays, nonfiction, 2015

A collection of essays by Samantha Ellis about the books (and heroines) that she has loved. After visiting the Bronte sisters’ home in Yorkshire with her best friend and arguing over the merits of Cathy Earnshaw versus Jane Eyre, Ellis decides to revisit the beloved books of her youth. The book proceeds in rough chronological order as Ellis rereads everything from books that she loved when she was very young (fairy tales such as The Little Mermaid) to adolescence (Pride and Prejudice and Gone wi ...more

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Jul 19, 2015 CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir-bio-autobio

OK. I'll admit it. I was sucked in by this cover. an alluring purple old fashioned looking cover with profiles of so many literary heroines. and I thought, "a book about books! literary heroines! what can go wrong?" Then I started to read, and Samantha is having her epiphany that she should have been Jane Eyre all along, and not tried to be Cathy from Wuthering Heights, and I though "DUH!"
But the thing is that what I expected this to be was not really what it was. it wasn't bad. I just wasn't r ...more

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Jul 16, 2015 Renata rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, grownup, nonfiction

This was an enjoyable work of memoir/literary criticism, as the author revisits her literary heroines from childhood to present day. I couldn't help but compare it to Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own's 5 Awakeners--I read Spinster first, and I think it's more... sophisticated of an endeavor? Although her perspective as a British-Iraqi Jewish woman looking for herself in so many classic British heroines is intersting, How to Be a Heroine's conclusions are not quite groundbreaking (any charact ...more

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Feb 12, 2015 Anne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was drawn to this book by an NPR review, and agree completely with one of the "blurbs" on the back cover: "Like stumbling into the kitchen at a party and discovering everyone you liked in one room."

My reading list has expanded hugely after reading her thoughtful, humorous and fascinating ideas on the nature of heroines in literature. I have stories to revisit as well as I explore her ideas on how we find ourselves in the stories we read. ...more

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Feb 25, 2015 Kristi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, books-about-books

This was really fun, although not quite what I was expecting. The fact that the author is an Iranian Jewish refugee who grew up in London means she's often got a little bit different take on a lot of the classics than I did. Sometimes, though, it feels like she tries a little too hard to shoehorn "lessons" she learned from each heroine into what would otherwise be a fascinating memoir of a reading life. If nothing else this book is a great reminder to reread old favorites or add new books to my ...more

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Apr 16, 2015 Ruth rated it liked it

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It seemed like a hokey premise, but the author's voice is vibrant, hilarious and unique. I loved the emphasis on feminism. ...more

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