How to Be a Heroine

Marmee tells Jo she has a temper too, but she???s learned to hide it. Her husband trained her to suppress her anger by putting his finger to his lips every time she flared up. One day, she hopes to control her temper so much that she won???t even feel it. Jo ends this heart-to-heart hoping she too can learn ???the sweetness of self-denial and self-control???; I end it thinking if I ever marry a man who stops me expressing myself, I???ll be out the door.

I'm mellowing in my old age. I had a tough time giving this an honest 3 stars. Time was, I was merciless in my opinion under the belief that readers needed honest reviews. Now I own a restaurant, and the occasional negative review stings.

If I AM being honest, this was 2 and 3/4s. I liked reading another opinion of some of my favorite books, and I now have a list of mentioned books I wouldn't mind reading at some point, and I appreciated the author's open heartedness ... but I had a tough time making it through. I rarely became completely engaged.

Although there were moments when I wished I could talk about books with the author.

I honestly don't know what the issue was – maybe dwelling on certain books too much, maybe I was jarred by the autobiographical moments when I wanted to read about book heroines?

I don't know.

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 [b:Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own 22889766 Spinster Making a Life of One's Own Kate Bolick https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415580758s/22889766.jpg 42459922]'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 character written in the 1800s is probably not a flawless feminist icon; be your own heroine!) but I still enjoyed Ellis' literary trip down memory lane, especially since I've just been revisiting Little House and To Kill a Mockingbird myself. It certainly left me with a few more books I want to re-read (and a few I want to read for the first time).