Five Awesome Female Reads
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Five Awesome Female Reads

Not Chick Lit Just Awesome Books With Female Protagonists

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Five Awesome Female Reads
NPR

I love to read, and I love to recommend good books to read. Unfortunately, post-college life does not give me a lot of time to read, and it takes me so much longer to read too. Still, it's really important to me (and is an easy stress reducer), so I try to read at least a little bit every day. I especially love to read books about amazing women having kick butt adventures, and no I don't mean romance novels (but I won't kid you, I am not at all above a sizzling romance). So without further ado here are my top 5 novels with female protagonists:

1. Christy by Catherine Marshall


Why you should read it: I have read this book six times in my life. If that's not enough reason for you, Christy Huddleston is our heroine teaching in the Smokie Mountains in the early 1900s. Her voice is so authentic. Throughout the story, we have many examples of women working together. Women overcoming feuding. Women creating pathways to change. And of course, there is Miss Alice the best shot in all the Smokie mountains. Christy makes me feel like it's okay to doubt and be unsure in life, because when we let go and just love the people around us that's when life truly unfolds.

Quote to draw you in: "Christy you have questions on your mind. I'm glad you do. Perceptive people like yourself wound more easily than others. But if we're going to work on God's side, we have to decide to open our hearts to the griefs and pain all around us. It's not an easy decision. A dangerous one too. And a tiny narrow door to enter into a whole new world. But in that world a great experience waits for us: meeting the One who's entered there before us."

2. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Why you should read it: I think more people know about the book then the movie, but the book is simply fantastic. It has a unique narrative (the premise is that this is an edited version of a great Florin tale of true love and high adventure) and we are quickly introduced to our heroine, Buttercup. She's slovenly, rude, and spoiled, but she has the potential to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Of course, the only thing that matures her (and makes her most beautiful) is tragedy. While we all swoon for Westly it's Buttercup's maturity and courage as the men in her life try to take control of her that really hooks us in.

Quote to draw you in: “I've been saying it so long to you, you just wouldn't listen. Every time you said 'Farm Boy do this' you thought I was answering 'As you wish' but that's only because you were hearing wrong. 'I love you' was what it was, but you never heard.”

3. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Why you should read it: Anne with an E, I remember hungrily reading the whole series over two weeks as a teenager, and it's a series I return to often. Anne is spunky, determined, and gets an elderly brother and sister to fall in love with her. Most of Anne's adventures are simply shimmering imagination overflowing into real life. As we see Anne find kindred spirits, wear puffed sleeves, and get into endless mischief we all wish we had Anne to be our best friend and are so glad she is no longer an orphan.

Quote to draw you in: “There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne, it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting.”

4. The Handmaid's Tale


Why you should read it: As a general rule, I don't like dystopian stories. They creep me it, and this one does too, and yet it felt so close to home (the setting is Cambridge, MA) like maybe this could happen. In a world run by men where women function only as housewives, mothers, or servants, the women have rich and fascinating lives. Offred (that's right women's names are characterized by the man who owns them), recalls a time not to long ago when she had freedom and choice, reading her rebellious thoughts is fascinating. Stripped of all her humanity beyond what her body can give she helps us to see the dangers of religious zeal gone too far.

Quote to draw you in: “My name isn't Offred, I have another name, which nobody uses now because it's forbidden. I tell myself it doesn't matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter. I keep the knowledge of this name like something hidden, some treasure I'll come back to dig up, one day. I think of this name as buried. This name has an aura around it, like an amulet, some charm that's survived from an unimaginably distant past. I lie in my single bed at night, with my eyes closed, and the name floats there behind my eyes, not quite within reach, shining in the dark.”

5. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine


Why you should read it: What if you had to do anything someone told you to do? That's the curse our heroine Ella has to struggle with. An adaptation of Cinderella that is not just another sappy tale of a young woman falling for a prince. Ella takes her life by the reins despite the fact that lots of people take advantage of her curse. She's found ways to get around it; she's no damsel in distress. With an elf and a magical book as her trusty companions a good read for anyone tired of the same old fairy tales.

Quote to draw you in: “That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse on me. She meant to bestow a gift. When I cried inconsolably through my first hour of life, my tears were her inspiration. Shaking her head sympathetically at Mother, the fairy touched my nose. 'My gift is obedience. Ella will always be obedient. Now stop crying, child.'
I stopped.”

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