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.